Thread: Edge Pics?

I've done some high mag pictures of a straight razor honed by one of the senior members here. Not sure it's really worth much since they are taken at 100x, 300x, 700x, and 1000x and not very many people can look at a razor with that much detail. If anybody wants to see them I'll be glad to post them. If nobody is interested I'll just save the forum space (the pics are very large).

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Ladies, gentlemen, and those yet undecided - we have not one, not two, but three winners! Tim has kindly agreed to have us use his pics; Seraphim, yours will be commandeered, too; sparq, you have just won a free ticket to your very own article in the photography section: Category:Photography - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Now then. That was easy...

Joking aside, if no-one volunteers, Lee and I will do the image integration. sparq, if we can be of assistance, just let us know.

Time is my only enemy. I hope I'll put together something presentable soon. (the hard part would be cleaning my desk)

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

Coming off of your Chinese 12k, there should be no scratch marks visible at 100x magnification (which is all I have). It should look like a mirror.

All due respect to FP and just my opinion based on my experience. If you want to have your edge polished like a mirror that is fine but it is not necessary for it to be sans scratch marks to be shave ready.

Just got done looking at a number of razors honed by Lynn, The Topher, Tim Zowada and Mastro Livi ...... on yeah, and last and least by JimmyHAD and they have scratch marks and shave me great. So as in most things with wet shaving YMMV.

I really do love those high resolution edge pictures, but...

They don't show what the average honer is going to see. Most of us have up to 100x magnification available. What you see at 100x is *not* what you see (obviously) at ultra high res/mag like the above pictures. Using up to 100x magnification, IMO, a properly honed/finished edge should look like a mirror, with no *visible* scratch marks at all. At least, that's what I shoot for. I don't even bother taking it the shave test unless there are no visible marks at all in the bevel.

I am limited to 30X so maybe that is a handicap ? I'll tell you this, I received a new razor that was honed by a noted honemiester. Before I shaved with it I took it over to the old B&L binocular microscope to check out the edge.

When I looked at it I thought that I ought to take it to the Shapton 15 and 30k to clean it up. Then I decided to give the honemiester the benefit of the doubt and shave. It was one of the smoothest slickest shaves I ever got. Gave me a new perspective.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I am limited to 30X so maybe that is a handicap ? I'll tell you this, I received a new razor that was honed by a noted honemiester. Before I shaved with it I took it over to the old B&L binocular microscope to check out the edge.

When I looked at it I thought that I ought to take it to the Shapton 15 and 30k to clean it up. Then I decided to give the honemiester the benefit of the doubt and shave. It was one of the smoothest slickest shaves I ever got. Gave me a new perspective.

Jimmy, so you could see scratch marks in the edge still?

Both of my honemeister blades came back with mirror polished bevels. Although it does seem like Old School mentioned that some of his finest edges were produced with Japanese naturals that left the edge looking kinda milky.

I always use 200x as a "standard" ,as that is what Tim Zowada used on his site.

You certainly don't need that high a magnification. As a matter of fact, after a while you can tell how the edge is by simply looking at the glint off of the very edge using a very bright single source light (incandescent is fine, sunlight is even better!), the very edge, that is, not the bevel itself.

WOW. I need a loop. I was looking at my edge through an 8x swiss army knife magnifier.

Thanks for the info. I guess my edge is better than I thought.

Following up on my own post, I would like to thank Tim Zowada of Zowada Custom Knives for his kind permission to use his intellectual property in the Wiki. Thank you very much, Tim!

And here is the result.

• Bevels produced by various hones - Straight Razor Place Wiki
• Edges produced by various hones - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by sparq

Would pictures of this quality + a step-by-step instructions how to take them with entry level DSLRs be good content for a wiki page?

I for one would like that. I can hook my SLR up to a cheap microscope, but lighting, depth of field and even focusing are difficult. I was using a SureFire torch to light it up but the bulb blew.