Hi Makie,

Somebody suggested on here the use of LED light. That WILL work just fine, as long as its a good strong one.
Myself, I have a Nikon Labophot that I use for my testing that I have adapted to look at my blades with.
I will post some pics from it soon if anybody is interested. Its neat to see the scratch lines in comparison from one hone grit to the next, or the results of a back hone compared to an instroke.

when doing a blade up view, you need to have some sort of holder to keep the blade VERY steady. under magnification, even small vibrations show up as a blurry image. To keep the blade from contacting the lens, slip a piece of paper between the blade, and the lens, and raise the carrier while sliding the paper back and forth until you can feel the paper drag ever so slightly. mark the position, lower and remove paper, and return carrige to marked position. At that point you should be close to where you need for good focus.
have fun, scopes are great!