Thread: Veho USB Microscope and Microchips

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Well done! Looks like a great start.

Well, thanks. I am just unsure what level of sharpness I am supposed to detect before I move on from the 1k bevel to my next stone, the Naniwa 5k.

Am I supposed be able to pop hairs by skimming across my forearm? Because I am clearly not there. With blade at about 30 degrees and slight pressure, I can shave the hairs of forearm off at the skin. The thumbnail test is free of jaggies, and there's definitely a cutting in, rather than a glide across the top sensation. Thumbpad . . . well, it doesn't have the sticking sensation. Feels keener than before, but I don't feel a real risk of cutting in.

That's definitely progress from where the razor was before, but I am not sure whether more passes on the 1k are warranted, or I should move up to my next stone, which is the 5k, and then go 8k, then 12k

Don't know and I don't think I need to know.

Have faith in each grit and just give it time to do its job. If the razor fails to get sharper at any stage then go back down a step.

Its like climbing a ladder.

Use your arm hair to judge sharpness.

Just move up in grit, work the stone, then move up again.

You can always mix up the stones a little too, Its not too big a deal.

Thats a good scope, thanks for the link!.

Regarding the honing...... removing a nick/chip from the edge takes a lot of work. FWIW I start with a 1000 grit sandpaper
and use 25-50 laps and see if there is noticeable progress. If not then I drop back down to a ~400 grit intil the nick is almost gone, then I go back to the 1000 grit until I can no longer see the nick with a scope. For me the 400-1000 grit is for removing nicks, old oxidized steel and get a cutting edge that passes the TNT. From that point on I do not go back to the 1000 grit.

From what you have written it is now time to move to the 5K. This is where you will finalize the shape of the bevel.

When your done with the 5K it will feel noticeably different than the 1K edge no matter what test you use. When looking at the bevel under the scope the scratch pattern will be the same for the full width and length of the bevel. The bevel will be one color, if there are 2 colors, one along the very edge and another along the top part of the bevel, then you have 2 angles and you need to continue honing until there is only one color, indicating just one bevel angle.

Then it is time to move to the 8K. Your goal here is to replace all the 4K scratch pattern with the 8K pattern. That may take 5-25 laps depending on a variety of factors. It just takes whatever it takes. Check the edge frequently but I do not use the TNT at the 8K level, it tends to dull the edge, and test shave whenever you feel it might be ready.
Most likely it will shave you but not as well as you would like. From there it is time for conservative pyramids to dial in the edge that you want.

BTW, the scratches you see at the top of the bevel are most likely from the DMT 325.

Hope this help,

Ok, so my Naniwa 5k and 8k arrived from SRD the other day. After lapping, I set the Shure Edge to the 5k and did 50+ laps. I'm not that eexperienced at the thumb pad test, so I've been looking to pop arm or leg hairs. Not really happening. Reliably shaves hair if angled to the skin.

Here's the bevel on both sides (I should've cleaned the blade better).



Do I stay with the 5k until I can reliably pop hairs? Or go up to the 8k and then do a pyramid?

The pic on the top right shows the scratch pattern the best.
That pattern looks to be a combination of the 5K scratches and the coarser 1K scratches. FWIW I would stay on the 5K until all the scratches looks uniform in the depth and width.
Then move on to the 8K.

Use the TPT frequently. You need to learn how it changes with the change in the edge. Put very simply, you will run out of arm/leg hair very fast.

Nice pics!

Thanks, but a bit too late to save me from silly bald patches on my forearms and one of my calves.

I will hit the 5k again tomorrow. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Basset

Today I received in the mail a USB microscope that I'd ordered for my kids. I know some folks here have used the QX3 and QX5. This is a Veho, which goes up to 200x. There's a 400x model, but I figured I'll start here. If the kids are up for it, I will sell the 200x for a slight loss and move to the 400x.

Not bad for such a cheap scope! I've seen lots of people taking pics of plane blades with a QX5 and they do an amazing job at lower powers too.

Here's a shot of a single edged razor blade showing the rough side of the blade (bottom of image) and the 3 bevels. This version is probably too compressed to read the boxes but the main bevel is about 346 microns wide, the secondary bevel is about 245 leaving the micro bevel to be about 90 microns wide. (metallurgical scope using the 5x objective. and usb eyepiece camera) Amazing how jagged (and how dirty) everything is at a micro scale

Looking great! Even bevel sans chips now. Can't wait to see the magnified final pictures...that Robeseon will shave better than it ever did for a previous owner, for sure. Thanks for the pictures.