As with a column, a pilaster can have a plain or fluted surface to its profile and can be represented in the mode of any architectural style.

Since 1904, the fluted top surface to the radiator grille has been Daimler's distinguishing feature.

The snubbed beachward slope has a fluted surface that funnels a wave's backwash up to a flat peak, where it is jetted toward flumes that propel the sand-filled water toward the surface, to be carried shoreward by the next onrushing wave.

In addition, the safety was redesigned and moved from the receiver to the bolt, which was changed from a smooth to a fluted surface.

Barthel speculated that the banana leaf might even have served as a prototype for the tablets, with the fluted surface of the tablets an emulation of the veined structure of a leaf:

One arm hung, a dead-weight, down the fluted surface of the support.

In style they run from a no-frills, starched-white incense burner with a fluted surface to a couple of all-frills vases with dragons perched on the rim and fruit spilling down the side.

Dark water swirled over the fluted surfaces.

The lower part of the reliquary with fluted surface, carination and small stem and foot is extremely similar to the "drinking goblets" that have been found in good numbers mainly in Gandhara (Taxila) and Kapisa (Kapisi).