Abstract: A magnetic head for information recording and/or reading which comprises a pair of half poles (10,11) each consisting of a plurality of soft iron sheets (12) having predetermined profiles. The half poles are attached to each other to define an air gap (13) in front of a magnetic carrier (16). A coil (15) is arranged on the core. Thin hard coatings (18) are deposited on the surfaces of the sheets (12) at least in the region of the air gap and the frontal contact zone (17) with the carrier, whereby a laminated sandwich structure is obtained, in which the hardness is periodically changing along the width of the carrier. Owing to the rigidity of the carrier, the hard coatings resist to wear caused by the sliding movement of the carrier. The presence of the thin coatings does not decrease the resulting permeability of the core. The coating is deposited by means of high rate reactive cathode sputtering technique, which provides for optimum hardness and cohesion to the iron substrate.