The performance and life of a die are influenced by the machining methods. In order to examine the effects of machining methods on surface charactenstics, simple experiments are devised and performed. A die steel STD11, commonly used as a die material in press working, is selected. Three ways of machining methods to manufacture a die are considered. Those are (1) milling and then grinding, (2) wire-cut electric discharge dachining (W-EDM) and (3) heat treatment after W-EDM. The resulting surface roughnesses are measured. Also, the changes of surface microstructures are investigated using the scanning electron microscope(SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer(EDS) and the results are discussed in details.