Why hello there!
This all started after Landon’s suggestion on the 3yo3 manufacturer thread:
I also thought it’d be cool, so I hastily went online and ordered the cheapest iPhone “microscope” money could buy.
Needless to say, at $10 or so, it’s not at any immediate risk of discovering new boson particles… but it still gave me a bit of an insight into yoyo surfaces.
Now I don’t know the first thing about grind physics, or about blasts in general. So I’ll keep the information minimal and yet the photos speak for themselves. If anyone notices any errors in anything I say or has any suggestions, please feel free to let me know.
Disclaimer: It seems you can spell Anodise/Anodize with a S or a Z, i’ll be sticking with the S for simplicity.
1. My Finger
First up we have my fingerprint, purely for reference. This should give you an idea of the kind of zoom we are working with.
2. Raw Surface (Raw Yoyorecreation Gleipnir)
Simple enough, this is a raw and un-anodised surface. You can clearly see the ridged machining rings where it’s been turned on the lathe.
3. Non-blasted Anodised Surface (Yoyofactory Superstar 2013)
Here is the surface of my Superstar, which is ano-ed in blue but with no blast. You can still see the tooling marks as you could in the raw, but with the layer of anodisation over the top they are definitely less prominent.
4. Machined Plastic (Onedrop Rally)
Starting off with the machined surface of the Rally. You can clearly see the tooling marks where Onedrop have used their lathe to “fine tune” the catch zone of the yoyo.
5. Light Blast (Yoyofactory Supernova Lite w/Acid Wash)
I chose to do this as it has one of the subtlest blasts that I am aware of. It’s by no means the grind king, and I wanted to see what a less-grindable blast looked like. You can just about make out some of the machining grain through the ano.
6. Spyy’s Beadblast (Spyy Addiction V2)
This is one of the best blasts I’ve come across on a yoyo. Very smooth, very grind able.
7. Gruntbull’s Beadblast (CLYW Bear .vs. Man Round 2)
CLYW’s famous blast. Decent grinds, very smooth feeling.
8. General Yo Beadblast (General Yo Majesty)
General Yo’s finishes are renowned for their smoothness and grind ability. I couldn’t really have a list without this finish in there somewhere.
9. Yoyofactory Unknown Blast (Yoyofactory CZM84VK Proto)
The prototype CZM8 has a very stange blast indeed on it. It feels somewhat sticky, almost like it shouldn’t be a very good grinding surface and yet the reality is just the opposite. This, in my humble opinion, is the best grinding surface I have ever tried. However, that’s just my subjective opinion.
The craters on this surface seem to be noticeable more spaced apart than the blasts on the Majesty and BVM2 above.
10. Onedrop’s Pyramatte (Onedrop Chik)
From what I’ve been told, the surface is tumbled in a ceramic medium rather than blasting, which gives a less aggressive grinding surface. You can still make out the machining grain as you could in the Supernova Lite, and similarly the surface doesn’t grind quite as well as the blasts do.
This is all I have snapped so far. I have a 3yo3 Bassline 2 on route to me which has a Charcoal blast, so I’ll post that up when I get it. I’m also looking into getting my hands on one of the Candy-blasted ILYYs.
So there you have it! I’m not really sure what conclusions, if any, can be drawn from these photos… but I hope you found them all as interesting as I did. ;D
