Thread: Using a magnifier to check the blade?

I've been wet shaving for almost a year with ups, and downs. After trying several razors for sharpness, comfort, etc., I bought into the hype, and got a Filly. The first shave was a dream, since then so so. I was watching some of Sixxgun's video's, and noticed he was using a magnifier to check the blade. Since I spent all this money on the razors I figured it was worth $5 for a magnifier. My question is when I looked at the blade I noticed that it's not perfectly straight, is this normal? If not, I know the blade was good when I received it, am I stropping wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am in no way experienced, but for what it´s worth, this is my two cents.
There will allways be variations, caused by the geometry of the razor, honing and stropping, especially stropping with pastes. In my experience, if the razor shaves well, all is well.
Of course if you are able to take a picture of the uneven edge, it will be easyer to "diagnose" the razor.

Originally Posted by nikolasnjerve

I am in no way experienced, but for what it´s worth, this is my two cents.
There will allways be variations, caused by the geometry of the razor, honing and stropping, especially stropping with pastes. In my experience, if the razor shaves well, all is well.
Of course if you are able to take a picture of the uneven edge, it will be easyer to "diagnose" the razor.

It's hard to explain, but there are little ridges on the edge. It's not a perfectly straight edge. You can not see it without the magnifying glass, so pics will not help.

Ridges? like a micro serration?
How strong a loupe do you use?
For how long have you been using this razor?
I do not believe that stropping would cause any kind of ridges on the edge, it should do the exactly the opposite.
The only thing I can imagine is that the ridges were there all along from the initial honing, having been stropping your razors for a year, the stropping tecnique should be good enough not to cause any ill effects.
Sorry I cannot think of anything that will cause these ridges to suddenly appear.

Just recently I purchased 5$ pocket microscope off eBay. And I was astonished to see that edges on few my razors looks like micro saw. This razors give me good shaves, but not as good as others with perfect edges. After stropping on leather with red dovo paste everything come back to ideal, so I think that it was just insufficient stropping.

To many factors to give a well thought out answer...

What magnification are you useing. Are these scratches following the edge or going straight into the edge. How deep do they apear, gouges in the metal or scratches on the surface. Is there and chipping visable to the loop. All these things and more... so much more can cause issues in the way it shaves. So please add as much detail as you can so we can best follow along

Originally Posted by Bonbon

Just recently I purchased 5$ pocket microscope off eBay. And I was astonished to see that edges on few my razors looks like micro saw. This razors give me good shaves, but not as good as others with perfect edges. After stropping on leather with red dovo paste everything come back to ideal, so I think that it was just insufficient stropping.

Thank you Bonbon! Much better description kind of like a micro saw. I will get a little skin irritation, but not sure if it's from that, or just from the normal shave process.

Sorry for not giving the best description I'm just not sure exactly how to explain it. I'm using a 30x, 60x magnifier with a led light. The saw like pattern looks to be in the metal, but is very small, is not along the whole edge. When I look down on the edge I do not see anything, so I don't think I rolled the edge.

To see the micro serrations on an edge you would need a lot of mag and quality mag. You will not see it with an Eboy special magnifier. Keep in mind no magnifier will tell you how sharp an edge is. It only tells you the condition of the edge. I'm not sure what you were seeing maybe micro chips or flat spots on the edge?

If you are seeing some micro serration from the edge I think you might need to do a slight touch up on a high grit stone, or some paste probably? The higher up in magnification you go, the more detail you'll see and the more of a saw like edge ... But from only 40-60 if you're seeing a bad edge then it's worth looking into further I think. One way to solve the issue is to send it out to be pro honed, and shave/check the edge then?