A method and apparatus for processing a magnetic transducer which uses gallium ion beam milling to precisely define pole tip widths of the magnetic transducer. The gallium ion beam may be defocused to improve definition of the region which is damaged by gallium ion implantation. The precision pole tip widths provide a transducer that may record correspondingly precise track widths on a magnetic storage medium, such as a rotating disk. Subsequent to the ion milling process, the invention restores the magnetically conductive properties of the pole tip region, which may be degraded as a result of the ion milling process, by means of a lapping process.