FWIT, the fine shiny line described has shown up on every cone and cup I've seen, and I infer it to lie early along the time line from new to burnishing to wear to pitting. Who cares how it looks, though -- how does it feel when adjusted? The cheesy cones I got once for my early-70's Normandy hubs appeared to be granular in their surface texture. I had this impression that they actually smoothed out a tad as they wore in just a bit (maybe needing some readjustment). Was that real? -- maybe my impression really was a product of some kind of period-correct haze.
You metallurgists: what's the mechanism (at the micro scale) for pitting? Does it start at some kind of micro-irregularity in the bearing where stress is concentrated?
Reid Fisher
wearing my cones in San Martin, California