In this study, the authors have experimentally investigated into cutting performance of a new drilling method (to be called step vibration drilling or SVD hereafter) which was applied to drilling process of difficult-to-cut materials. In the experiments the authors have made a drilling apparatus consisting of a tool spindle and a workpiece table which can be moved with a step vibration mode. Drilling experiments have been carried out using the apparatus and JIS twist drills having a diameter of 3mm to evaluate the performance of the method for various work materials such as high-carbon steel (S50C), stainless steel (SUS304) and beta-titanium alloy (Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3A1). The results obtained with the SVD method were better than the conventional drilling method and equal to those obtained with the conventional vibration drilling or CVD method in terms of drilling performance such as precision in the inner diameter of drilled holes and the ability to prevent the occurrence of burrs around the hole exit. Moreover, the tool life in the case of SVD was much improved over the CVD method, because the former could prevent chipping of the tip of a drill which usually occurs in CVD.