Fun with 200x Microscope & cell phone camera

[Marshal]

I got a pocket 200x microscope that clips onto my cell phone. Tonight I set about playing with the hones. For control purposes, the Norton hone got the same number of strokes (about 100) as the slates. First pic - Norton 8K on a Dovo Best:



Next in line - Torrey, 2 stone progression, Norton 1k to Dragon's Tongue Welsh slate:



I would say that is as good as, if not arguably better than the Norton 8K. I have a trick up my sleeve to polish that a little better still. This is after using a heavy slurry to polish out the 1k scratches, and diluting from there. Finish was 50 strokes on the polished side, pure water.

After that, I worked on my Germania Cutlery Works. Dropped it back to the Norton 4k to true up the edge, worked that away with the Dragon's Tongue, then moved on to the Lynn Melynllyn slate. 50 strokes light slurry, 50 water:



Pretty solid improvement over the Dragon's Tongue in my opinion. Also, it's interesting to see the difference in cutting action between synthetic and natural hones.

Last one I worked on tonight was the Morley clover. Worked out some rough bits on the edge with the Norton 4K. Dragon's Tongue to polish out the 4k scratches, then progressed through the Lynn Melynllyn on to the "Welsh Thuringian." 50 strokes light slurry, 50 pure water:



This was the point I discovered the microscope works MUCH better without the cell phone case adding extra space.

And the final pic for the night, a Gold Dollar I honed up a few days before. Norton 1/4/8K to Guangxi hone. I don't think I bothered counting strokes. Heavy slurry diluted to pure water, then finished with 50 strokes on shave lather:



Now, I've mentioned before my Guangxi and Lynn Melynllyn have a very similar finish, but it's fairly apparent that edge of the Guangxi Is the "best" of the 5. Tomorrow I'll revisit the Welsh Slates with 50 strokes on shave lather each and see what the end result is. I suspect they'll all clean up well.

The Dragon's Tongue is the only somewhat unknown quantity. I've never finished on just that, so I'm curious to see how it looks and how it shaves. I imagine it should be equivalent to the feel of the Norton 8K.