How did you hold it steady.
We have talked a bit about this, but it is interesting to see what others are doing that works.
I have the Veho 400X unit and it frustrates the hell out of me when trying to hold it in focus and steady while telling the PC to take a picture. I have tried a couple different kinds of stand, but no joy.

Phil

PhilipPasteur wrote:

With the knife in the WE vise, I hold the microscope by hand and rest the transparent collar on the knife edge. The edge slightly bites into the collar, stabilizing it in two dimensions. Thus the only adjustments are tilt left/right and focus. As you tilt the microscope left and right, the lighting angle changes. At some point you observe the angle is optimum. This also reduces shaking and makes getting an in-focus shot easier.

My Dino-Lite microscope has a soft-touch "shutter" button on the microscope wand itself. I barely touch it to take a photo. If yours has a physical switch or requires pressing a keyboard button or on-screen button, that will be harder.

Of course you must be careful when doing this; you are looking at the screen while holding the microscope wand on the knife edge. However I think most WE users realize there are many ways to cut themselves. You naturally learn to stay alert and focused. E.g, you don't rest a lot of pressure on the microscope, in case it slips off the edge.

Joe,
Thanks for that.
You must have a steadier hand than I do.. I have tried hand holding with mixed results.
Maybe 3 out of ten captures are OK, but it is not often that I can keep the angles the same even for the good ones. This makes it hard to compare between grits.
and yes, my software/camera requires me to click the mouse on a button onscreen to snap a photo.
I will keep trying to figure out a better way.

I got some extension tubes and a 10X front lense for my Canon T3i. I have gotten some decent shots with it, but I have no idea of the magnification.

Sorry about hijacking the thread with OT stuff !!

Back to the diamond hones. Did you give what Tom suggested a try? As I mentioned, my 1000 grit stones "feel" coarser moving over the blade, but I think I have proved to myself that the scratch pattern is finer than the ones labled 800. Now I have had mine for several months so they may be from a different batch than yours. Also, the labeling for the grits is consistent for both sides of both paddles on the set I have.

Phil

PhilipPasteur wrote:

I first made a highly finished, mirror edge using 5 and 3.5 micron diamond paste and balsa strops. Sequence: 100, 200, 400, 600, 1000 (labeled), 800 (labeled), micro-fine ceramic 1.4 micron, micro-fine ceramic 0.6 micron, 5 micron diamond paste & balsa strops, 3.5 micron diamond paste & balsa strops.



I then went straight to 1000 grit diamond plates:


I then went to 800 grit diamond plates:


It still appears the 1000 grit plates are more coarse than the 800 grit plates. It can't be the 1000 grit plates are *uncovering* prior scratches from previous coarser plates. I started with a highly finished bevel. Rather it appears the 1000 grit plates are simply more coarse than the 800 grit plates.

This is only logical: in every other grit sequence, the finer plate is smoother to touch *and* produces a smoother bevel than the coarser plate. But in this case the 1000 grit plate is coarser to touch than the 800 plate and produces a less finished bevel -- even if starting from a mirror-finish bevel.

I guess it's conceivable there's some other explanation; if so I'd like to hear it.

I believe that link to my post is incorrect.
Here it is:
www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=c...d=3928&Itemid=63

Not only do I believe that the stones are mislabled, but if you look at this image (below), how COULD they be correct?
The same side of one of the plates on one end says 800 and the other says 1000.



I'm glad I wasn't losing my mind, but sorry some of you guys have experienced the same issue. I have postponed calling the folks at the Wicked Edge office because I knew the diamond stones are on backorder anyway. After all, all I gotta do is flip the stones over and use the "wrong" side.

Clay,
Could you let us know when we may be able to send these in to have them verified and corrected? I don't have the scopes like most of you have so I'm going by feel and looking through a loupe.