A steel alloy workpiece and a method for making a press-hardened steel (PHS) component using the steel alloy workpiece is provided. The steel alloy workpiece includes between about 1.0 and 5.0 weight percent chromium, between about 0.5 and 2.0 weight percent silicon, and a surface having a predetermined imprinted pattern. The imprinted pattern includes one of a plurality of overlapping nested sinusoidal waves and a honey-comb pattern, and ascribes a surface roughness of between about 1.0 microns and 2.5 microns. The method includes providing the steel alloy workpiece, heating the workpieces at a predetermined time and temperature, hot stamping the workpieces into the PHS component, quenching the PHS component at a predetermined quench rate, and e-coating the PHS component. The e-coating is applied directly onto the surface of the PHS component.