Magnifying Glass

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CircleOfKnife

Joined
Jul 9, 2016
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I'm new to blade honing and am looking for recommendations on a good magnifying glass suitable for assessing whether or not the honing was done properly.

Any suggestions?
 
I have an I phone X go to settings, accessibility, magnifier, turn it on. Now you can access it by triple clicking the side button. If not a jewelers Loupe Is pretty handy to have.
 
I never used a magnifier, and I consider myself a good sharpener. I've used everything from traditional whetstones to Lansky to Sharpmaker to Ken Onion Worksharp and never felt the need for a magnifier.

Don't get dragged into it too deeply. A knife is either sharp or not. Narrow angle for food, medium for pocket knives and wide for hatchets. I recommend the Razor Edge Book of Sharpening; it's a fun read and gives you all the theory you need.
 
Thanks all for your replies. I tried some apps out on my phone and wasn't too impressed with them BTW. I am currently learning the ins and outs of taking care of a straight razor. I just read the book 'The Art of Shaving or Shaving Made Easy' (published in 1905) which discusses proper honing and in one of the chapters it shows the magnification of a straight razor blade with further discussion on how to tell by the looks of it if its good for shaving (irregularity of fine teeth).

Thing is with a straight razor, particularly in the beginning, you're often unsure if its your technique vs. is it really sharp enough. The razor I have was purchased from west coast shaving and so I decided to pay the fee to have it honed by their 'honemeister'. So theoretically it should be fine but I still had some trouble with my first shave but like I said it may be my technique still.
 
Hobby Lobby has a couple of hands-free magnifiers.
They run between $22 and $26 bucks.

My tired old eyes aren't what they used to be & I need all the help I can get to tie on a fish hook these days.
I picked up the $22 headband style a few years back.
It has 2X, 3X and 6X capabilities.

Harbor Fright..err...freight....has a cheap set of jewelers loupes & a few other options.

If you are a real quality fanatic and need the best money can buy...or just a lucky lottery or slot machine player...there's always the surgical things you can pick up for hundreds of dollars.... ;)
 
A lighted loupe is nice to have. I believe mine is 10x. The batteries have died and I now use it under a strong architect's lamp that I have mounted at my sharpening area. I paid under $20 and have been satisfied with it. I bought a "triplet" loupe, which I believe refers to the lens configuration. It's supposed to have a better image. I know very little about optics; this is just what I was told.

I can tell you for sure that the viewing distance on this loupe is narrow. It's probably about one inch from the optic and has about 1/4" of really sharp area. As a result, you have to have good mechanics to use it properly. I usually use my finger as a "blade rest" and move my finger up and down towards my eye, where I hold the loupe. When I have good focus, I hold my finger there until I'm done looking. This is much, much easier than moving your whole hand or your whole arm trying to get the proper focus distance. It's very difficult when you use larger muscles.

I also always press the loupe against my skull/skin/muscles around my eye to keep it stationary. There's a reason you always see jewelers doing that.

Good luck.

Brian.
 
I'm thinking the USB microscope is the way to go. In the book I referenced, I believe the author is using a microscope to check for blade irregularities on his straight razor. I know there are some cheapies over at Amazon, but I'm a tad wary of them at times.

I'd be willing to spend somewhat more than 40 bucks for something proven of good quality. Open to any specific recommendations here.

Also, the lighted loupe sounds pretty good too.
 
I have a 10x loupe, a magnifying lens out of a camera lens, and a real microscope. The microscope totally changed my sharpening once I could see what I was doing. Being able to see why the edge isn't as sharp as you expect is key to knowing what to do to remedy it.
 
I use a old jeweler's loupe that clips on to the frame on my glasses. It has two lenses that you can use together or flip out of the way when you don't need them. Have no idea what magnification they are. Had them 30 years+.
 
I've tried all kinds of magnifiers with all kinds of different magnifications. Although they seem to work well for some people, none worked well for me, mostly because at a magnification I could actually see what I wanted to see I had problems focusing. Unfortunately magnification also magnifies movement.

About the only thing I haven't tried, without getting into hundreds or thousands of dollars, is a USB microscope. I may buy one someday but don't have that much interest in it right now. I agree with smaug above, that the proof of a knife's sharpness is in its performance, and I also agree with his book recommendation.
 
I have an old printing loupe, 12x. That's plenty.

I now only use it when experimenting, mostly with powered grinding and finishing. Strong overhead lighting and your unaided eyesight is about all you really need.
 
HeavyHanded said:
Strong overhead lighting and your unaided eyesight is about all you really need.
Click to expand...

I must respectfully disagree. when you reach a certain age, your eyes need a bit of help to see the things that you saw very clearly in your youth.

No matter how much light is available, at 76, my unaided eyes do not see the detail that they saw when I was a young 50 year old.:eek:
 
CircleOfKnife said:
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Sure. The one that served me best is a Kingmas 60x magnifier that is seven bucks off Amazon. It's cheap, easy to use, and will reveal the source of problems when you are doing something challenging.

What I use mostly now is an Optivisor, I think 4x. Since most of the time I already know what's going on at the edge, this just aids my eyesight. These aren't exorbitantly expensive, but not cheap.

The toy that I most enjoy now is a Plugable USB Microscope that's forty bucks off Amazon. It's not really for solving problems, but it really helps to teach me what's going on with the edge at really small levels.

Seeing what's going on WILL help your sharpening.
 
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