This invention relates to polishing pads and a method for making the polishing pad surface readily machineable thereby facilitating permanent alteration of the polishing pad surface to create an advantageous micro-texture. The advantageous micro-texture is statistically uniform and provides a polishing pad with improved break-in preconditioning time. Polishing pads of this invention find application to the polishing/planarization of substrates such as glass, dielectric/metal composites and substrates containing copper, silicon, silicon dioxide, platinum, and tungsten typically encountered in integrated circuit fabrication.