Quote Originally Posted by Euclid440 View Post

I do not understand why some are so against using magnification or someone obsessing over a perfect edge.

No one complains about obsessive, Jnat and other natural honing, heck they even make long, boring OCD, videos of a razor, sliding back and forth across a stone or of narrated vids of touching a hair to an edge and folks think that great.

If that’s you thing, knock yourself out, it does not hurt anyone.

If you are new to honing or trying to learn more, 100X plus magnification can teach you a lot about the process. Use it if you want, don’t if you do not. But don’t tell new guys they don’t need it… they just might.
There is nothing wrong if you want to OCD about any endevour. I used to use info gleamed from benchrest shooters that would be useful to me when I was long range rifle match shooting at ranges up to 1000 yds using target peep sights. Always nice to have a rifle large caliber tuned to give sub MOA groups, closer to 1/2 inch, at 100 yards off a bench. Unfortunately there are damn few 1 MOA shooters when you are standing on your hind legs shooting while hunting or even prone with a sling. Some times you really only need so much to get the job done well, the rest being over kill to a large extent. I view honing the same way. I am not telling anyone not to use high magnification just saying it may not be entirely necessary in order to produce an edge the shaves well and comfortably.

Bob