The man extended his hand

[Bassim]

I am not sure if my sentence sounds natural. Would you please correct my grammar and punctuation?

The man extended his hand, but Peter withdrew his, telling him he would shake hands afterwards when he saw what kind of a man he was.

 

[teechar]

I don't see any problems with it.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

"The man extended his hand, but Peter withdrew his, telling him he would shake hands afterwards when he saw what kind of a man he was."

This gives the impression that Peter had already put his hand out, and then withdrew it to make his point. If this is the case, then the sentence is OK.
However, if Peter doesn't put his hand out at all, then I think it should be changed.

Perhaps, "The man extended his hand, but Peter didn't offer his, telling him he would shake hands afterwards when he saw what kind of a man he was."

Other possibilities: "but Peter declined, …", "but Peter refused it, …".

 

[tedmc]

What about:
The man offered to shake Peter's hand but he declined, implicitly telling him he would defer the handshake, when he saw through the kind of a man he was.

 

[tedmc]

The man offered to shake(1) Peter's hand but he declined, implicitly(2) telling him he would defer the handshake, when he saw through(3) the kind of a man he was.

(1) When someone extends his hand to you, it is an offer to shake hand, no?
(2) Would you explicitly tell another person that you would only shake his/her hand later? I thought it is a through a gesture to decline a handshake, an implicit action.
(3) He saw what kind of men he was - this is through reading a person's behaviour, which I think is the same as "seeing through" a person.

 

[tedmc]

If you extend your hand, you offer your hand. If you offer to shake hands, there is a suggestion that you make a verbal offer.

A verbal offer to shake hands would be a bit far-fetched even though I was not brought up in a western culture.

One might. Bassim's character did.

Is it normal to verbally tell a person you meet that you would shake his hand later? As in, "Not now. I'll shake your hand later"? This is again very unusual to me.

If you see through a person, you discover the real person behind the mask. There is no suggestion in the original sentence that there was a mask.

I agree that "see through a person" implies reading through some kind of deceptive facade which the original sentence did not suggest.