Thread: Hones and Edges Under the Microscope

I think that we should get all the photos at any magnification that we can get our hands on. This way all of us can choose to use what we want.

Originally Posted by izlat

the idea is great - and I say we want as many photos, of as many hones as possible, at different magnification - 30x, 60x, 100x, 150, 200... (Not sure if we need more than 200)

I think we do need a lot more than 200, though I suspect scopes capable of that sort of magnification are pricey. Most of the "interesting" details from a sharpness perspective are in the first 10-20 pixels from the edge in those photos. If there's any way to get shots looking at the front of the edge (or a quarter shot at the front) instead of just the sides that would be great.

Originally Posted by mparker762

If there's any way to get shots looking at the front of the edge (or a quarter shot at the front) instead of just the sides that would be great.

I'm working on it. I've got a pretty good shot at 45deg. I'm trying to get it closer to 60deg. The lighting gets pretty tricky.

Tim Z.

I often look edge on when I'm doing a new to me old blade to let me see where the edge is thicker, how any chips or burrs look. Not that you really see the edge once it's sharp.
I just wish I had a trinocular stereo or a metalurgical scope.

Not that I'm anything of an authority, but I just inspected the Feather DX blade I removed from the razor this morning after about a dozen shaves. As far as I can see, under the microscope at 100X, the edge and bevel appear to be nearly identical to the edge of a completely unused blade. There are no nicks or dips or rough places at all, in contrast to the the str8 I've been trying to hone forever, which even at 60X looks like the Sawtooth Range seen from about 50 miles off. Obviously, though, the brand new Feather blade I installed is the one that shaves like a charm. That said, I believe that the 'scope will help me ascertain when I've gotten rid of the rough, jagged places in the str8 blade, whereupon I can refine my effort and concentrate on getting it actually shave-ready which, as we've been hearing, you can't really tell by looking through an ordinary 'scope.

-denis

I think grunion has a handle on the matter. With the use of magnification, I think we beginners are hoping to see what a good edge looks like so that in the attempts to sharpen/hone/maintain an edge we get an idea what to look for. Some have said things to the effect that determining a properly sharpened blade may only be done on the face of the user and that properly sharpening a blade is determined by hone and test, hone and test, hone...

How does it work for the factory, then? DE blades are sharpened by machine using a mechanical process devised by a craftsman or mechanic and most likely tested by observation of the quality of the edge. Certainly each blade is not individually tried on a test face. Thus I think that once someone has achieved an excellent edge and were he to use a scope of sufficient magnification, he should be able to tell with the next edge if he has gotten that next blade properly sharp.

I await explanations of the defects in my logic, Bruce

I do not know how the factories test their blades, but I suspect they have a testing facility that can test whole batches very efficiently. Probably a sheet of some standardized material (dry gelatin or some such) and a bank of blades attached to strain gauges. I doubt that optical microscopes come into play except when blades start failing, and I bet they use electron microscopes for R&D purposes.

There's an article on the Schick website that talks about how they manufacture and sharpen their blades, if you're curious.

Edit: Disregard above. See post below with quote from Schick website on how they test their blades.

ACTUALLY, I DON'T SEE ANY DEFECTS IN YOUR LOGIC. MANY COMPANIES HAVE MANUFACTURED STRAIGHT RAZOR BLADES AS WELL AS DOUBLE EDGE RAZOR BLADES THAT SHAVE SUPERBLY. NONE OF THIS CAME ABOUT BY CHANCE, ALL OF IT IS THE RESULT OF PROPERLY APPLYING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. PROTOCOLS HAD TO HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO CORRELATE A SET OF OBSERVABLE, QUANTIFIABLE PARAMETERS WITH SMOOTHNESS, CLOSENESS AND COMFORT IN THE RESULTING SHAVE. WE CAN DO ALL THIS TOO!

Originally Posted by rgdominguez

ACTUALLY, I DON'T SEE ANY DEFECTS IN YOUR LOGIC. MANY COMPANIES HAVE MANUFACTURED STRAIGHT RAZOR BLADES AS WELL AS DOUBLE EDGE RAZOR BLADES THAT SHAVE SUPERBLY. NONE OF THIS CAME ABOUT BY CHANCE, ALL OF IT IS THE RESULT OF PROPERLY APPLYING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. PROTOCOLS HAD TO HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO CORRELATE A SET OF OBSERVABLE, QUANTIFIABLE PARAMETERS WITH SMOOTHNESS, CLOSENESS AND COMFORT IN THE RESULTING SHAVE. WE CAN DO ALL THIS TOO!

Dovo straight razors, sold as "shave ready"

The prosecution rests

Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Dovo straight razors, sold as "shave ready"
The prosecution rests

Don't forget TI straight razors, also sold as "shave ready". Not to mention Zeepk, Mehaz, Bass, Kamisori, and Sanguine.

Even in the DE industry sharpness is no given thing. Try a red-pack of Gillette DE blades - ye gods, what a disaster!