In order to simplify the preparation of standards and to reduce the effects of micro-structure and physical state of samples in the spectrochemical analysis of alloy steels, universal methodg are developed in this laboratory. For the solution method, steel samples dissolved in acid and dropped on the flat tip of carbon electrodes are excited in a spark source. For the powder method, oxides prepared from the steel samples are put in cavities of carbon electrodes and excited in an a. c. are. Experiments show that these procedures give satisfactory analytical results.