To improve profitability, to shorten a cooling time, and to improve productivity by conveying products heated by rolling through a cooling section by a water action just after a deformation process, and tempering them automatically by residual heat.

In the method for cooling the shapes consisting of a group of Cr, Mn, Mo and Ni and other chemical elements after being heated by the rolling, a sample leaves a last roll sand, for instance, at a rolling temperature of about 960°C. Before this sample enters the cooling section, a recrystallization is completely finished. The rapid cooling of the sample is started in the cooling section in 14 seconds. At that time, the surface temperature 1 is cooled from 920°C to about 200°C in about 2 seconds, further, it is lowered to about 70°C further in between 15 seconds and 13 seconds. A core temperature 2 is remarkably and gradually lowered to about 870°C in 35 seconds, and is lowered to about 640°C in 80 seconds. An average temperature 3 is lowered to about 640°C from 940°C in between 14 seconds and 23 seconds, the temperature of a residual band 1 is rapidly increased from a core cross-section by a heat supply, and reaches about 610°C in 80 seconds.