Some Edge Pics With the New Microscope

[Slash McCoy]

So after about a year of just taking up space I noticed the box my microscope shipped in was falling apart. Figured I would break it out and take a pic or two. It is a cheapie AmScope monocular and it came with two 200x digital camera eyepieces, one 640x480 and one 1600x1200, a couple of regular eyepieces 10x and 25x, and four objectives, 4x 10x 40x and 100x(oil). The 100x is out because it just won't work without a prepped slide and a drop of oil between lens and slide. So in theory I have 800x, 2000x, and 8000x, in 640x480 or 1600x1200 modes.

Naturally I had to try the 40x objective first. I didn't think I would get a usable image out of it, and I didn't. First of all it is just too fiddly. I am on my boat, so even though it feels perfectly still, there is movement. Depth of field is really shallow. Worst thing is I just can't get enough light on the bevel. I only got one image where I could even tell what I was looking at. Maybe in a laboratory setting with some sort of microadjustable jig to hold the razor, yeah, but with my available resources 8kx simply is unusable. The 10x and 4x objectives, delivering 2000x and 800x respectively, did give me some decent images as seen above. I used the 1600x1200 camera.

Razor is one of my Gold Dollar conversions, one that is in my regular rotation. Every time I use it, I give it 50 laps on my .1u diamond pasted balsa, then a few dozen on my DIY Big Daddy inspired strop. Before taking these pics, I gave it 300 laps on balsa with 25nm (.025u) diamond spray, rubbed in well, of course. Then 60 laps on the hanging leather. Not much noticeable improvement in treetop test results, but the edge is noticeably cleaner. I might give it another 500 or so just to see what it does. I think it just takes too many laps with abrasives this fine, to make a difference. So I will use too many laps LOL.

Anyway, the difference between one of those 19.95 Chinese USB microscopes and a student model bench microscope is quite impressive. You can pick something like this up for not much over $100 and a much nicer one for around $300 so serious honers with room on their bench might want to think about getting one, maybe. With the camera out and the 25x ocular in place, I have 100x, 250x, and 1000x quick views of whatever razor I am working on. With the camera in, well, you see what I got.

The 2000x camera shot has a very narrow field of view. You can't see the full width of the bevel, even though the bevel on this razor is pretty small. The 800x shows the full width of the bevel, which gives you a referenceof sorts. With the 2000x it is really hard to put it into perspective and so this fairly nice bevel looks sort of meh.

There are an awful lot of tiny divots in the steel. I can only guess that they are related to carbide crystals in the steel. I will try to hone them out on the ultra fine diamond but I suspect as I go at it, more will appear.

 

[buca3152]

I've heard guys making a jig to hold the blade in the right place for focus. That sounds like it would be easy to do but I never did it. Hahahha.

 

[ackvil]

How long does it take to do all that stropping?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Yeah Bill what I have in mind would take some pretty precise machininge and design and Im not going there. But maybe I finally found a use for electrical tape related to razors LOL

Anyway I gave the same razor 1000 more laps on the 25nm diamond balsa. Visibly theree is a definite improvement. 800x shots, different lighting.

Next I gave it 10 pull strokes on each side, then a half dozen more regular laps. This strips any artifacts from the edge. But wow... amazing how deep those scratches look! Maybe from now on I only do 3 or 4 per side.

So I gave it another 100 regular laps, figuring that wasnt enough to raise a wire or fin with such fine abrasive embedded up to its neck in balsa grain.

Ah, thats more like it. Now my usual 60 laps on an unpasted thin, flexible balsa strip, unsupported in the middle. Think of it as a hanging balsa strop.

Holey cow! My unpasted balsa is contaminated with .1u diamond!!!! I just went three steps forward and three steps back! I am back to .1u fine! Now I got to do those 1000 laps on 25nm all over again! Actually no. Seems that 300 or a bit more laps on the 25nm will eat up the .1u scratches. Still what a bummer. Notice the depth of the scratches at the apex. Since the unpasted balsa is allowed to sag slightly, it bit heavily into the bevel right at the edge. Oh well, strop on leather and I will shave with it tomorrow, then give it the works again without the flexible balsa. Here it is again after 60 laps on the Gold Daddy strop.

Different lighting here so it doesn't look so bad. It is hard to keep consistent lighting when I am holding the flashlight with one hand, turning the focus on the microscope with the other hand, holding the ocular turret so that the edge is horizontal in the image with another hand, and hitting the picture takey button on the laptop with still another hand. I am so ready for a drink now. What a rough day!

 

[Slash McCoy]

I wish I had done the treetop test right before hitting the unpasted balsa. As it is, I just tested the edge and it is still quite good, better than my usual efforts. I can creep the blade slowly up my forearm at 1/4" and it just lops off the tops like a lawnmower. Still some percetible snapback, but no tinky pink sounds even though this is a pretty noisy razor. So finally I got some enhanced performance out of this ultra fine diamond. Which by the way, I will now categorically state that it is not worth it for everyday use, just experimental showoff stuff. I will be stopping mostly at .1u from now on out. For the extra work with the 25nm, I think the .1u edge is good enough for me.

 

[Mr.Tee]

Did you say this all was done on your boat...?

If so, Not sure if I could pull of honing off a bench stone and staying steady/consistant. Maybe hand honing off a Koppa.

At any rate, thanks for sharing. I have similar issues with lighting and locating scratch patterns with a simple eye loupe. To be honest, I really think I can better catch glitches in my scratch pattern better with my naked eye. Its easier to move the edge around at all angles. But then again my loupe is of marginal quality at best, so theres that.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Did you say this all was done on your boat...?

If so, Not sure if I could pull of honing off a bench stone and staying steady/consistant. Maybe hand honing off a Koppa.

At any rate, thanks for sharing. I have similar issues with lighting and locating scratch patterns with a simple eye loupe. To be honest, I really think I can better catch glitches in my scratch pattern better with my naked eye. Its easier to move the edge around at all angles. But then again my loupe is of marginal quality at best, so theres that.

There is no bench stone. Only hand. If you can lift it, you can hone with it in hand.It's the right thing to do.

I just had to pick it up again. 500 laps on the .025u, then 3 pull strokes on each side to strip the edge, then 50 laps to smooth the longitudinal scratches out from the pull strokes. There are still a few artifacts, but the hanging leather stro should take off most of them. So 10 pull strokes is a bit much. 3 maybe not enough. Next time, a half dozen followed by 50 regular laps should do the trick.

And here is the Gold Dollar that is the center of all the fuss.

 

[Doc226]

Oh no Slash, you have become one of those guys that shaves with the pictures? Say it ain't so.

I like the scope to see when something is wrong, never use it for my daily honing.

Slash, you are definitely a crazy man, 1000 laps?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Oh no Slash, you have become one of those guys that shaves with the pictures? Say it ain't so.

I like the scope to see when something is wrong, never use it for my daily honing.

Slash, you are definitely a crazy man, 1000 laps?

Nah the proof is in the pudding. The shave tells the story, at least the grand finale part of it. And I won't be doing the microscope pics or the 25nm diamond with every razor, just once in a while. 1000 laps isn't so crazy when you are jumping from .1u to .025u and want to max it out. And I had other things to do so I didn't sit down and do all 1000 in one sitting, either. Anyway, it sure did the job. Remember the pics were 800x and 2000x at 1600x1200 resolution. Same pic with the usual 100x scope would show an impossibly clean edge and bevel.

Fixing to shower and then shave with this thing. It has never let me down, always a great shaver, but I think this shave will be epic. The treetopping was about the 10th best I have ever achieved.

Just pushing the envelope a little, as an amusement. This will not be part of my routine. In fact the microscope is already back in its little styrofoam nest. However I am thinking about looking for some .01u (10nm) diamond for the next time I want to max out a Gold Dollar. This is kinda fun. The Extreme Sports of the razor honing world. How fine can you go, anyway? I would like to find out. And shave with the result.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Above is the microscope, razor, and balsa treated with 25nm diamond. One fourth of one thousandth of one millimeter. Thats kinda small, yeh. Notice the 3/4" acrylic that the balsa is mounted on.

500 more laps later, the bevel is really pretty and the edge is very nice indeed. The divots that were visible at 800x before, are gone now. I think those thingies in the pic are maybe diamond crystals. Time to give my daily driver strop a good cleaning. At this scale, you just about want a clean room for shaving LOL.

I somehow managed to get a shot at 2000x magnification in almost the exact same spot. See the diamond crystal? 6 pull strokes per side followed by 100 very light regular laps to erase the horizontal scratch marks, and the edge is near flawless. Remember, this is 2000x, not the usual 100x shot.

I don't believe it! I got 8000x shots! This was extremely difficult and I think things are getting almost at the limit of ordinary optical observation, here. I had a LOT of light on the razor here. Focus was extremely delicate. The usable depth of field is definitely down really tight, like in the micron range. Bumping the slide platform instantly moves the razor enough to make the image a completely featureless blur. I think I am starting to get some kind of refraction wave around the apex. It was more obvious in another shot.

And here is some freaky stuff! I found some little nano-divots near the edge and refraction gives them an airplane look. Notice the diamond crystal hanging from the edge. With the edge in focus, these divots are not even visible. But who knows, they might be some sort of aircraft from a heretofore unknown nano or pico scale invading force or something, evolved into beings so tiny that no radar would ever pick them up, being a tiny tiny fraction of a radio wave or even a visible light wavelength in height. Maybe they are already here in force, and already running things. Maybe they are in The Donald's brain. Or even YOURS. BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! Oops, or .... mine?

I was amazed to finally get pics at 8000x. It took several hours of patiently fiddling with razor and focus and light. I won't bother in the future, since they really don't tell me much. In fact the 2000x pics suffer from lack of perspective. The 800x at least shows the bevel. I estimate the bevel to be about 3/4mm wide, or 750um. I will measure the width in pixels, later, to correlate pixel count to dimensions of features in the images at the different scales.

But some of you are no doubt wondering about the shave. I just gave the whiskers a good whacking, and there is definitely a difference between this edge and a .1u edge, which almost surprises me, actually. I figured my perception of the shave would not be appreciably different, that the .1u edge is already as fine as I can appreciate. Well, this edge was dead smooth. Very comfortable. Lots of cutting power too, yeah. I already put the scope away but I will have a look at the edge tomorrow with the one shave on it. I did notice (I think) a falling off by the end of the shave, but still every bit as good as a typical .1u shave. I did get one tiny weeper at the edge of my lip, even though I was extremely careful with this edge. A newbie would definitely sacrifice a lot of blood to shave with this thing.

Again, this much obsessing over fineness of edge is not practical. The .1u shave is a fantastic shave, with a tenth as much work as the .025u shave. Less than that, actually. I honestly dont know how many laps it would take daily to maintain the edge in this state the way I do with the .1u balsa, and I am frankly not that curious at the moment. I am just exulting in sort of a victory right now.

 

[6Cuda6]

Wow thats cool Slash im going to have to re-read this again and "the art of sharp" to compare....

A 1000 laps....your going to have forarms like Poppey if you keep that up....lol.

How many laps did you do total start to finish?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Wow thats cool Slash im going to have to re-read this again and "the art of sharp" to compare....

A 1000 laps....your going to have forarms like Poppey if you keep that up....lol.

How many laps did you do total start to finish?

Don't know. I have been using this razor off and on for over a year. Except for 2 months when I was not the owner. I sold it and the buyer traded it back to me for a trio of fairly well matched Union Spikes. Anyway I have kept it sharp with 50 laps on .1u diamond on balsa after every shave. I tried adding 50 laps on the .025u diamond after every shave starting like a month ago, no perceptible improvement. Only a few days ago did I think to get medieval on it with a bunch of laps, and break out the microscope which had been unboxed but not used yet.

Two more pics, 800x and 2000x, showing the very slight deterioration of the edge after one shave.

I shaved again with it after taking these pics and the shave was still excellent.

I do notice that after use of this grade of diamond, there is a perceptible stiction between bevel and skin. Sort of like when finishing on a very fine hone. I think maybe the cloudy haze on the bevel of a Jnat honed razor breaks up the stiction and this is why many shavers report a very smooth shave, even though in theory, or geometrically, the edge is not quite as keen. So I concede a point to the "sharpness isn't everything" crowd. So for my next trick I might go back up to .1u, then add a tiny secondary bevel with just a half dozen laps on the .025u. That should help break up the suction while still giving a photon sharp edge. I did notice that with this edge, a higher shave angle seems to make the razor glide more easily. I say a higher shave angle, but I really mean a SLIGHTLY higher shave angle, like a spine thickness and a half, rather than a spine thickness between spine and face. High shave angles with ultrasharp blades have always been on my list of things to not do, up til now.

 

[eKretz]

Yes, I've noticed that stiction to the face on highly polished bevels as well. Especially when the bevels are a little on the wider side. (Common on wedges). This makes it silly easy to cut one's self. When the blade sticks it's tempting to just apply a little more pressure - but then *snick* slice and dice once it breaks loose. I find with this type of edge it takes a conscious effort to use very very little down pressure (like none at all) and short swift strokes.

 

[6Cuda6]

So does this type of honing maintenance after a shave remove more metal than just leather stropping?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Stropping on a clean hanging leather strop removes zero steel. Daily stropping on very fine diamond rubbed thoroughly into lapped balsa removes PRACTICALLY zero steel. Probably far less than occasional touchup on a 12k. You have to remember, .1u is like 300,000 grit or something like that. .025u, or 25nm, is 4x finer. Even if you use a dozen more laps than is required, you are talking about pretty much nothing at all. OTOH, with any of the common finishing stones, a single excess lap is a bit MORE aggressive than those dozen laps. Remember with the balsa, the diamond particles are deeply embedded into the grain, only peaks and points sticking up. Anyway, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.

Someone curious enough, could perform the experiment, comparing the "shrinkage" of two identical razors with one touched up as needed on a rock and the other maintained daily on balsa according to my method as seen in this thread. Of course the shave quality would also have to be considered. Or maybe that isn't fair... 12k edge vs .1u edge? or .025u edge?

I actually think it would take more than a few years to notice any difference in razor shrinkage, either way, so it would take a dedicated experimenter to reach any sound conclusion. I never sought to scientifically record anyhing but I have been using diamond on balsa for daily edge maintenance for I guess 3, maybe 4 years now. Maybe longer, I don't know. I have yet to notice any shrinkage. YMMV, especially if you don't do it right. Most people won't, figuring the details are not important. But the details are why .5u CrOx has found so much disfavor, and reports of "rounding the apex" are common, but I never have to re-hone, ever.

 

[Neurotopia]

Plus, if you do experience shrinkage, they make pills for that.

 

[6Cuda6]

Stropping on a clean hanging leather strop removes zero steel. Daily stropping on very fine diamond rubbed thoroughly into lapped balsa removes PRACTICALLY zero steel. Probably far less than occasional touchup on a 12k. You have to remember, .1u is like 300,000 grit or something like that. .025u, or 25nm, is 4x finer. Even if you use a dozen more laps than is required, you are talking about pretty much nothing at all. OTOH, with any of the common finishing stones, a single excess lap is a bit MORE aggressive than those dozen laps. Remember with the balsa, the diamond particles are deeply embedded into the grain, only peaks and points sticking up. Anyway, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.

Someone curious enough, could perform the experiment, comparing the "shrinkage" of two identical razors with one touched up as needed on a rock and the other maintained daily on balsa according to my method as seen in this thread. Of course the shave quality would also have to be considered. Or maybe that isn't fair... 12k edge vs .1u edge? or .025u edge?

I actually think it would take more than a few years to notice any difference in razor shrinkage, either way, so it would take a dedicated experimenter to reach any sound conclusion. I never sought to scientifically record anyhing but I have been using diamond on balsa for daily edge maintenance for I guess 3, maybe 4 years now. Maybe longer, I don't know. I have yet to notice any shrinkage. YMMV, especially if you don't do it right. Most people won't, figuring the details are not important. But the details are why .5u CrOx has found so much disfavor, and reports of "rounding the apex" are common, but I never have to re-hone, ever.

Thats really interesting....ill have to give it a go.

Slash do you have a "travel" plate worked out? Im curious to try this but because i travel for a living i am wondering if this is even feasable over my strop.....

 

[Slash McCoy]

You would need a case of some sort to keep the balsa from getting dents in it. I sometimes carry a balsa strop in my briefcase. Other times I carry a shavette. Depends.