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Working in sheet metal and heavier metal fabrication I can say with certainty the the rolled grain at the mill does cause grain flow in some materials. Bend a piece of cold rolled 4140 with the grain and you will get long cracks if you use too small of a bend radius. T4 tempered aluminum will tend to crack too. Always tried to bend against the grain, T6 aluminum would almost always crack. The grain flow means nothing in a knife though as they do not get bent in the hardened state, notice the example shows a bent part that is bent against the grain. Do that in the opposite direction and even if the steel doesn't crack it will not be as strong as the other way.
Some types of brass do not bend well either and will crack when bent too far. It is easy to HT, just heat to around 450, just hot enough to burn a piece of pine rubbed up against it let cool and you've got about 2 to 3 hours to bend it before it hardens again, same for some aluminum tubing that cracks when you bend it. If you get steel tubing that cracks when you bend it send it back, they sent you the wrong stuff.
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