If I were in the mood to try and see the hook on a scraper or the wire edge on a plane blade as I sharpen it -- what would you suggest for the appropriate magnification -- Would a Jeweler's Loupe (10x,15x or 20x) do the job ?
seeing the edge
Feb 01, 2006
4 Replies
For the scraper, the 10x would do it. For the pane iron, it would depend greatly on how fine an edge you had. Generally, it would be in the microscope category.
magnification -- Would a Jeweler's Loupe (10x,15x
To see that bur you might want the Microsoft digital microscope, as described for sharpening by Brent Beach:
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's Sharpening Pages
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(home page)
Well of course it depends somewhat on your sharpening. 25 years ago I could often see the hook by naked eye, now if I'm not wearing my 2.5 diopter reading glasses I couldn't read the name stamped on the blade.
I use a 5x General loupe from the the hardware store. It works for scraper edges. LV has a nice, inexpensive set of three: 2x, 5x and 10x. You might want to consider a pocket microscope, 30x or so. I don't find mine all that useful in the wood shop, but YMMV.
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