Thread: At what grit can you no longer see scratches with the naked eye

I am just going to say this bluntly, so don't take it wrong, I just don't feel like trying to be PC about it on my first cup of coffee

If you begin honing to polish the the bevel to a "Mirror Finish" and not to achieve comfort on your face, you are going to be sorely disappointed in straight razor shaving

Many natural stones cannot ever attain a mirror finish, and when you start pushing edges too far with the high end synthetics to mirror the bevel you stand a very good chance of making the edge fragile and harsh...


Performance first, Looks second, just a thought


Plus as soon as you strop, that pretty bevel is scratched up anyway ..

I wear glasses but I'm near sided as it is. I can see a scratch pattern with the naked eye up to about 12k in good lighting, anything after that I can see with a loupe.

Really some of you can't see scratch patterns off a 1k? To me that's when you need glasses lol.

This is why we use magnification to aid in seeing a bevel set & follow thru with the pre-polishers & polishers. If a proper light touch is used towards the end of honing on a particular stone, you would be surprised at how polished a blade will become at the lower grits. Maybe you just have better eyes than those who have been at this a while.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

This is why we use magnification to aid in seeing a bevel set & follow thru with the pre-polishers & polishers. If a proper light touch is used towards the end of honing on a particular stone, you would be surprised at how polished a blade will become at the lower grits. Maybe you just have better eyes than those who have been at this a while.

That's kinda why I asked at first. I wasn't really sure if I should still see scratches free a certain point or if Iwas using too much pressure or if I hadn't really removed the scratches from the previous hone. I didn't really take into account that after bevel setting I'm going to a BBw/coti and how much they can vary. All I know is my scratches disappear between the coti and LM, could(most likely) be entirely because I'm new to honing razors.

For me, till you get to about 0.1 micron I can see scratches with my eye because I look at the reflection of the bevel. Till it gets to be a diamond white reflection it is not ready to use!


Later,
Richard

I just took a look and I can see scratches on all my bevels. I don't really know what that means - maybe I just have excellent eyes. I do love my carrots, after all.

I'll just reiterate what Glen said - I just go for the best edge I can get off the hones that I have. I don't care about the aesthetics (unless they are indicative of a bigger issue that needs to be addressed) - the only thing that matters to me is the shave.

James.

Comfort is above all else, the most important thing to me, I was just kinda curious if i should be able to see what I saw.