OK I know you have to UV unwrap a cylinder around the object but what do you do after that? I barely understand UV mapping. Hopefully Cekuhnen will read this and give a good explanation of his awesome metal shaders on blender.org. I also remember reading some of the normal mapping has been updated recently? what’s the status on that?
You can use normal maps on the tangent shader. The UV doesnt have much to do with the tangent spec. It just gives blender the info on your model in order to make the right effect. After unwrapping an object, the tangent shader renders fine(you can use any of the spec shaders you want, wardiso, cooktor, wutever)
They have more info about tangent shading, and its development in blender on blendernation.com
hope this helps
peace
Drew