A type of ternary-boride-based (TBB) hard cladding material (YF-2) has been developed successfully by a reaction sintering technique at 1563 K. The hardness of the cladding layer of YF-2 is about 84.5 HRA. Microstructure of YF-2 has been studied using scanning electron microanalyzer (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA). Results show that the main composition of the cladding layer of YF-2 is TBB hard phase and ferrous-base binder phase, both of them distributed uniformly in the cladding layer. The bonding at the interface of the cladding layer and steel substrate is excellent, which has been confirmed by the three-point bend tests.