The paper shows that high temperature heating (from 1 100 to 1 170 0C) for the subsequent quenching of high-chromium steels of a martensitic-carbide class 95X18 and X12MFL provides structure to the metal base, which consist of high-carbon containing martensite and residual metastable austenite with some carbides. The resulting structure has a high capacity for frictional hardening. Experiments with cold processing treatment of the analyzed steels also showed that after high-temperature quenching with subsequent cooling to -70 0C, sufficient cooling martensite is formed, which in combination with residual metastable austenite, provides an increase of abrasive wear resistance by 25 % compared to high temperature annealing.