Thread: Microscopes When Does Magnification Become Too Much of a Good Thing ?

I think everyone just adjusts to the particular magnification level they use based on what they have, and over time they begin to understand how to interpret what they are seeing.

There must be some affect of how the optics and particular microscope play in here too because, to be honest, there's not a big difference between 60x and 100x on my cheap little scope. Stuff looks 'bigger' at 100x, but there's no extra detail there that I'm not seeing at 60x

I would bet that if I had a high quality super clear 30x scope, I would be perfectly fine with that, but with these little kids scopes, it seems like you need to use the higher mag levels to get the job done.

It's pouring here too Jimmy, A good day to be in Honing.....I have a few blades I need to work on anyway....My Harley's collecting dust in the garage....

Originally Posted by zib

It's pouring here too Jimmy, A good day to be in Honing.....I have a few blades I need to work on anyway....My Harley's collecting dust in the garage....

I feel your pain, my bike hasn't moved for about a month.

That little maplins scope looks interesting, cheap enough as well.

Originally Posted by 0livia

That describes my problem about exactly: I have no beard!
Given that some of the geeks have a microscope at home, buy a blade
and later on post a pic of a 200 x pit in the bevel on some razor forum,
even naming the vendor (not me), I got scared!
But I got over it, hehehe
Just my 7 x loupe is a bit too bad.
Been thinking about a 15 x loupe but they are
a) rather expensive and
b) the frame is VERY SMALL.
So a 100 x cheapo thingy sounds just about right.

A forum member who used to post around here, Kaptain Zero, turned me on to this place here and this 30x loupe. Good field of view and quality optic.

Originally Posted by pjrage

I think everyone just adjusts to the particular magnification level they use based on what they have, and over time they begin to understand how to interpret what they are seeing.

There must be some affect of how the optics and particular microscope play in here too because, to be honest, there's not a big difference between 60x and 100x on my cheap little scope. Stuff looks 'bigger' at 100x, but there's no extra detail there that I'm not seeing at 60x

I would bet that if I had a high quality super clear 30x scope, I would be perfectly fine with that, but with these little kids scopes, it seems like you need to use the higher mag levels to get the job done.

You've hit the nail on the head.

When it comes to optics resolution is king not magnification. It reminds me years ago I was looking to buy a telescope and they had these cheapo rigs that had all kinds of ridiculous magnification however, yea, Jupiter sure is big unfortunately its just a big blurr.

Another thing to remember is a magnifier will tell you that a razor it not ready for shaving but it will never tell you when it is. If you see defects in the blade you know you can't shave with it but even if it looks textbook perfect it still may not shave worth a damn.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You've hit the nail on the head.

When it comes to optics resolution is king not magnification. It reminds me years ago I was looking to buy a telescope and they had these cheapo rigs that had all kinds of ridiculous magnification however, yea, Jupiter sure is big unfortunately its just a big blurr.

Another thing to remember is a magnifier will tell you that a razor it not ready for shaving but it will never tell you when it is. If you see defects in the blade you know you can't shave with it but even if it looks textbook perfect it still may not shave worth a damn.

Agreeing with the spender twice in one week. Absolutely correct. Why? The mic is only showing the BEVELS and not the actual edge.

Reminds me of a post I did to illustrate the point that you can have absolutely perfect looking bevels but a worthless incomplete shaving edge. I think the post was "pre-crash" so I'll summarize with only a few pics:

I was sharpening a few chisels last year. Both the face and the bevel of the chisel are mirror smooth. This chisel should be wicked sharp. Look on.........



Perfect bevels but nothing even close to having an edge. This chisel couldn't cut butter. I posted these pics last year to prove a point that it's all about the edge which we really can't see to the level we'd need to in order to determine that we're "there" (unless you have an SEM in your basement which I don't!). Incidentally, I had sharpened these chisels for a friend and they were beyond abused when he gave them to me. I had to square up the edge on my grinder to that level before I could even start honing. These pics help illustrate why it's imperative that a bevel be "set" prior to moving up the grit levels and why those starting out often have so much frustration in getting nowhere by jumping up the grit ladder prematurely. In effect with those troubles, you can have a dull edge but polished nice looking bevels. Unfortunately the face of the bevels don't cut whiskers

Chris L

Yep, thats one of my problems with the microscope as I said earlier.

Ordered the 30 X jeweller's loupe last night. Thanks again, Jimmy!

just an idea for some to try, I have a pair of 10x reading glasses that I use mostly for fine soldering work and the like, but I found they work well for getting a good idea of bevel condition without too much eye strain.

Okay I'm a scope addict, I'll admit it.....


Now then, is it necessary?

No.

And yes!

I find I can gain an awful lot of information by shining a bright point source light,and trying to catch teh glint off of the blades' very edge. If the razor is nice and sharp, there will be almost no glint there to be seen. If the edge is a bit chippy, the glint will have dots and dashes to it. If the glint along the edge is wide and bright, most likely it isn;t actually sharp yet.

I couple that test with chopping off a few arm hairs mid-stalk to see how the edge is shaping up.

Since I do happen to have awhiz-bang super scope at my disposal I have been able to verify what I see with the glint test by looking at the edge at 200x, and have now come to a good correlation between what I see uder the scope and under the light.

When I use the scope, I definitely kick the edge up by at least 20-30 degrees, so as to be able to see the actual edge, not just the bevel in profile, as ChrisL's excellent post shows the danger of...

In the end I don't often use the scope as obsessively any more. Just for kicks, and to sort out the occaisional honing mystery problem....If it passes the glint test, and the silent HHT, it almost always passes my shave test as well.

I am thinking I did almost the same thread about a year ago, great minds think alike Jimmy....



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