The 304 stainless steel powders were prepared by high energy ball milling and subsequently sintered by spark plasma sintering, and the microstructural characteristics and micro-hardness were investigated. The initial size of the irregular shaped 304 stainless steel powders was approximately 42 ${mu}m$. After high energy ball milling at 800 rpm for 5h, the powders became spherical with a size of approximately 2 ${mu}m$, and without formation of reaction compounds. From TEM analysis, it was confirmed that the as-milled powders consisted of the aggregates of the nano-sized particles. As the sintering temperature increased from 1073K to 1573K, the relative density and micro-hardness of sintered sample increased. The sample sintered at 1573K showed the highest relative density of approximately 95% and a micro-hardness of 550 Hv.