I think the lighting and whether the bores were oiled also has an effect on appearance.
ur pic seem to have a single flash light source that highlights only afew honing marks,
whereas mine uses the cam phone LED, room overhead light and a handheld inspection lamp, so light is bouncing all over from much more scratches.
the bores in ur pic were oiled so gives that glossy dark reflective look at the sides,
whereas the bores on my pics were wiped dry with carb cleaner beforehand so all the scratches appear without the gloss
but even with those considerations, look at this history of the bores appearance:
2011-06-01 - first time I brought the forged piston engine off Noddie it was already assembled. didn't wanna take the head or pistons out to disturb the HG or rings so just ran it.
since the first start it's been pooling oil on top.
after few k of bedding it looked like this
2012-05-15 - a spare block was remachined by my cousins machinist and looked like this.
was reusing the old JE rings cos was told they hardly bedded in. in the end it still pooled oil
2012-11-12 - was later found it was bored abit too tight to the JE spec so this third time the same block was rehoned larger by the same machinist of me cousins to the exact min 71.5mm bore.
With new rings and bearings I restarted the bedding in
2013-08-13 - it still pooled with oil.
after afew k of bedding this is how it looked recently. dunno if its the lighting or the cam but you can see just how rough it is
so yeah I agree jonez I think it's been machined either way too roughly, wasn't perfectly straight, round or was too loose/tight
this time everything has to be done to perfection with a smoother suitable finish.
I've read that using a torque plate with the intended HG and kept warm during boring/honing and checking end gaps ensures accurate consistancy, is that right?
cos when I check the end gaps on a bare block at room temp, I get slightly different end gaps when the rings pointing at 12 or 3oclock