Dwarves stumbled across the secret of crafting fire-forged steel in an effort to make forge-friendly tools.
So its a technique used to treat steel. However this is a moot point since its a secret technique so PCs cannot make their own, they must go find some merchants selling the final product.
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It doesn't say it's still secret, it could have gotten leaked. Plus, people use the phrase "the secret of X is Y" informally all the time in the same way you'd say "the trick to doing X well is Y." Examples: the secret to a good night's sleep or the secret to good writing, or the secret to getting really good at something.
I'd just pay one-third the extra cost of the material as normal for the craft skill and explain it as materials consumed in the special treatment.
Ask the GM, disagreements resolve easily that way.
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Druidic has clear restrictions that define why it's a secret and who's in on the secret - all druids know druidic, but a druid who teaches the language to a non-druid falls. To learn the language you need to find an ex-druid or one willing to fall to teach you the language. Fire-forged steel doesn't specify similar penalties or distinguish the in-group from the out-group - is it a secret kept to one family/clan, or do all dwarves know the technique? This makes me think that it was intended to be a figurative secret, like the examples given above.
Of course, the GM is well within his rights to say that you have to convince the dwarves to teach you the secret forging technique (after which the one-thirds materials cost would apply) and/or to rule that the treatment process requires difficult-to-obtain materials, but the GM is also able to make similar rulings on mithral or adamantine.