I know that this might sound a bit offputting, but everyone has their own way of doing knurling. I have both the scissor type and the normal in from the side.
Now this is where the techniques and preferences differ, I don't like the scissor type, even though they say it is better for your machine, I tend to use the scissor type only on very small parts that can't take the side loads, and I run mine fairly fast. So asking people to do a write up might get a lot of different views to doing the job. Machinery comes into play, a big heavy machine will take the side strain, whereas a smaller machine really would need to use the scissor type.
Just type 'knurling' into google, and do a bit of site searching and you will find all the info you require, I did this when you put this post up, and what came up was very informative and surprising.
I will just tell you how I do mine.
I touch the knurl onto the job and apply a bit of pressure until I can see an impression being formed.
Then I bring the knurl off and look at the impression and see if it is equal impression all the way across. If not I readjust the tool in the correct direction, and try again. It will be only a tiny adjustment usually.
Then bring the tool onto the job, and put a feed in of about 5 thou, and plenty of oil onto the job, as Marv said, this is an embossing process, but usually some fine chips are formed, I use a toothbrush (the wife complains a bit at the black bristles, but what the hell) to clean away the swarf. Let the cut run its course for a while, then put another cut on, oiling and cleaning as required until you reach the finished stage.
At that stage, I usually either take a small skim off the surface or dress it down with a stone, just to take the sharp edges off (but not if using it to expand the size, more of that later). I also usually put a small chamfer on the outer edges of the knurled face (if space allows), it just finishes the job off.
There are basically two types of knurl that we use, one is a diamond pattern and the other is a straight knurl, there are many other types used for different jobs and decorations but I will concentrate on these two.
For me, I tend to use the diamond pattern where I have to grip something (like a scriber) and the straight one for turning or tightening something (an adjusting wheel or a locking nut). But the choice would be yours, there are no hard and fast rules, do what you want.
There is another side to knurling, and that is getting yourself out of the s**t.
Say you bored a hole in a flywheel slightly too large (this is just a quick example), what you can do is knurl the area of shaft it sits on and this will expand the shaft by up to 10 thou (depends how deep you go), so allowing you to get a tighter fit. This can also be used to put on an assembly where you want a nice tight fit, rather than having to resort to adhesives to lock things together.
Here are a couple of pics of the knurling tools that I use.
Hope this helps
John