I've come up with my design. Now I'm trying to pick a texture. These are the three that I know of: Polished, Brushed, and Bead Blasted (think that's what it's called?) Are there anymore? And what do these feel like? I know what the polished feels like. I read a post where a guy didn't like the way his bead blasted **** felt (I think he compared it to nails against a chalkboard or something), so he polished it himself. I like the way the bead blasted ***** look, especially the ones that have a brushed top, but I don't want it to feel weird in my hand. That's why I want a Whalen to begin with. The OEM **** feels funny to me...with the vinyl around the bottom and everything. I'm just looking for opinions from those who already have them. What kind of texture(s) do you have?...and do you like how it feels? I'm especially wondering about the bead blasted. I hope that's not a strange thing to ask.

Thank you

 

I think only if you rub your nails on it (which has never happened to me during shifting).

I prefer a low sheen surface and grippier rather than smooth slick feel, so bead blasted was the right choice for me. Bead blasted feels like a very fine grained metal surface. My Whalen is bead blasted with a brushed ring.

 

Here's mine - blasted with a polished ring. I like the feel of it, and have never gotten the "nails on a chalkboard" sensation from it:

 

I'm wierd about certain surfaces like terra cotta so I opted out of the bead blasted. I'm very happy with the brushed.

 

I wonder if it's possible to do all three...bead blasted body...brushed ring...polished top. Anybody seen it? I wonder if it would look too gaudy.

BTW...I just noticed...I'm in 3rd gear.

 

Hey, isnt that the old Ducati (italian motorcycles) logo? I remember that logo from by biker days. Looks great though!

 

Doug Whalen had a post about his allowable combinations. Brushed can be combined with either polished or bead-blasted. Polished cannot be combined with bead-blasted.

He starts with a ball that is entirely polished, bead blasted, or brushed. Then he engraves, and brushes circular areas (no brushing irregular shapes).

 

Yep - In addition to the MINI, I have a Ducati ST2, and a Ducati Monster 900ie before that. I also have that same logo as a tattoo on my left shoulder.

The logo has multiple meanings for me. I'm a Flight Officer in the Navy, and my callsign is "Durwood", so the "Winged 'D'" goes along with that, too.

I had the logo converted into a .DXF file and sent it to Doug to put on the ****. He did a great job with the design, as usual. To get a little more contrast between the logo and the ****, I asked him to do the beadblasting *first*, then engrave the logo afterwards, so that the lines of the logo would be shiny against the beadblasting. He'd never done one like that before, but it turned out great.

I e-mailed him the .DXF file on Friday, and had the **** by Tuesday.