A pulsed machining method for the optimized machining of a contour which is characterized in that the instantaneous frequency ratio of φ of the pulse frequency of tool fL and of the rotational frequency of tool fCNC is optimized to achieve a highest possible degree of coverage of the individual machining pulses in the context of a shortest possible machining duration and without a direct concatenation of the machining pulses. It is especially preferred that this be achieved in that frequency ratio φ is an irrational number, thus cannot be expressed by the ratio of two whole numbers. By applying the method according to the present invention, a considerable time savings is achieved since there is no longer a need for time-consuming preliminary trials to ascertain an at least sufficient frequency ratio φ.