Oil retention experiments were conducted and the performance was characterized for electrochemically etched stainless steels. The 304 stainless steels were electrochemically etched in dilute Aqua Regia to form porous structures. The structures were also hierarchical, which provides very large area for oils to adhere. Also the structures had deep valleys, which act as reservoir and are able to resist against oil-detaching forces. Several commercial oils were dispensed to characterize oil retention properties via rotating disk experiment method. The results showed that the etched surfaces have superior oil retention performance in every conditions. Also the retention enhancement ratio went particularly higher as the environments became more severe. This surface modification technique could be applied to other steel products for pretreatments of various kinds of coatings.