Thread: How important is what you see under the microscope?

I just touched up my razor with the following method:

10 laps on a slurried BBW
10 laps on a wet BBW
10 laps on a dry BBW
20 laps on a swatty.

The result shaved hair off my arm quite well, but under 100x magnification it looks pretty horrifying. At a few points, instead of a nice scratch pattern it has this sort of super-reflective tin-foil look to it... in one or two places it has what looks like a tiny chip or indentation, not visible to the naked eye or 30x. Sadly I didnt really inspect it prior. How worried should I be? It certainly seems shave worthy otherwise.

thx

-mike

Mike important factor is shaving.
if you are getting great shave that is all need.

I wouldnt have done the BBW dry thats probably the deep scratches which were then highly polished by the Swaty.

When I stick with 30x my honing improves dramatically. Like the gentlemen said, the shave is the thing. Those old barbers of yesteryear never looked at a razor through a microscope. I like to have a 30x to check my bevel and my final effort but the shave is what counts.

I'll give it a shave tomorrow morning. 40 laps on a chrome-oxide fabric webbing improved it a lot.

Put it under a scanning electron microscope and see what the edge looks like. You would throw the razor in the trash. The moral is don't overdo it. 30-40x is all you should need and like the others have said use the shave as the test.

I've never really been convinced of the need to inspect your blade under great magnification. Like thebigspendur said, you could make a piece of polished silver look like a mountain range if you magnify it enough. As long as you're getting a result which shaves well and holds the edge for a reasonable amount of time, you should be happy. I occasionally use a 10x loupe, if i'm honing out a small chip, but only to reduce the strain on my eyes when inspecting chips which would be visible without magnification.

That said, I'd be quite impressed with my handywork if one of my edges still had a mirror finish under a 100x scope

Use the mike only if honing does not go as it should. E.g. your bevel looks fine, you start using your polishing hones, you do your usual routine but the edge does not improve. You wonder: what the heck is going on?

Then a mike is of great help. If you notice a lot of microchips you you know to get a coarser hone out. If there's no microchips you know that the edge will get better with a polishing hone only.

Out of interest, what does a DE blade look like under 100x magnification?

Originally Posted by MrMike

I just touched up my razor with the following method:

10 laps on a slurried BBW
10 laps on a wet BBW
10 laps on a dry BBW
20 laps on a swatty.

The result shaved hair off my arm quite well, but under 100x magnification it looks pretty horrifying. At a few points, instead of a nice scratch pattern it has this sort of super-reflective tin-foil look to it... in one or two places it has what looks like a tiny chip or indentation, not visible to the naked eye or 30x. Sadly I didnt really inspect it prior. How worried should I be? It certainly seems shave worthy otherwise.

thx

-mike

I am not surprised it looked rough, a wet bbw wont achieve much, and a dry one will score your edge nicely, as said above the swatty prob did a bit to make it better.
You may have found it better to use bbw with slurry 20 laps, then thin the slurry and go again 30 laps, then 10 on swatty with a wet lather, 60 laps linen strop, 60 laps leather strop, then inspect with mag, just my opinion if the only hones you have are thos 2, even easier is 20 light laps with lather on swatty and strop as above.
I always use a mike @ 60X for me it helps, but its not for everyone, and you need to know what to expect when you use one.