Thread: Microscope - What to look for

So on the advice of many members, I made a trip to Radioshack and bought myself a standard issue microscope ($10 version) to help understand how my honing technique is coming along. The only problem is that I'm not sure what to look for when inspecting my edge.

Obviously, I am able to see micro chipping and other imperfections. On my Dovo Best Quaity, the edge seems straight, however, I'm not sure how to gauge:

- What does a HHT-quality edge look like?
- What does a dull edge look like?
- What does an over-honed edge look like?
- When inspecting between pyramids/stroping, what am I looking?

Any advice is appreciated. Does anyone know of a website that posts pictures of magnified edges (for those of us who learn visually)?

In my opinion, you can't see if an edge is shaveready on a microscope. It's a great tool to inspect for damage (microchips, corrosion pitting) and for assessing how well the bevel is polished by your honing efforts.

To reach sufficient sharpness for a smooth shave, the two panes that form the cutting bevel of your razor, should meet in an almost infinite small point. It is impossible to determine the actual width of that point with your type of microscope.

What you can do is to observe the light that reflects from the bevel. It should all reflect in the same direction. If you can see the smallest line of light beaming from the very edge of the bevel, in an other direction than the light reflecting from the rest of the bevel, that's a clear indication that your bevel is not meeting up the way it should. However, I find spotting for those reflections easier to do with the naked eye while wearing a led headlight, than I can see it with my stereo microscope.

There's an excellent document about testing and probing a razor for sharpness while honing, written by SRP-member heavydutysg135. You can find it here:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=31640

Have fun honing those razors,

Bart.

chili,

What I look for is uniformity of the scratch pattern made by the hone: it should all look the same. Any differences mean either that what is different in appearance is where the hone has only touched or where the hone has not touched. Once you can recognize what the scratches look like from that grit hone, you can make decisions as what more needs to be done. typically that's more honing.

The other thing to look for is places on the edge where the edge isn't. Like others have said, the chips or pits. Faults like that take the most time to hone out because you have to bring the whole edge up to the bottom of that hole and that can be alot of stock to remove.

Good luck,

Thanks guys! Great insight.

Pretty much what you have already heard

I'll add that I can see when the scratches from the 1500 grit are gone, then the 4000 grit, then each 4000 grit pass as I pyramid leaves different scratches that I then watch disappear. At this point I am usually just about shave ready, but not quite, this is when the thumb pad test come in handy.

An overhoned edge shows up too. It usually show up as a nice edge with the edge going to a bright white line where the wire edge is. You can ousually only see this on one side though.

I really like my microscope, and in many ways as you get used to using it you can recognize things about the edge and its condition that, while important, are impossible to describe. Just like the other tests you develop a "feel" for what you are doing and can learn more than would be expected. Above I told you what I can see, by this feel I will tell you that a shave ready edge is different looking than a non shave ready edge, but I just can't describe how.