Reddit mentions of SE - Loupe - LED Illuminated, 30x, 25mm - MJ362530L

Here's a copy-paste I put together that might be useful.

Equipment Essentials

• A pro honed razor at your side. You need to compare the sharpness of the razor you're working on, with the sharpness of a razor that is shave ready. This will decrease your learning curve considerably. You're working blind otherwise.
  
  

• DMT flattening stone. Your hones don't ship flat, and you must even them out to ensure a smooth edge. Flattening before every use is a good idea. If you don't want to buy the DMT, use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and atop piece of marble/glass.
  
  
• Norton 4K/8K A popular choice for general honing, and can perform a laborious restoration/bevel set (if you do more than a few razors, get the 1k below to set a bevel).
  
  
• A jewelers loop to see what happens to the blade as you hone, polish, stop and shave. I feel watching the scratch patterns of a straight razor bevel change is a critical educational step in straight razor bevel maintenance.
  
  
• Chromium Oxide on a strop for final polish, or a diamond pasted strop.
  
  
  Honing Supplies for Restoring a Few Straights
  
  
• If you end up honing a few razor from antique stores or ebay, it's good to have a stone dedicated to bevel setting. This stage is 50% of the sharpening process, so it pays to have quality gear at this level King 1000 K For bevel setting on a budget (beware, it's a slow cutter). Or a nice bevel setter like this Chosera.
  
  
  
• Niawa 12K For a nice final polishing of your razor. 8K is fine, but this puts a great edge on your blade.
  
  To hone:
  
  First, you need to flatten your stone, making sure you've removed the top 1/64th or so of stone material to reach the true grits (the top is a bit rough on Nortons especially).Make sure your stone is perfectly flat. Use the DMT or the sandpaper I described above for this.
  
  Next, clean your SR in soap/warm water. Dry it, and put a piece of electrical tape along the spine and fold it over (like a book binding) if you'd like (not necessary, and I don't do this, but some prefer the look of the end product).
  
  I like to clear the edge of possible errand burs before I hone, so I drag the shaving edge against my thumbnail or a glass bottle. These burs can cause issues, and may make for a rough feeling edge. I've found that this is a good way to remove them. It may be unnecessary for some/most blades, but it's part of my bevel setting routine, and by doing this, I've notice good things and increased consistency when I hone.
  
  Now, to hone. You're going to get your razor sharp in these stages:
  
  

• Set the bevel (establish the sharp edge shape)
  
• Polish the bevel (polish the shape you created earlier)
  
• True the bevel (strop the bevel to make sure the edge is very uniform)
  
  Setting the bevel:
  
  While all steps are important, this step is foundational. Place your razor on your bevel setting stone, keeping the razor spine and edge completely flat on the surface togehter. Do tiny circle strokes (circular motion down the hone) so you do about 30-40 tiny circles as you move own the bottom hone. Repeat on the other side of the razor, moving up the hone in the opposite direction (and counter-wise circle direction). Now do 15 x strokes. This is a set.
  
  Repeat doing these sets until you can shave hair on your arm or leg by very slowly grazing over the tops of the hair - it should catch and cut with a bit of a tug.
  
  It will take many many of these sets with a 4k stone, and less with a 1K.
  
  Once you can shave hair on your arm or leg all along the bevel (toe to heel) with uniform sharpness and cutting, you may be set. Do another 10 or so x-strokes, very lightly, very perfectly as a final sharpening for your bevel. See if this helps your edge.
  
  Once you're happy with your bevel, strop it and shave. If it's painful, it's likely your bevel isn't set. If it's decent, you're ready to move on.
  
  Polishing the bevel
  
  Now move up to polishing. On the 4K and do 35 light x strokes. Go to the 8K and do 35 light x-strokes. Repeat this back and forth going 4K 30, 8K 30. Now keep this up, decreasing the stroke number by 5. When you're at 10 strokes, just do 25 on the 8K.
  
  Always check for sharpness along the edge by trimming a bit of arm hair. You'll learn a lot from an edge by doing this.
  
  Following the grits up in this fashion should give you a fairly polished bevel. It's best to go higher than 8K with a high grit chinese hone from a woodworking store, or a naninwa 12k, but 8K will do for now.
  
  Truing the edge:
  
  Strop about 30 passes on your chromium oxide, clean the blade, and the perform 200 passes on leather - all spine leading, done very lightly.
  
  The Shave
  
  After all this, you should have a great edge. Give it a test shave and compare it to your pro honed blade.
  
  While honing, you'll likely get frustrated, but keep at it! If you're getting aggressive with the razor, just give it a break, and come back later. If the shave is no good, post back here and we'll help you diagnose.
  
  
  Some thoughts:
  
  I tired to present information that's very searchable. Straight razor place has archived many of the ideas that I just presented. I highly recommend researching on your own and reaching a personal conclusion. What follows are my personal opinions.
  
  This equipment I suggest is not necessarily the best, nor is it bad at all. It's great way to get started and find out what you like in a stone/routine. Some ideas to consider if you upgrade your set:
  
  
• Try a natural stone for a finisher. I use a vintage Thuringian hone called an Barber's Delight Escher.
  
• Upgrade your progression by adding various in-between grits. I really like going from a Chosera 1K, to Shapton Pro (not glass version) 2K, 5K, 8K, 15K, then finish.
  
• Try finishing a blade with a pasted strop, and try without. Some love one over the other.
  
  The back and forth honing I recommend is a honing series called pyramid honing, where you go between two different grit hones to ensure you don't form a wire edge or a bur. I like to recommend this for folks getting into honing since this is one of the most documented methods for get a razor to shave ready from a bevel set. A quick google search on pyramid honing will give you plenty of reading. I don't hone this way any more.
  
  I highly recommend honing your razor as sharp as possible on one stone, strop as I've outlined, and give it a shave. For example, sharpen as much as you can at the 4K stage, and strop it 200 times. If it shaves ok, you're on the right track. If not, you've got more work to do at that level of stone. You'll be amazed that such a low grit can shave so well. If it's painful to shave after your lowest stone.... you're not done, and moving up the stones will not benefit your edge. Repeating this process of shaving up all the stone grits (4K, 8K, 12K) will help you get a feel for what honing at the different levels provide. Shaving off my 1K bevel provided me the biggest leap in edge quality while learning.
  
  Don't limit your techniques. Once you can confidently bring a restored razor to shave with consistency, I'd recommend playing around and experimenting. Though this, I've developed some strokes that are critical to my routine, and used effectively with every blade I sharpen.
  
  

the one i got from amazon works well.

The hair method is pretty unreliable, it varies from strain to strain. Just get one of these 30x jewelers loupes and look at the heads of the trichomes. When they seem at least 50% amber, 50% cloudy is a good time to harvest.

Don't waste your money on those expensive magnifiers. This is really all you need. Maybe 40 or 50x but any higher will be too hard to keep stable and at this level you will be able to see all you need to.