bernie01
Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2019
- Location
- Otford, NSW
As mentioned in acquisitions, I received a USB Digital Microscope today. It's arrival was very timely, as I had just finished watching this video by Joe Calton on how to set
a bevel for beginners:
and had set the bevel on my new Invicta razor this morning.
The microscope came from China in 11 days: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09FSLD92N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The scope was all that I had hoped before, it has up to 5Mp resolution for the photos it can take, and up to 300x magnification (well, maybe). It came well packaged
and I had the software installed and the scope up and running within 5 - 10 minutes. I wasted no time testing it by viewing and photographing the edge I had just put on the
Invicta, a bevel set at 1K and then onto 3K (both Suehiro hones). After playing with the scope a bit I put the razor through my 8K Shapton then 12K Naniwa.
So these are the photos at each level:
After 1K and 3K
After 8K
After 12K
I'm still playing around to get the best photos, but these I'm happy with. The scope is not perfect; the clear perspex cone on the bottom is right on the blade when using max magnification.
I may shorten or remove that to get around that issue. It hits the spine rather than the bevel. Also, when using the height adjustment knob, the camera tils left a little bit as you go up
and then straightens up when you go down. Not a big deal, but it makes exact focussing a little harder. The leds have adjustable brightness and again I need to try different settings but too bright and the pic washes out, too dull and the bevel is not clearly seen.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with it and it has already paid off as I examined a different razor, a Dovo, that I had practiced on before that looks like this:
Clearly I had not removed all the scratches of preceding stones as I progressed. It didn't shave well either, now I know why! I do have a 10x loupe but I'm not experienced enough
to understand what I'm seeing with it, hopefully with this scope as well as the loupe I can correlate between the two. Comments on the bevel welcome!
a bevel for beginners:
The microscope came from China in 11 days: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09FSLD92N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The scope was all that I had hoped before, it has up to 5Mp resolution for the photos it can take, and up to 300x magnification (well, maybe). It came well packaged
and I had the software installed and the scope up and running within 5 - 10 minutes. I wasted no time testing it by viewing and photographing the edge I had just put on the
Invicta, a bevel set at 1K and then onto 3K (both Suehiro hones). After playing with the scope a bit I put the razor through my 8K Shapton then 12K Naniwa.
So these are the photos at each level:
After 1K and 3K
After 8K
After 12K
I'm still playing around to get the best photos, but these I'm happy with. The scope is not perfect; the clear perspex cone on the bottom is right on the blade when using max magnification.
I may shorten or remove that to get around that issue. It hits the spine rather than the bevel. Also, when using the height adjustment knob, the camera tils left a little bit as you go up
and then straightens up when you go down. Not a big deal, but it makes exact focussing a little harder. The leds have adjustable brightness and again I need to try different settings but too bright and the pic washes out, too dull and the bevel is not clearly seen.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with it and it has already paid off as I examined a different razor, a Dovo, that I had practiced on before that looks like this:
Clearly I had not removed all the scratches of preceding stones as I progressed. It didn't shave well either, now I know why! I do have a 10x loupe but I'm not experienced enough
to understand what I'm seeing with it, hopefully with this scope as well as the loupe I can correlate between the two. Comments on the bevel welcome!
