I was doing a trade with a forum member involving a couple of hones to me. I wanted to make it an equitable swap and I threw in a razor. Nothing special but a good solid shaver. I had honed it and it passed HHT and gave me a good smooth shave. I did examine it with my 30x B&L stereoscope and the edge looked just fine.

When my friend received it he emailed and said that he looked at it with 200x and the edge had micro chipping. I was mortified. What would the neighbors think ? So I told him (kidding) that if he only used 30x his honing would improve dramatically. Upon further reflection I came to the conclusion that my response, humorous intent aside, was actually somewhat valid.

Two recent ebay examples, this week I received a Revisor 8/8 from the mfg in Germany that was pre honed to shave ready at the factory and a Boker King Cutter that was also advertised as shave ready.

Upon examination under the 30x both showed anomalies/defects in the edge. I stropped and shaved with each of them on successive days and got excellent shave out of both. Each of them had passed HHT before the shaves with the Boker passing all along the blade and the Revisor here and there but not for the full length.

The Revisor under the 30x didn't seem to have the bevel set completely. At least it was not as complete as it would have been if I was honing it. Still it gave a decent shave.

In honing many razors for the past year + I have noted that I got adequate, sometimes even excellent, shaves from my early efforts and upon later examination they wouldn't be acceptable to me (visually under 30x) now.

So I'm thinking that 200x is counter productive and wondering if there is an optimum power with which to evaluate the honed edge ? OTOH, am I a slacker and should my edge look perfect under the 200x ? Just wondering what y'all think about this question and would appreciate hearing of your conclusions based on your experience.