We all know that wood has a grain, and most of us will have read that metal does too. However, you can go for a long time without noticing it or it being a problem. I cant remember the last time that the grain in metal caused me any trouble, until today. I needed to do a simple turning job. What it ended up as was: a piece of steel, 1" at 1/4" dia, then 3/8" at 0.600 dia, and then 1/2" of 1/4" dia. In one of the "junk" boxes I have some 4" lengths of 3/4" steel (of unknown specification) with surface rust, so I decided to use one of them. Put in chuck and turned down about half the length to get back to a nice clean surface. Then reversed in chuck to do the same from the other end. The first end had a superb finish, and looked excellent. However, the other end looked as if it has been chewed away by a rat! Same tool, same setting, same feed and speed. I then tried several different feeds etc, but nothing I tried enabled e to get a decent finish on the "rough" end. Ahh well, enough playing about. Reversed in chuck, and turned the 1" and 3/8" lengths, so they ended up with a decent finish. Then reversed again and turned the 1/2" length (of 1/4" dia). Finish lousy, but it didnt matter for that particular section. Having made the part, I then tried another piece from the same batch, and found exactly the same effect. I assume that it is a heat treated steel, and must have a particularly coarse grain structure. Unusual, and consequently, interesting. Alan MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.