Hey everyone, I was wondering what the differences between polished and blasted are. I was looking at two different colors and one had (blasted) while the other had (polished).
Thanks in advance!
3 Likes
Polished finish provides more grip, while a blasted finish is smoother to the touch. Blasted finishes are great for finger/thumb grinds. Mostly personal preference though
3 Likes
Polished looks better on stage imo likesuper easy to see and in general shiny 
Blasted is also more resilient to accidental hand contact like very functional in that way.
I like bimetals with polished bodies and blasted rims.
3 Likes
polished / blasted. polished is smooth and shiny (some might even say ‘sticky’) and blasted is lightly textured and matte. you might also see blasted referred to as a grind finish in older posts because it makes grind-type tricks (where you hold the yoyo as it’s spinning) much easier.
apologies for the wikipedia-horror-movie style photo.
3 Likes
Polished is more reflective, like a mirror. Blasted means it was blasted with sand or some other similar abrasive to make it less reflective. It’s like the difference between a “gloss coat” finish and a “matte” finish.
3 Likes
this is the same model yoyo but the warm gray is blasted and the navy is polished if this helps illustrate the difference visually
4 Likes
Also, these finishes are achieved before the anodizing. They either media blast them or send them as-is after final machining (I don’t think there is an actual polishing step, but a manufacturer can for sure correct me on that)
3 Likes
i think there may be actually, somewhere in the process anyway. reason i say that is my forma and asora are polished but i can feel machine lines on both, whereas my exia is also polished but it’s perfectly smooth with no perceptible machine lines
2 Likes
2 Likes
I think it’s better to generalize with glossy as the alternative to blasting, because not all glossy yoyos will be polished, but you can do lots of surface finishes on the AL before anodizing. It just kinda depends on manufacturer + what the customer specifically requests. In the same way blasts can be done at different intensities, other surface finishes can also be done to varying degrees of intensity.
In my mind when specifically saying polished you’re getting close to an almost mirror-like shine under the ano. I kinda hate it on the polished yoyos I have because I don’t like seeing my reflection.
1 Like
Thank you everyone for the help and examples!
1 Like
There can be a polishing step but there is also a lot of grey area.
When you machine something, shops machine to a measurable roughness specification something called an Ra value, this is the roughness of the product after it comes off the lathe.
After that they can also further be polished manually or electropolished. My shop offers both options.
These for a visual example were machined to an Ra of 0.8 and then electropolished.
5 Likes