Thread: Microscopic comparison of 3M 0.5 micron abrasive sheet and stropping

I have been looking into razor and knife edges for a while, and was under the impression that straight razors stropped by a professional was the sharpest I would be able to get.

I found this website doing microscopic comparisons of blade edges. Now most of the site is oriented to plane blades but I found it interesting none the less. Just to clarify I am not saying that this is the be-all end-all just something worthy of discussion.

I started reading the site where he compares different edges under a microscope, the disposable razor edge information caught my eye. The 3rd bevel appears smooth under 200x magnification.

He does a stropping comparison to a plane blade sharpened with 0.5 micron abrasive. now I realize this is done on a plane blade and not on a straight razor and not with a leather strop. This just makes me really curious as to how a straight razor stropped professionally would look under a 200x magnification.

Any thoughts on the comparison of the edge on disposable razor vs plane blade vs quality straight stropped properly ?

Check out Tim Zowada's site for some more excellent images.

Wow, the pictures under 200x on that site really show a polished edge compared to the first ones that I had found. The difference is astounding, first ones posted look VERY rough compared to the honing job done by Zowada. Both pictures are taken at 200x according to the sites, very good comparison.

Originally Posted by Charon

Both pictures are taken at 200x according to the sites, very good comparison.

That's a very widely spread mistake, I'm afraid. Both microscopes will have a different optical resolution. That can have a far more dramatic effect on what the images show than the magnification factor.
Next to that, both sets of pictures are shot with different lighting, something that can also dramatically alter the observations.

Here's TheBigSpendur with a decent explanation about resolution:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...html#post21154

And here's a recent thread I posted about lighting conditions:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ent-light.html