Create a brushed metal texture using Photoshop CS

How to Create a Brushed Metal Effect in Adobe Photoshop CS

Create a new image with the following options

Width: 300px
Height: 300px
Resolution: 120px/inch
Color Mode: RGB 8bit
BackGround: Transparent

Using the Paint Bucket tool fill the background with a 50% gray color

Select from the menu Filter/Noise/Add Noise...

Enter the following in the "Add Noise" dialog box

Amount: 12.5%
Distribution: Uniform
Monochromatic: Checked

Select from the menu Filter/Blur/Motion Blur...

Enter the following in the "Motion Blur" dialog box

Angle: 0
Distance: 31

Using the Polygon Lasso make a selection as pictured in the image below.
This will give you the highlights

Select from the menu Select/Feather...

Enter the following in the "Feather Selection" dialog box

Feather Radius:10 px

Select from the menu Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Brightness/Contrast...

Enter the following in the "New Layer" dialog box

Name: Brightness/Contrast 1
Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask: Unchecked
Color: None
Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%

Click OK

Enter the following Brightness/Contrast dialog box

Brightness: +60 Contrast: 0

With Brightness/Contrast 1 selected in the Layers panel

Set Layer mode to Screen
set Opacity: 55%

The Final Image