I have the opportunity today to examine a number of blades under two electron microscopes. I will be using a scanning electron microscope (which bounces electrons off a surface to create a topographical map of the sample) to observe four GEM personna blades that have been used 0, 1, 3, and 5 times respectively. I will be using a transmission electron microscope (which passes a beam of electrons through a sample and uses magnetic lenses to magnify the resulting image) to examine a Treet SE blade, a Personna SE blade, a Ted Pella SE blade, and a GEM duridium SE blade, all of them unused. The first set will show the way that blades degrade with use, and the second set will show metallurgical, geometrical, and compositional differences between the four varieties of blades. I will try to post images, but intellectual and research right limitations may prevent that. Either way, I'll report back
I did some SEM work back in my college days. I was the first undergraduate they let touch the SEM - and only as a Senior doing undergraduate research. They were getting a second (much nicer) SEM and I believe continued allowing upper level undergrad. students who were in the undergrad research program to use the old one. I look forward to pic's if you can post them.
Well, the vacuum pump on the gold sputtering depositor was being a bit sluggish (jesus, did someone try to coat a ham sandwich in this thing?), so it was still prepping the samples when I left the lab. My next scheduled lab time is next tuesday. I talked with the lab administrator, and I should be able to post pictures of the results. I may or may not get time on the TEM in the near future, so at the very least, I should have results from the SEM next week.
wait to see some nice picture .... I'd be curious to see enlargements of the blades Gillette 7 o'clock, and Personna Red ...
Hi, I'm a microscopist. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but TEM is unlikely to give decent images as the beam needs to pass through the sample to generate an image. It's good for thinly sliced biological material but not so good for steel You can get an image of the very edge of the blade but only in profile. Anyway, here is a GEM SE that I imaged using SEM to be going on with Opps I can't post images www dot flickr dot com slash photos slash owza slash 5083856934
Could you tell if the blade had a double bevel? I can't from the picture if we're seeing the full single bevel or just the second bevel. Either way - it looks extremely smooth at that magnification. Do you have higher magnification? If I recall correctly you should be able to get roughly an order of magnitude higher magnification from an SEM. (I have some old pics with a 2 micron scale in the corner).
That was the intention. I'm interested in the leading edge, roughly the first micrometer of the edge. The depth of the blade at that point is sufficiently thin for the beam to pass through. I'm definitely having trouble with a charge buildup on the platinum edges, though. Apparently, the interface between the platinum and the underlying steel has a very large band gap.
Permacarp, a little off topic but the other photos on your filkr are quite good. There were several I was quite impressed at how vivid the colors were. And thanks to all you who are posting these microscope pictures. I certainly wish someone with access to the technology could do a side by side comparison for a whole slew on razor blades. C. S. Budzi
Is it the whole story? Hello Aberneth, Using my microscopes to study the edges of the straight razor I'm learning to hone, along with edges of knives I sharpen, reveals a critical omission, if you will. Looking at an edge from the side clearly shows the bevel, and how smooth the end of the bevel is. What it doesn't show though, is how thick the edge is. That is, does the bevel on each side of the blade meet? My first hone on my straight resulted in a nicely defined bevel on each side, which I was able to polish very nicely with progressively finer stones. It looked great. It shaved like crap. I had another attempt at actually viewing the edge, edge-on, as it were, with plenty of light shining down the edge from above it. It was this view that revealed the places where the two bevels did not meet. Those areas were clearly visible by the light they reflect. The parts of the edge where the bevels meet were invisible. At those places, due to the difference in lighting from each side of the blade, I could see each bevel as a slightly different color that simply met in the middle at an invisible line. For manufactured blades, I suppose we can assume the two bevels meet nicely, and it is the smoothness and evenness of the edge that we're interested in. But on the same note, some manufactured blades are clearly sharper than others (Feathers compared to Dorcos, for example). Is it possible to focus that instrument onto the actual edge of a blade, to see how straight and thick it actually is?
ChemErik, in my case the GEM was a single bevel, I think most SE / DE blades are, but good point worth looking for double bevels. aberneth, That's OK I just wanted to make sure you weren't disappointed by TEM, it's very powerful but it has its limitations, I think SEM is probably more appropriate for blade images at the end of the day. Yes you would not think charging would be a problem for metallic samples, but it is, especially with blade coatings effectively making the samples semi-conductors. I tried to image one of my straights using SEM but you really do need a good path to earth meaning, either clamping the blade or conductive silver paint, leading to possible damage to the straight, also a straight is quite big/awkward to mount. Obviously, imaging DE blades is not actually part of my job so any work I do is on my 'downtime' big studies are not possible unless someone is willing to pay?! CSBudzi? Joking lol CSBudzi. Thanks for the comments, a boost to my fledgling skills Where I live is also quite pretty, that helps.
Opps, missed part of ChemErik response. Yes you can go to higher mag however you observe less and less of the blades total area and the image becomes more and more smooth looking. Some people think that these(SEM) magnifications are already too high. It is interesting to ponder at what magnification do we get the most information as to how a blade performs. My gut feeling is that most(>80%) information can be found at quite low mag. Using LM you can see microchipping and the overall blade profile. Is it rough as ~£$% How is the bevel? etc. Again my feeling is that higher mags only really become useful for considering quite subtle effects, eg C12K vs shapton, stropping leather vs CrOx etc. More data @The_Metatron Yeah looking at the blade end on is one thing I need to try in the SEM, however this has problems DOF / finding the edge will be fun, Friday afternoon job lol
How much for say a 25 blade study? 35? Maybe just a 5 blade study? I have no idea at all what it cost to do something like that, I'm pretty curious. But also kind of serious. If I could get a definitive scientific impartial judgement of the best, sharpest and smoothest blade. Hmm well it'd be worth a lot to me. No more wondering if my technique was off when I tried this new blade, or maybe it's just because my water wasn't hot enough etc. C. S. Budzi
Permacarp, to clarify, my job in the lab is electron microscopy. Sample prep and viewing. While I'm probably no where near as experienced as you, I know my way around the equipment and its limitations. The onlything I didn't expect was the charge buildup from that platinum coating. As it turns out, that interface has a band gap of about 1.1eV. No wonder I tripped the deflection alarm :happy102
