Objective To investigate the influences of high-speed dry cutting process on the surface quality of difficult-to-cut materials. Methods Face milling experiment of martensite stainless steel was conducted at the cutting regime of 157 ~ 314 m/min in dry cutting condition under the guidance of 2K factorial design method, the characteristics of surface roughness, microstructure properties and micro-hardness distribution curves were studied experimentally. Results It was shown that: the chip cross section determined by the depth of cut and feed per tooth had significant influence on the formation of roughness profiles; severe plastic deformation and multi-phases structures were the main components of the surface and subsurface layers. Conclusion In order to reduce the negative effects of dry cutting process on machined surfaces, the cutting parameters should be carefully controlled, larger feed per tooth and smaller depth of cut are preferred.