To provide a grinding method by a rotary grinding wheel capable of eliminating polishing processing after grinding reduced in grinding surface roughness, a molding metal mold formed by the method, and an optical element transferred by the metal mold.

Because a rotary grinding wheel 1 is scanned to a workpiece 10 in a direction inclined to its rotary surface by only a predetermined angle, an effective radius Re of the rotary grinding wheel 1 becomes large, and the grinding surface roughness is significantly reduced in comparison with the case using a conventional grinding method, so that there is no need of polishing processing as a post-step. A cycle of waving on the grinding surface becomes long, to reduce a high frequency component giving a unfavorable influence on optical performance.