The effects of frequencyb and waveform of cyclic stress on the slip initiation are investigated using several kinds of metal foils. On a directional copper foil, the critical stresses of the slip initiation expressed in terms of the loading time agree with one another regardless of the frequency, and they're independent of waveform. On the other hand, an iron foil shows obvious dependence of the slip initiation on both the frequency and waveform of cyclic stress. With an appropriate prestraining, however, these characteristics of the iron foil develop a similar tendency to those of the copper foil. Consequently, a directional copper foil or an appropriately prestrained iron foil is remarkably effective for the practical stress measurements in case that the frequency and waveform of repeated loads acting on a machine element vary in operation.