Thread: What magnification is best for a budding honer?

I am getting ready to start honing. Will a pocket 30X lit microscope give me enough mag to see the edge, or should I invest in something with alittle more juice? I would prefer something handheld. What are some reputable brands and models? Thanks for any feedback!

Handheld i would go for a loupe much less hassle

I am a "budding" honer as well and while I have a 30x loupe, I find myself never using it. I have been going on feel and the other sharpness tests and getting very good results.

Get a good quality hand held 10X loupe. Good quality being the key words, most of those 10-30x loupes 15$ and under are 7x at most. The best cheap loupes are belomo and bausch and lomb. I just got a belomo 10x to try out and really like it. Got it from geo-tools.com, it was 27$ if I remember right.

+1. A triplet (3-lens) 10x loupe has a flat field and no color fringeing. I'm using one I bought when my wife and I were learning about diamonds.

Google "diamond triplet loupe" -- something like this will work fine:

Diamond Loupe - Loupe, Jewelers loupe, jewelry loupe, gem loupe, triplet loupe, gemological loupe, rosenthal, jewelers toy store

It won't give you enough magnification to see the edge roughness after an 8K hone. But it's exactly right for checking for edge nicks, compound bevels, etc. And you can watch 2000-grit scratches disappear, and see the polishing effects of pastes.

Charles

Another +1 for the 30x jewellers loupe here. Very handy!

I use this 30x here with good results. I also have an old B&L stereoscope that is at 45x. I've tried the hand held microscopes that go to 100x or so and find them to be a PITA. Some guys have scopes that go to 300x and more. I've found that if I keep my magnification limited to 45x my honing improves quite a bit.

+1 I have a 40x loupe, but if it were to break I would buy a good quality 30x...

Jimmy is quite right in his joke too, pretty much if you can't see it at 30-40x you can't feel it on your face anyway...

That said I am after one of those USB microscopes next but just for fun, not for honing...

If you buy a quality piece you can see more at 20-30x than a lessor one at 100x or more. I've found for the work on razors around 20x shows me all I need to see and to tell you the truth with top of the line quality optics 10x does the job.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If you buy a quality piece you can see more at 20-30x than a lessor one at 100x or more. I've found for the work on razors around 20x shows me all I need to see and to tell you the truth with top of the line quality optics 10x does the job.

Proof of that can be found if you read up on spotting scopes for long range rifle shooting. The quality of the lenses is far more important than the power.