A method of forming a seal ring comprising the following steps: providing a seal ring wherein said seal ring preferably has a flat seal face; providing a laser having a laser beam that is directed to said seal face; shaping the laser beam so as to have a geometric shape with convergent non-linear side edges (96, 149, 150, 151, 152) so that a cut of the laser beam has a non-uniform depth across the width thereof during continuous relative movement of said laser beam relative to said seal ring; - providing a plurality of continuous ablation cuts (94-1, 94-2, 127, 128) with said laser beam over at least a portion of the seal face to create one or more micro-topography depth features (22, 23) such as a wavy face, each said continuous ablation cut being formed by continuous relative movement of said laser beam and said seal ring wherein said laser beam moves through one or more passes along a respective continuous beam path to form said continuous ablation cut along said beam path, said laser beam being applied to a plurality of sidewardly adjacent beam paths such that the continuous ablation cuts are located sidewardly contiguous to each other and the adjacent side edge regions of adjacent passes of the laser beam are overlapped along said beam path and formation of excessive depth grooves is prevented. providing a seal ring wherein said seal ring preferably has a flat seal face; providing a laser having a laser beam that is directed to said seal face; shaping the laser beam so as to have a geometric shape with convergent non-linear side edges (96, 149, 150, 151, 152) so that a cut of the laser beam has a non-uniform depth across the width thereof during continuous relative movement of said laser beam relative to said seal ring; - providing a plurality of continuous ablation cuts (94-1, 94-2, 127, 128) with said laser beam over at least a portion of the seal face to create one or more micro-topography depth features (22, 23) such as a wavy face, each said continuous ablation cut being formed by continuous relative movement of said laser beam and said seal ring wherein said laser beam moves through one or more passes along a respective continuous beam path to form said continuous ablation cut along said beam path, said laser beam being applied to a plurality of sidewardly adjacent beam paths such that the continuous ablation cuts are located sidewardly contiguous to each other and the adjacent side edge regions of adjacent passes of the laser beam are overlapped along said beam path and formation of excessive depth grooves is prevented. - providing a plurality of continuous ablation cuts (94-1, 94-2, 127, 128) with said laser beam over at least a portion of the seal face to create one or more micro-topography depth features (22, 23) such as a wavy face, each said continuous ablation cut being formed by continuous relative movement of said laser beam and said seal ring wherein said laser beam moves through one or more passes along a respective continuous beam path to form said continuous ablation cut along said beam path, said laser beam being applied to a plurality of sidewardly adjacent beam paths such that the continuous ablation cuts are located sidewardly contiguous to each other and the adjacent side edge regions of adjacent passes of the laser beam are overlapped along said beam path and formation of excessive depth grooves is prevented.