I just got a set of Norton stones yesterday and started looking at my edges under magnification in preparation for honing. How much mag is too much? I have 40X, 100X and 400X.
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I usually use the 60x range of my hand-held 60-100x scope; sometimes the 100. The 60 is plenty for me to see if my bevel reaches the edge and my striations are even. A lot of guys use a 20-30x loupe with good results. I'm not sure how even the edge should even look at 400k, hopefully someone who uses the higher magnifications will chime in.
I am using the 100X now and thinking that might be too much.
I use a 30x loupe and it's more than plenty...
A wise man once said something like "The less I see, the better the shaves get" :)