The thermal shock and thermal fatigue test has been carried out to analyze the thermal characteristics of tool steels for hot forging and the effects of mechanical properties on this study have been investigated. The resistance to thermal shock is first of all a matter of good toughness and ductility. Therefore, a proper hot-work tool steel should be characterized by high fracture strength and high temperature toughness. Based on these results, some critical temperature($T_{fracture}$) at which fracture occur can be measured to characterize the thermal resistance of the materials. During thermal fatigue tests, the thermal fatigue cracks occur because of the repetitive heating and cooling of the die surface and the thermal fatigue damage was evaluated by analyzing different number of cycles to failure. The results showed that the resistance to thermal shock and thermal fatigue were found to be favoured by high hot tensile strength and high hot hardness, and thermal resistance of SKD61 was superior to that of ESC, SKT4 and this was caused by higher mechanical properties of SKD61.