Kind of an old thread, but here goes my two cents worth.
I believe the OP stated he was attempting to finish with a six-way angle blade dozer. First, it is going to take you a while to become a finish dozer hand, so don't overload your expectations. A motor grader will sort of run itself to a degree, but a dozer, it's all on you.
Secondly, put a slight angle to the blade, throttle way down and sever your way through material, don't shear. This is especially helpful in any cohesive material with a higher plasticity index (read clay).
I knew an old guy who would slice through Louisiana gumbo by just holding pressure on the blade with the dozer not tracking until the clay started giving it up. The he'd work the angle control one way and the other and shave the knots right off. When he still felt the knot, he'd back up and cut it down to the surrounding pass elevation. I used to watch him do highway work so good, some grader operators couldn't touch him. His favorite dozer was a narrow pad, narrow blade D4 CAT with foot steering when I knew him in the early 90's. This guy could cut 1/4-inch paving grade using that slanted angle blade technique. He truly had taken dozer operation to new heights. The company had tried him on motor graders and he simply could not run one. Which, of course, was a good thing for guys like me.
Anyway, didn't mean to wax poetic so much. That's my story and I's stickin' to it.
