Thread: Some Thoughts on Magnifiers (Not Microscopes)

From time-to-time, I like to think about my honing kit/equipment and try to make it better or identify new things that I want to try. I've recently added a Shapton glass HR 4k and a Bausch and Lomb 7x Hastings triplet, and believe my comments about the magnifier may be of help to others.

When I began honing razors and needed to check the apex for bevel set, chips, wires/fins etc, the first thing that I did was to round up most of the magnifiers around the house and try them out. I used mostly a 5x hand held 'glass' and it worked pretty well. I had decent relief (distance) from the edge and could see a decent length of edge so that checking the entire length wasn't a chore. But the lens had distortion typical of cheap lenses, barrel distortion (the edge looks curved), color fringing (chromatic abberation), sometimes some annoying brightness that could be confused with wires or fins (probably specular abberations) and so on. But by shifting the edge, glass, and light, I could see what I needed to see.

A friend gave me a 10x and 20x probably Chinese loupes, and those were useful too. The 10x and 20x got me too close to the edge for my comfort and of course the higher the magnification, the less of the edge you can see at once, so inspecting the entire bevel requred a lot of shifting, focusing, getting the light right, and so on, but you can make it work. The abberations and distortion with both these were as bad or worse than the 5x glass as might be expected from higher power glass, and could be annoying trying to get a really good look at the apex.

Years ago, I had a 10x Bausch and Lomb Hastings triplet, but it had vanished over the years. I decide to give the 7x Hastings triplet a try, but at about $35 it is a considerably larger investment than the cheap Chinese glass or a hand magnifier. I hit the 'buy' button wondering if it would be worth it.

The answer is yes, because I do quite a bit of honing and the cost is a one-time cost, and unless I drop it I'll likely never need another. The B&L triplet has no visible distortion or abberations that interfere with getting that critical look at the apex. That is really nice - I wish I'd gotten one years ago. No doubt it does have some abberations and distortion, all lenses do - but the difference between the B&L and the cheap glass is pretty large.

So if you hone a lot or just enjoy not having to fight your magnifier, I'd say it is worth the $35 as a one-time expense.

Cheers, Steve