yeah bennys points are way better. grooves dont do anything... the only thing they may do is make a few little feathery bits.
feathering, very slight, is ok for gripping the puck, BUT feathering on the edges of your stick will affect your pass in a bad way, will reduce your consistency especially.
you certainly don't want a glossy paint finish on the passing edge of your stick, you should always use mat paint and mixing sand or sawdust in is a decent hing to try... but in general you will get a better more consistent pass when your stick is new and the edges of the stick are nice and sharp (legal
), straight and crisp.
even one little chunk cut out of the top edge of your sticks passing face will affect your consistency.
personally i dont do anything to texture my sticks, i chop em out wih a bandsaw and leave it, it textures very slightly. just make sure the paint aint too thick and it's ready to play.
the reason the dorsal fellas go on about texture is because the dorsals are good at making high shots, with not so much distance... and the way to get high shots wih dorsals is to rip your wrist and twist a lot. so more texture helps with that technique. if you just use a flat stick passing technique you dont need that texture... well its debateable that you need it at all anyway, and effect will vary with pucks, and age of pucks.
i like bennys idea about rubbing a sandpaper texture onto the face... i might try that after painting, sometimes i end up having to rub the face across the edge of a tile to break the paint into the wood texture underneath when a stick is just painted.