The invention belongs to the technical field of vibrating gyroscopes, and discloses a chemical trimming method for a second harmonic error of a quartz cylindrical harmonic oscillator. The method comprises the following steps of A, obtaining the intrinsic frequency, frequency splitting and inherent rigid axis orientation of the harmonic oscillator through a frequency sweeping method; B, calculatinga second harmonic error value of the harmonic oscillator according to the intrinsic frequency, the mass and the amplitude ratio of the harmonic oscillator; C, calculating the chemical trimming time according to the immersion depth and the inclination angle of chemical trimming, the second harmonic error value of the harmonic oscillator and the etching rate of the chemical etching liquid; and D, according to the chemical trimming time, etching the harmonic oscillator at two positions at an interval of 180 degrees along the low-frequency axis direction by using a chemical etching solution. According to the present invention, the second harmonic error value is reduced by removing the specific mass from the low-frequency axis orientation of the harmonic oscillator n = 1 mode, the consistencyand symmetry of the harmonic oscillator can be further improved, the noise in the output signal is reduced, and the precision of a cylindrical vibrating gyro is improved.