Excellent sharpening aid

[stray]

I bought a jewelers loupe (one of those thingies that "screw" into your eye) at a hobby shop that carries jewelry-making supplies. Man, you talk about seeing what's up with the edge! It makes it easy to spot places where a little more work is needed. Just be careful you don't shorten your nose.

jeff

 

[Root]

Anybody know where I can get one online?

 

[stray]

I rooted around and found this one: http://www.hurricane.net/~olympic/jewel/jewel.htm

 

[ThomM]

I have found that one of the flip up ocular devices work better, uses both eyes, and you wear it like a hat. Can get them in different magnifications. It is like a pair of strong glasses with an adjustable strap that fits over your head, you don't have to worry about dropping the loupe you "screwed into your eye"

 

[stray]

Hey ThomM, they have those too. I looked at the site a little closer and it seems real good. You can get a 10x aluminum eye loupe for $1.90 plus $3.00 S&H. I am going to order a couple, one for me and one for my son so he won't have to borrow mine.

jeff

 

[Roger Blake]

You need much higher magnification to see whats going on with the edge. Say an electron microscope. But a loupe is better than nothing. My .02

 

[MM]

Anyone know where I can buy an electron microscope online? Preferably one with a knife sharpening atatchment. Now maybe I'll be able to figure out the differance between shaving sharp and hair poppin' sharp.

------------------
Mike Melone
"Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. " Psalm 144:1
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796

 

[george tichbourne]

A scrimshander of my acquaintance has a pair of non prescription safety glasses with a jeweler's loupe glued to one lens. He claims it works very well.

I am planning to make one up for myself in the near future.

------------------
george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[Cougar Allen]

A 10x lens that costs $1.90 will have severe chromatic abberation and not be very useful (unless this is a really good deal). Good triplet loupes are available in the $20 range and up, sometimes for less from some sources. Doublets can cost as little as $10 and the center of the field of view is not bad.

You can see an edge pretty well without magnification if you have a really good light -- high-intensity lamps work -- and you're not farsighted. Light is important when you're using magnification, too, and the more powerful the lens the more intense the light you need.

I have good 15x and 20x triplets and they're a lot of fun, a toy for adults as well as kids. I don't routinely use them to examine edges but I have.... I think everybody should have a good high-power lens to play with whether you have kids or not. 10x is the magnification most commonly used by jewelers and a good 10x achromatic lens, even a doublet, shows a lot more than can be seen with the naked eye. A simple single lens doesn't work very well at that power, though, even though they're cheap.

If you're short of buck$ -- or even if you aren't, just for the fun of it -- try carefully breaking the lens off a penlight bulb and mount it on a popsicle stick or a piece of cardboard -- drill a hole and epoxy it on. It's about 20x, not a great quality lens of course, but fun to play with. You have to get your eye almost touching the lens to use a simple lens of that power; a good triplet gives you much more eye relief for greater comfort and of course the resolution is much better, but even a crude lens is fun to play with. Many of the early discoveries in microscopy were made with crude simple lenses no better than a penlight bulb.

-Cougar Allen :{)

 

[stray]

Hey Cougar, I bought 5 of them to share with friends and will let you know how well they work. I don't know about "severe aberation" but the cheapie one I have works great. Especially for those deep, little splinters. They also have the high quality ones for sale there for about what you said. Their words for the $1.90 ones are:

"High-quality, durable loupes are tough but lightweight. This pocket-size piece has distortion-free lenses and black on the inside to eliminate glare."

George, that's a good idea with glueing one on to a pair of safety glasses. I tried holding mine up to a pair and it seems fine. Just the thing for my middle-aged eyes. I'll try it when I get them.

 

[Schlager]

Heys Guys,
Years ago I picked up a 8X magnifier at a photo shop. The height is pre-set because its used to be placed on top of a picture. I just place it on top of the edge in bright light, and rotate the blade to see the edge I need. -Brian

 

[Schlager]

Radio Shack used to sell a lighted 30X pocket micro-scope, but is almost too much for this kind of work, but I like to look at stuff anyway. -Brian

 

[johno]

A standard good loupe is an Edmund Scientific Hastings triplet. I have fun with optics and am always looking for good buys at garage sales and such. My current favorite loupe is a 75mm or so projector lens, appears to be a coated triplet, that has a nice working distance and was had for less than $10 (a rough estimate on magnification is 12 inches divided by focal length in inches). Another favorite is a 35mm f2.8 camera lens that appears to be multi-coated, out of an older point and shoot, that was something like $3 as the camera wasn't working properly. I also use a Canon 50mm f1.8 camera lens, an older metal body multi-coated model, that was about $15 as the filter ring thread was bunged up and everyone wants slow crummy zooms these days. Costco has some decent reading glasses, and having a couple of different strengths around seems to work well for more extended close work. Some of the 'close-up' lenses for cameras are designed to work as sets and can be good buys, most are singlets but Nikon offers some nice multi-coated doublets. The doublets used for binocular objectives can make nice low power loupes, and sometimes the oculars can but often the working distance is too short. Still, I find nice older Japanese binoculars, good polish and single coatings, sometimes for $5 or less. Some are too good to use for parts after cleaning and tightening.