Quote Originally Posted by gssixgun View Post
Yes... Microscopes do tell a good story, and are an invaluable tool in these endeavors, but sadly they are useless in telling us anything about "Feel" Other then the most glaringly obvious issues along an edge, magnification is basically good for looking at the sides of the bevel to make sure the scratch pattern is even and reaching the edge fully...
Yep, that's definitely my exerience so far, though I haven't had my USB scope long.

It makes bevel-setting a whole lot easier. There's no guessing, no need to squint to check if the marker test has worked, etc - I can just see it, plain as day. Burr or wire edge? unmissable.

It's also good for checking on the progress of a known progression - I can quite easily see, for example, when each stone has removed the scratches from the one before.

And I also find it good for checking whether I've reached a good finishing stage on my Naniwa 12k - I know what a good polish looks like, and if I repeat that look then I know it's going to shave well. (And it's no good for the same thing on my C12k - a finished edge looks pretty much the same as an unfinished one.)

But it is indeed useless for comparing different stones for the quality of their finish. For example, my Naniwa 12k edges have a nice mirror finish, but a C12k edge I did last week looked like it had been sandblasted - and they both gave nice smooth shaves.