Recommendation for a nice, budget magnifier

L

luste

Joined
Nov 22, 2013
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I ask just what the title says: Kindly recommend me a nice, budget magnifier.
I am not a serious blade sharpener; atleast, as of this moment and I have just started knife sharpening. Mostly for my kitchen knives.
And I can't help but notice that a lot of people recommend a magnifier to anyone starting out, so here I am, asking for a nice, budget magnifier that would do its task, without causing a dent in my budget.

PS: If you can recommend me one of those angle guides, to help beginners learn the proper angle for sharpening, that would be appreciated too.
 
I ordered one from Radio Shack for like $12 I've seen a lot of guys using in sharpening videos.
 
I use the radioshack 60-100x "microscope". Works great for viewing your edges. I would recommend not even bothering with the built in light and using a flashlight, works much much better.
 
I did a little tiny bit of research before I bought mine and I ended up with something that was around $10 from the big *A* online retailer that you've linked to above. What I thought I wanted was 10x or more and lighted with a built in LED. My research said that the term "triplet" indicated that the optics use three elements and that this type has a better view than types that only use one or two elements. I was able to find a triplet type with built in LED at around 10x (or was it 15?) for cheap.

I'm sure a jeweler would think mine wasn't all that great, but I can tell you it is fantastic for seeing details of sharpening edges and worth 4x what I paid for it, if not more, in terms of what it has taught me and helping me diagnose what's going on with my sharpening. For indoor use, the LED is enormously useful. You really, really want good light on what you are trying to see. I've recently use my loupe outdoors in full sunlight and the sun was quite a good substitute for that tiny little LED on my loupe. :P

Brian.
 
I've got a couple of the Belomo loupes. They aren't cheap, but they have really good optics for the price (around $35). They come in several different magnifications, but I tend to use the 10x and 15x the most. I find that when you approach 20x, the depth of field becomes so shallow that a handheld loupe isn't very practical. At higher magnifications, I typically use a USB microscope.

TedP
 
Having spent some years bent over a bench stoning sear and hammer hooks of custom pistols (where the angle is everything) I can offer this - the higher the magnification the more difficult and inconvenient it becomes. I ended up using a 10X or 20X jeweler's eye loupe. For honing an edge that's really about as much power as you really need. Sure it's fun to look at steel under extreme magnification - but not while you're trying to work it. I have never seen a need to take blade edges up to extremely fine grits like some guys do. It either does the job I ask of it or it goes back on the stone. My kitchen blades are scary sharp. My pocketknives are sharp enough but are constantly being dulled and resharpened. On a pocketknife I like a "toothy" edge. On a kitchen blade I like a thin razor edge that will push cut through food.
 
I'll emphasize a good, BRIGHT light source is equally important, if not more so. I used a clip-on type desk fluorescent lamp with a 'daylight' spectrum bulb (all the better) with a built-in 3X magnifier for a while, before the cheaply-made clamp broke and wouldn't hold onto anything anymore. Ordinarily, I would've assumed high magnification was the priority. But, even at the lowly 3X, the light source on that lamp really made the view 'pop'. Edge defects, burrs and other irregularities will stand out, with light reflecting brightly off of them. A bright light source is even more critical at higher mag, because the light-gathering ability of the optics diminishes as the magnification increases. Field of view will be smaller and dimmer.

Other advantage: the lens was nice & wide (maybe 4" across), which made viewing very comfortable, and everything being done could take place at a comfortable arm's length and HANDS-FREE. Beats the heck out of holding a small magnifier in front of one's eye, with the blade about an inch or less in front of that.

Were it not for the flimsy clamp on that rather inexpensive lamp, it'd be close to ideal. Similar models with a nice heavy & sturdy base can be had for more $$, and I'd say they'd likely be worth it...


David
 
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So correct me if I am wrong, but all of your recommendations boil down to: good illumination and preferably a triplet lens? How does a triplet lens differ from a loupe having only one lens? And like I said, I will only be using the magnifier to view my blade edges, so would a triplet lens even be necessary for that? Or VERY good light for that matter?
 
I wouldn't bother with a triplet lens - just a simple loupe from 10X to 20X should be fine. I only want to see the existing edge and what angle I am honing relative to that. My choice of light is a good drafting lamp on a swing arm so I can get the light at the angle I want it anywhere on my bench. You want a lamp with a large shade on it to reduce glare.
 
I bought a Bausch & Lomb magnifier for my job as a QC manager for a gas turbine repair facility, We had dye penetrants for suspected cracks but the magnifier IDed those parts needing the DP treatment before shipping them off for repair. It uses a AAA battery to provide a light source for close inspection. As I recall it was under 25 bucks. dimentions are about the size of a standard playing card about 1/2" thick.
 
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