The surfaces of WC-Co and SCM415 were etched to form a micro size protrusion for oil based ultra low friction applications using an ion bombardment process in a filtered vacuum arc plasma. WC-Co species showed that a self-patterned surface was available by the ion bombarding process due to the difference of sputtering yield of WC and Co. And the increasing rate of roughness was 0.6 nm/min at -600 V substrate bias voltage. The increasing rate of roughness of SCM415 species was 1.5 nm/min at -800 V, but the selfpatterning effect as shown in WC-Co was not appeared. When the SCM415 species pretreated by electrical discharge machining is etched, the increasing rate of roughness increased from 1.5 nm/min to 40 nm/min at -800 V substrate bias voltage and the uniform surface treatment was available.