Hi All

Realise its a while since my last post, but I thought I can add something useful to this.

I use a small handheld microscpoe with a built in light source to see how things are going during honing - the every popuar tandy style of thing. It is exactly for the reasons above that I set the focus on maximum and hold the edge of the razor below the base of the 'scope. This way I can angle the blade and get the light reflecting off the edge in several different directions, thus seeing the "whole picture".

It requres a steady hand, but I find it really helps to get an overall impression of the bevel edge along its entire length.

Sunsi