[Problem] To provide a rolling component, such as a bearing, that has excellent rolling life. [Solution] Provided is a steel material
processing method for performing a compression treatment on a base material that is made of a steel material which contains a non-
metal inclusion and
processing the base material into a shape differing from that of the base material, said method being characterized by comprising: an acquisition step for acquiring, in advance, relationship information pertaining to a relationship between a solution to a rolling
reduction rate evaluation formula and a gap
area ratio; a parameter determination step for determining, on the basis of the relationship information, parameters that are included in the prescribed rolling
reduction rate evaluation formula so as to obtain a target gap
area ratio; and a
processing step for performing the compression treatment k times in accordance with the prescribed rolling
reduction rate evaluation formula that has been determined in the parameter determination step, wherein the prescribed rolling reduction rate evaluation formula is a formula in which a multiplication value obtained by multiplying the rolling reduction rate of each rolling treatment is multiplied by 10k, k is an integer of 2 or more, and k and the rolling reduction rate of each rolling treatment that are included in the prescribed rolling reduction rate evaluation formula are the parameters which are determined in the parameter determination step.