That would be me. I received my propeller from Jay a couple months ago in the rough. Jay included a note asking that I call him prior to doing anything on the propeller, so I did. That was when the conversation came up about leaving the machining scallops on it. We had a very nice, detailed conversation and from that, I decided to leave the prop. as received...VERY LITTLE sanding, not worth mentioning really, almost enough just to clean it up from being handled. (skin oils) I stained, painted and varnished the prop. and left all of the machining marks on it. The "fields"...the area Jay calls the glass coated tips...were not sanded much either, just painted and varnished. I personally am not a big fan of smooth glossy finishes on some items, and leaving the propeller as is and staining, left a very nice, "aged" look with rich texture and color...just what I wanted.
Theory is that the scallops act like a bird's feathers, dimples on a golf ball, or VGs, providing a better boundary layer on the airfoil. Jay told me that others leaving the scallops noted better performance.
I figure that later, if needed, I can always remove the scallops... not so easy to add them after sanding them off.
My propeller is now finished, balanced and on the plane. (not permanent as of yet, working on tracking it now.) Very happy with how it looks, verdict still out on how it performs, but I have no doubt it will be just fine.
