Quenching is the process for making material harder. The metal is heated to a specific temperature and rapidly cooled (quenched) in a bath of water, brine, oil, or air to increase its hardness.

One drawback of using this method by itself is that the metal becomes brittle. This treatment is therefore typically followed by a tempering process which is a heating process at another lower specific temperature to stress relieve the material and minimize the brittleness problem. The temperature chosen for the tempering process directly impacts the hardness of the work piece . The higher the temperature in the tempering process, the lower the hardness.