This study had investigated the main degradation mechanism of a roll in hot rolling process, to reduce the wear and oxidation, a type of low-melting glass fabricated by the fuse-polymerisation method was tested as a hot metal forming lubricant by a ball-on-disc tribometer at high temperature. The resultsrevealed that the roll degrades mainly due to the cracks initiated at the interface of carbides/matrix on the roll surface, then propagate along the interface, and being sheared off when the cracks confluence in the subsurface. The highspeed steel (HSS) starts to be oxidised at 500 C, and grows heavily with increasing temperature. The recommended lubricant presented a desired lubrication behaviour for hot rolling process that generating a higher friction coefficient at low temperature and a lower one at high temperature. The friction coefficient, wear rate, and oxidation of HSS roll was reduced materially, which meets the requirements of hot rolling lubricant well.