I bought this as a BoneYard bar from Rogue's site- Raw steel version. The knurling is aggressive but not super rough. It has already improved my deadlift and I feel better about my squats with the knurling in the center. I am a fairly new lifter, been training for about a year now- This is a solid purchase, especially if you can get one from the BoneYard for around $195.00 like I did.