Here is a quick and easy way to model Knurling onto a cylinder. Strictly speaking this isnt Knurling proper as it is cutting the surface rather than displacing it, but if you just want the aesthetics more than the part to manufacture it might work for you and its quick and easy. So easy that I think it could be incorporated into an existing tool (Coil) or an adapted form of that tool might work.
1. Draw a cylinder I use a 50mm diameter x 50mm high
2. Start the coil command
3. I used revolution & height, diameter is 50mm, revolutions is 0.35, height I did half of the cylinder so 25mm, you want an internal triangle set to inside and the section size is 1.75 in this example
4. Repeat the command but set the rotation in the opposite direction.
5. This gives you 2 cuts into the cylinder, then just pattern the 2 Features, 36 times
And that's it.
I've included a screencast
