High Resolution Microscopy Images of Whole Knife

[MarkoPende]

I am a scientist with passion for microscopy. I've recently started collecting Japanese knives; my current collection consists of six knives which I recorded on a stereoscope. Please Zoom in and enjoy

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Enjoy I do. Would you explain how these images were made? It looks close to orthogonal, as if shot with a telephoto or orthographic lens, or using a scan-line camera?

 

[MarkoPende]

Enjoy I do. Would you explain how these images were made? It looks close to orthogonal, as if shot with a telephoto or orthographic lens, or using a scan-line camera?

I attached two pictures of the set up I am using to record this pictures. As you can see they were recorded with a stereoscope. The lenses/objectives in micropy are a bit different then in photography. Regarding imaging direction. Yes these are many orthogonal pictures fused to one image. The microscope was not built to image objects of these size but since I built microscope I could just add to the existing travel stage from Zeiss an additional travel stage which enabled me to image the entire knife.

 

[MarkoPende]

Enjoy I do. Would you explain how these images were made? It looks close to orthogonal, as if shot with a telephoto or orthographic lens, or using a scan-line camera?

If you are interested in the details of the microscope. It is a Zeiss Axio Zoom V16. With a Zeiss Axiocam 506 color camera (Sensor type: Sony ICX 694, EXview HAD CCD) and a Zeiss Plan Z 1.0x/0.25 FWD 60mm objective (Resolution: 5.0 - 0.7 µm, Total Magnification: 11.2 x-180 x). I recorded with 11.2x magnification (5µm resolution) resulting in about 130 images per knife.

 

[mengwong]

Any chance we could get a closeup of the knife edges? (I love the “just say no to smartphone photos”)

 

[MarkoPende]

Any chance we could get a closeup of the knife edges? (I love the “just say no to smartphone photos”)

Thx Do you want something like this?

 

[mengwong]

Nice! We can just begin to see some of the carbides there.

 

[MarkoPende]

Nice! We can just begin to see some of the carbides there.

That is unfortunately the highest resolution I can get for now. Although I can very much understand the interest in the knife bevel, my idea had more an esthetic intention. I wanted to take a higher resolution image where for example some of details of the Damascus pattern can be appreciated when printed in a large picture format.

 

[Markcg]

That is unfortunately the highest resolution I can get for now. Although I can very much understand the interest in the knife bevel, my idea had more an esthetic intention. I wanted to take a higher resolution image where for example some of details of the Damascus pattern can be appreciated when printed in a large picture format.

Amazing stuff man! I know this is all very specialized equipment, but is there a setup that can get similar results without costing an arm and a leg?

 

[MarkoPende]

Amazing stuff man! I know this is all very specialized equipment, but is there a setup that can get similar results without costing an arm and a leg?

Thank you very much I would say yes, but it would be a bit of a tinkering project, and acquiring the images would require a substantial amount of work for a whole knife. The things you need would include a nice photo camera, and I would suggest buying a second-hand microscopy objective from eBay. You have to figure out a way to mount it on the camera. The magnification of the objective is not as important as the numerical aperture (NA), which is a measure of the resolution of the objective. However, I would recommend going for a 4x Air Objective (there are also immersion objectives which you definitely do not want) with an NA of 0.2, up to an NA of 0.28. The price of an objective is usually determined by the NA (higher is better) and the level of correction. Here's a link to a short YouTube video to give you an idea: ). I'm not sure if this is the best video, but the guy explains it well enough.

Finally, you need a sliding stage where you can mount your camera and move it in a straight line. If you have all of this, be prepared to take many, many pictures (the field of view - that's what you see through an objective - of a 4x objective is usually around 4mm). The take images you will then need to merge in a photo editing software such as Photoshop. Just for comparison with the setup I used, I had a field of view of 1.8cm, and each knife required around 130 pictures. With a 4mm field of view, you would need around 500 pictures. I would recommend starting with a small section of a knife to figure out how much overlap you need between the pictures.

The project would cost you between $600 and $4000, depending on whether you already have a good camera and if you're lucky finding an objective for a good price.
Here is an example of a good price for a objective on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/2259140739...VPuZHms+r8x89/WjttFgLpz5Y=|tkp:Bk9SR4LIwcrKYw

I hope I could help

 

[Markcg]

Thank you very much I would say yes, but it would be a bit of a tinkering project, and acquiring the images would require a substantial amount of work for a whole knife. The things you need would include a nice photo camera, and I would suggest buying a second-hand microscopy objective from eBay. You have to figure out a way to mount it on the camera. The magnification of the objective is not as important as the numerical aperture (NA), which is a measure of the resolution of the objective. However, I would recommend going for a 4x Air Objective (there are also immersion objectives which you definitely do not want) with an NA of 0.2, up to an NA of 0.28. The price of an objective is usually determined by the NA (higher is better) and the level of correction. Here's a link to a short YouTube video to give you an idea: ). I'm not sure if this is the best video, but the guy explains it well enough.

Finally, you need a sliding stage where you can mount your camera and move it in a straight line. If you have all of this, be prepared to take many, many pictures (the field of view - that's what you see through an objective - of a 4x objective is usually around 4mm). The take images you will then need to merge in a photo editing software such as Photoshop. Just for comparison with the setup I used, I had a field of view of 1.8cm, and each knife required around 130 pictures. With a 4mm field of view, you would need around 500 pictures. I would recommend starting with a small section of a knife to figure out how much overlap you need between the pictures.

The project would cost you between $600 and $4000, depending on whether you already have a good camera and if you're lucky finding an objective for a good price.
Here is an example of a good price for a objective on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/225914073949?itmmeta=01HSAAGCFMG38F5QCJ7QPXQ30K&hash=item349987335d:g:IUAAAOSwhn9lePzv&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0IkzCCZtHCFl/25LgQs7ZVmLo4/N6YbFVpO+j5ixosvAY0EXAg9h8oagSU0LWahrT3QYv7L6C3dVs16/Qa4Z7cDaCsbz964y7fMWx6a4pafkOKC3RENDB9F2l6d9ORLeuZE2UjmAeN7Gr7oJ3mFYJmspI0G330xYLw2MKkYD25fZ/kxon4BlJ4gPj/GD/Kn3i+9Sw5NoC/z9Vf4sBqOzyzBpP7k3qQioMUBcpQdFSsCm6ShiVw809D9KsdYZ86VPuZHms+r8x89/WjttFgLpz5Y=|tkp:Bk9SR4LIwcrKYw

I hope I could help

Much appreciated! Gonna check this out when I get home and see what overlap I may already have.

 

[MarkoPende]

A little image scale display

 

[Mookie262]

These are stunning! The details in the Damascus and the Kanji are beautiful.

I bet these images would look absolutely fantastic on an ultrawide monitor.

 

[sumis]

super cool. thanks.

.

 

[MarkoPende]

These are stunning! The details in the Damascus and the Kanji are beautiful.

I bet these images would look absolutely fantastic on an ultrawide monitor.

Thx