Thread: Barber Hones Under A Microscope

No if you make comparition of similar items!
But razor hones cut with different ways so the result is that tell you the grit size

Originally Posted by bth88

This is a very informative thread for me. When I'm grinding something I can tell a grit size on a grinding wheel basically by looking at it, much the way you can get a gauge of grit size on sandpaper by looking at the paper. I'm gathering with these ultra fine stones (natural/synthetic) all that goes out the door?

I think it's just that with sandpaper, everyone you're looking at is a cutting agent, while this isn't necessarily the case with hones.

I think heavyduty said something about a more powerful scope telling you more. This makes sense; if you know something about the stone and know what the cutting agent is – garnets in a coticule, for example – then you might be able to tell something about the fineness of those garnets at great magnification. But I think Josh's point that the best way to tell is to check the scratches on your bevel, not the stone surface, really nails it.

Yea, with sandpaper its all there in front of you to see. You don't need any magnification but when your talking abrasives buried in a carrier matrix and synthetic abrasives thats all a different story. I very much doubt you could see the individual abrasives with a radio shack microscope. The resolution just isn't there. I think with a coticule type stone you would need very high magnification 300-400x even with a real quality bino scope, maybe much more. Those garnets are really microscopic. If they were big they wouldn't do much good. I have some garnet xtls about 2 inches across imagine what scratches they would make on your edge!