Microscope images of a few blades - recent purchase

[AndyPanda]

I'm sure this has been done better with more powerful scopes etc. But I thought I'd post these pictures in case anyone is interested. These are blades I just purchased in the past two weeks so there may be differences between these recent blades and the same brand blades pictured in older threads.

I borrowed my granddaughter's microscope and these are at 500x -- I couldn't manage a 1000x because the lens is so close to the edge I couldn't get any light on the subject.

Here is a brand new Nacet - I'm guessing the little blobs you see are the teflon or whatever coating?

And here is a Nacet after 2 complete shaves (3 pass plus buffing/cleanup) - those blobs (coating?) are mostly gone now

 

[AndyPanda]

Here is a brand new feather

And a feather after two complete shaves (3 pass plus buffing/cleanup)

 

[AndyPanda]

Here is a new Gillette Platinum (laser etch on one side - blank on other side)

And here is a Gillette Platinum after 5 full shaves

 

[AndyPanda]

Here is a new Tatra -- I haven't saved any of them that I've shaved with so I'll have to update this another day after I've shaved with this new one a few times.

 

[AndyPanda]

Here is a new BIC Chrome Platinum (I'd like to get a BIC from a known good batch to photograph - these can't be right)

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Microscope Images Thread

Ok fellas, let's try a thread specifically for microscope stuff for us magnification nerds. Anyone who doesn't see the point that's fine, but we (you know who you are :biggrin: ) enjoy this stuff. I'm hoping that @SliceOfLife and @alx gilmore and all you other microscope-loving guys will have...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[fast shaver]

Thanks for posting the nice photo's.

 

[Kix]

Good stuff, @AndyPanda ! Thanks for posting the pics, very interesting!

 

[AndyPanda]

I've just been reading the thread that @HoosierTrooper linked and there are a lot of ideas in there about how to get the light reflected to do the higher optical resolutions. I'll have to experiment and see if I can get some decent pics at 1000x.

 

[BigJ]

Thanks for sharing!! Great photos!!

 

[APBinNCA]

Nice work there! I have a bunch of comments, but I will spare everybody for now. Those blobs are probably machine oil, it was mentioned in a much older thread. The coating is much closer to the apex, but might be visible playing around with light angle. South Dakota guy had a few images that seemed to show thicker coating on some blades than others, but that's contentious looking at it straight on.

 

[AndyPanda]

I'm still learning how to use the microscope and try to get good pictures. In these pictures the blade is lying flat and we're looking at the apex from the side with the apex sloping down away from the lens. So in that last picture of the BIC, those three crystalline looking things are on the very apex poking out into empty space beyond the apex. They are a hard substance because I can feel them scraping if I palm strop - they don't come off with a light palm strop but dragging the edge thru a wine cork does pull them off.
This is a crude drawing of the current setup - but I want to figure out a way to get the blade wedged upward so I can try to get focused in on the very apex on edge. Learning as I go

 

[APBinNCA]

I think what you need is a 3D printed jig for holding the blade, that way all blades will be photographed at exactly the same angle. Theoretically, you could crudely figure out the blade angle based on reflection if you had a set of jigs with 1 degree difference, 13-18 I think.

One further comment, I can see a wire edge forming on that used Feather as expected. That right there is why pushing them is risky.

 

[AndyPanda]

I tried an experiment with the blade angled up about 15-20 degrees and 2000x optical. It's an inexpensive microscope so there is lots of lens diffraction/distortion etc. And the stage doesn't go low enough to get the blade at much steeper of an angle unless I remove the stage completely and rig something up. I used white paper at various angles to reflect the light onto the edge and played around with backlighting. Here's a BIC CP with one pass thru a wine cork to remove those blob thingies.

 

[AndyPanda]

OK ... geeking out here ... I softened up a lump of beeswax to hold a cutdown clothespin to the stage adjustment bracket. It had to be something maleable since I don't have any adjustment screws to move the blade around. BlueTack poster putty might work better but I don't have any on hand - the beeswax works pretty well while it's warm... once I get the blade positioned where it shows up in the view, then the stage up/down adjustments still work great to bring it into focus. Wish I had better quality lenses though.

And here is the apex at 2000x - amazingly sharp (the blade - not my picture) IMO considering how high the magnification is. This is a fresh BIC that hasn't been corked or shaved - fresh out of the paper wrapping

 

[stoof2010]

When you posted Gillette platinum near the the top is that the dark blue box ones?

 

[AndyPanda]

When you posted Gillette platinum near the the top is that the dark blue box ones?

These ones - they have laser etched logo on one side and blank on the other side - purchased in November 22. I find them to be very, very sharp and smooth and last a long time. I'm fairly new to all this so what do I know ?? But these GP's feel very sharp to me - like the feathers except they still feel sharp after 4 shaves. I don't have very many types of blades to compare (I would like to get some Astra to compare one of these days) - but for my coarse beard the Tatra and Merkur I tried feel like they are tugging on my whiskers and not as sharp as the feather and GP. I just got a tuck of Perma-Sharp but haven't opened them yet - I expect great things from them

 

[AndyPanda]

I've been wondering about the old vs new GP and today I got a tuck of the older ones that have the logo in black rather than laser etched. The (older?) tuck also has Arabic on the package

I haven't had a shave with the old ones (just got them today) but I compared in the microscope and the edge looks pretty similar.
This is one of the laser etched blades fresh from the pack (this is the same type I've been shaving with and have found to be very sharp and smooth)

And this is the non-laser etched from the tuck with Arabic writing. I managed to get a better photo this time - lighting changes each time as I bump things changing blades -- but aside from the quality of the photo, I think the edges are similar. I'll let you know if I can feel a difference when I shave with one of these.

 

[AndyPanda]

Here is a no-name dispenser I bought at the drug store a few years ago. I bought them for slashing the tops of sourdough bread when I was baking sourdough a few years ago. I just noticed there was one unused blade left in the dispenser. I wonder who made these? Could they be Persona USA? Nothing on the blades except the arrows for the dispenser.

Very clean looking edge

 

[lasta]

Here is a no-name dispenser I bought at the drug store a few years ago. I bought them for slashing the tops of sourdough bread when I was baking sourdough a few years ago. I just noticed there was one unused blade left in the dispenser. I wonder who made these? Could they be Persona USA? Nothing on the blades except the arrows for the dispenser.
View attachment 1572313
Very clean looking edge
View attachment 1572314

Yes Personna, most likely older made in USA stock. But I've seen similar dispensers for Israeli as well.