Playing around with my new microscope. My Boker straight razor

Hi all,

Check out what I can capture. Just starting, but I eventually would like to apply what I see to my honing process.
Any interesting links/posts on honing and microscopes? I realize that not all you see might not relate to what you feel with a sharp razor. Also thinking about starting a thread with pictures of common DE blades. While I'm sure there is probably something out there like that, I want to learn the process of photomicrography. Blades seem like a good subject, and nothing like doing to really learn. Tips and advice are welcomed. Even tips on how to post pictures i.e. limits of size, how they end of appearing, max on any one message, etc...

Thanks for any help

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

I like your idea of a thread with different blades in it. It would be interesting to see how appearance on a microscopic level matches to performance.

cool.
add info about your scope.
and for each pic, the mag power?

Screech8710 said:

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

I like your idea of a thread with different blades in it. It would be interesting to see how appearance on a microscopic level matches to performance.

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+1 I'd love to see more.

Microscope: Olympus BHM (metallurgical) late 70's or 80's not to sure
Camera: Nikon 1 J4
Magnification: Matter what photo eye piece anywhere between 25X-100X with regular eyepieces 50X-200X
Light: Solarforce flashlight with a Cree XM-L
I have the ability to change/dropin different led in my flashlight. This could prove interesting. I also can change intensity as well as something that seems quite like an aperture in a camera (see photo)
The photos so far are bright field i.e. light is sent down the objective lens.
Has the ability to do dark field (high contrast) illumination i.e. around the lens It is a little hard to explain see picture of objective lens and google. Should be interesting once I get that part as well as some higher magnification objectives. It's not an electron microscope but I am going to have some fun with it.
More pictures, sure. How about Personna med preps

Did you see the Nickshaves video where he interviews The Perfect Edge? May be worth a watch if you plan on using a microscope during honing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z1voZKvGW8

Pictures of sharp objects. Yes! Would love to see more photos.

Really nice idea with images of common DE blades. I want to see what a Feather looks like compared to an Astra SP

There have been threads on the DE blades forum with some good photos of magnified blades of different brands, but can't track any down atm. Worth seeking out if you're interested, though.

Interesting to see the edge of a blade up close.

Green Oval said:

Really nice idea with images of common DE blades. I want to see what a Feather looks like compared to an Astra SP

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Sure. One new feather and Astra superior platinum freshly washed with soap and then with alcohol. The first three are Feather pictures the rest are the Astra. Still learning what it takes to get good photos so bear with me. I will only get better at photomicrography. Looking into add more to the setup (darkfield will be interesting). Any help on how to add a text overlay? This would surely help in organizing as well as keeping a database easily informative. Right now using FastStone Image Viewer. Any suggestions and help will be taken as constructive criticism.
Thanks for any help.

floyd923 said:

Did you see the Nickshaves video where he interviews The Perfect Edge? May be worth a watch if you plan on using a microscope during honing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z1voZKvGW8

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Thanks for the link. One interesting thing to me was when I realized how important a flat surface was to the honing process. You can remove much more material with less work if your surface is contacting the entire specific area of the blade. Here is the last of the Astra photos. Is that a coating at the edge?

Nice set up.

Thanks for posting more pictures. These is pretty neat.

It does look like there is a coating on the Astra, and I think I have seen some posts mentioning coatings on blade edges. But I could be wrong. Can anyone else actually know of anything?

I wonder what effect a light stropping would have on the those microscopic particles that seem to be in the coating.

Really interesting images

I find this very interesting. I've always been fascinated by pictures of sharp edges under magnification.

For me, I would love to know the stones/hones used to achieve the edges you are photographing. I'm not a straight shaver, but I've been sharpening knives and other "sharps" most of my life.

I'm also interested in magnified photos of DE/SE blades, as that is my preference at this point in my young traditional wet shaving adventure. Yeah, just keep all of the pictures coming. We all love pictures!

Very cool photos. Thanks.

The scientist in me that is dying to get out just loves this thread Is it only me or would it be interesting to watch how the the Feather or Astra which you have posted pics of above change under the micrscope each time they are used?

Lann Rasuir said:

The scientist in me that is dying to get out just loves this thread Is it only me or would it be interesting to watch how the the Feather or Astra which you have posted pics of above change under the micrscope each time they are used?

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I know what you mean. It started with me, when I was watching a video of a razor getting honed. (the video answers the question of what my Boker was honed with) Each time he would show the results under a usb microscope. I paused the video to look at the sharpened edge, and when I hit play the person said you could pause it if you want. In that moment of clarity I knew I had a problem.

As far as testing after a shave, sure, but I don't think you would see much difference. Even though we are getting pretty close, the edge width is only around 100nm. A comparison of DE blades can be seen here. What we can do is infer what the very edge would be like. I have begun to notice on the last magnification I can image an area with no scratches and a kind of matte look. This might be where the light microscope begins to stop seeing so well. I have a polarizer on the scope now, but not an analyzer to do cross polorazation. This might help bring out more detail. (also darkfield imaging soon) I might just need some higher magnification objectives But what do I know I am just a noobie.

I think the main benefit is seeing if you are achieving contact across the entire edge with any series of passes. Achieve that and the scratches from a previous grit go away cleanly.

Blade4vor said:

I'm also interested in magnified photos of DE/SE blades, as that is my preference at this point in my young traditional wet shaving adventure. Yeah, just keep all of the pictures coming. We all love pictures!

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More pictures sure. Need the practice. How about the first true blade I started with (not counting the $2 Rimei razor that I bought just to get free shipping) A Schick Plus Platinum.
Any help/links on improving my pictures would be appreciated. Like why are my pictures crop like a portrait? They didn't start this way. Mating a 2014 18MP camera to a 30 year old scope doesn't come with much as far as instructions. My best find was this link about the scope I have.
Thanks for any help