I've taken the next step in my sharpening obsession

M

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Jan 7, 2006
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This afternoon, I stopped off at a local antiques shop, looking mainly for some classic slipjoints, they didn't have any slippies, *BUT*, I did score this;

IMG_3007.JPG

an old science class Meade microscope, it has 4x, 10x, and 40x objectives and a 10x eyepiece

It works great, 40x is a little fiddly light-level wise, but 4 and 10x are very useful, you can really see the difference in the steels, as well as seeing how polished/worn the edge is

S30V and VG-10 have a similar "rough" look, the grind lines are very sharply defined and visible, VG-10 looks a tad smoother, the edges of the grind lines are not as sharp
H-1 is very, very smooth, takes on an almost mirrored look, and with a nice sharp edge, the edge itself *IS* as reflective as a mirror

Case TruSharp looks pretty mundane under magnification, visible grinds, but what surprised me most was some visible, but extremely minor, pitting along the bevel edge, there were a few minor divots along the bevel edge
Case CV looks *incredible* under magnification, it's almost uniformly mirror polished along the bevel and edge, there are occasional, faint, surface grind lines, but they're less than 10% of the visible area

Victorinox looked almost identical to TruSharp, minus the divots

Boker's C75 Carbon was almost identical to Case CV, just polished a tad more, no visible grind lines

The biggest surprise though, was Buck 420HC, I was expecting a rough-looking S30V style, so I was absolutely *floored* when I saw that it looked much closer to the Case and Boker carbon steels, very fine-grained, mirror polished edge, the grind lines were very subdued, it had one of the finest grained, most polished appearances of any of my knives,

in terms of fine grain structure and overall polish, from most to least, I'd rank them accordingly

Boker C75
Case CV
Buck 420HC
H-1
Victorinox/Case TruSharp
VG-10
S30V
 
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Cool.

Have you tried honing straight razors? Not to be off-topic....

Jordan
 
No, I haven't tried honing straight razors, but I do want to try, I just need to find a straight razor first...

If this is the microscope I think it is, I just got a *killer* deal....

This appears to be a Meade 9200, which looks to retail for almost $5000, I got it for the princely sum of $12, heck, even if it's a tenth of that price it's still a killer deal

upon further research, the magnification levels are 40X, 100X and 400X, 400X is a bit tricky as the clearance between edge and lens is almost nonexistent

40X and 100X are quite useful, I found nicks in the edges that I can't feel via the fingernail-down-the-edge trick

I also looked at a leaf from my dwarf rosebush that has powdery mildew, pretty disgusting, the leaf was riddled with silver threads of fungus....

this will definitely take my sharpening to new levels of obsessive-compulsiveness ;)
 
indeed! it sounds like you're going to have fun with you're find. I stopped using a microscope for my straights because I was becoming a little too anal about what I was seeing. :rolleyes: Enjoy your steal! :)

Jordan
 
Nice find :thumbup:

I found a digital microscope at walmart the other day for $15 it has 100x 200x and 400x levels plus video. It is VERY hard to get a pic at 400x you need lots and lots of incandescent light. I had to go outside and almost look at the sun the get this pic, the pic is a little distorted but it still came out pretty clear.

VG-10 finished with a UF ceramic and given a very small microbevel with 0.5 micron diamond compound on a leather strop.
Picture465.jpg
 
DUDE, i have checked the edges in a microscope a few times, and i think i have the same one to:D
 
I've also checked out the Byrd 8Etc.. steel, it looks similar to VG-10 under 40X or 100X, the grind lines are a little more pronounced, but not as obvious as S30V

I've compared my three carbon-steel knives, a 1095 Ka-Bar, a C75 Boker, and a CV Case, they all have the same superfine-grained structure, both the bevel and edge have a mirror polished finish, there are very few to no visible grind lines, carbon-steel clearly takes a far more polished edge

there are stainless steels that come close to the grain structure of carbon, of my knife collection, the closest match to the fine grain of carbon steel is H-1, and Buck's 420HC

I've tried to take pics through the microscope, but it just doesn't work, the camera can't focus that close, even on macro
 
knifenut

what's the name and model number of the microscope you found at wally world if you don't mind sharing?
 
Nice find. I came into an old Tasco student microscope a while back -- invaluable for examining edges and studying edge retention. I find up to about 250x-300x useful.

Now, if you want to see a beautiful edge, get a Sandvik 12C27 or 13C26 blade ... the difference between what a high edge stability steel such as this looks like after use, compared to steels with high carbide aggregate content such as S30V or VG-10, is very interesting.
 
Yes, this is the next step. Are there any recommended microscopes? The built-in camera is a pretty cool feature, as long as it's crisp. I imagine light would be a problem, you'd have to have the light shining from above the blade, where a lot of microscopes shine the light source through the bottom, from underneath the specimen.
 
miyamoto musashi said:
Yes, this is the next step. Are there any recommended microscopes? The built-in camera is a pretty cool feature, as long as it's crisp. I imagine light would be a problem, you'd have to have the light shining from above the blade, where a lot of microscopes shine the light source through the bottom, from underneath the specimen.
Click to expand...
One of these works very well, allowing you to easily adjust lighting as needed:

http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-H3108-Fixed-Round-Magnifying/dp/B0000DD4LD

Not to mention, very handy for casual inspection of knives and other stuff. BTW you should be able to find a similar light much cheaper if you shop around.
 
I used to have a stereo microscope at work a long time ago. I recall the magnification wasn't that high. Anyone use those to inspect their edges ? I suspect you could find those at manufacturing equipment liquidators these days. Some had mounts for cameras built in.
 
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