Is your view a little one-sided? Most illuminated hand magnifiers throw light from a single bulb (LED or incandescent). They light up only one side of the thing you're looking at, and there's often a lot of glare. That's not what you need if you're trying to see a nib tip or find hairline cracks in a cap lip: there are problems with shadows, and the glare makes hot spots that can hide flaws.

Now there's a better way. A Coddington lens combines two optical elements into a single thick piece of glass, with a groove cut in the center to select the portion of the light with the least aberration. This design produces a lens with the superb achromatic and anastigmatic qualities that you usually find only in much more complicated (and expensive) multi-element lenses. The Bausch & Lomb illuminated Coddington magnifier uses a special translucent ring to light up the subject from all sides, eliminating glare spots and shadows. How good is it? See for yourself on my site! (clickable link)

That looks very nice Richard,

I have been trying to decide what loupe to buy, I think you found me a winner.

Thanks for the heads up.

I saw this at the Raleigh Show.... Richard had just decided to order some for resale...
This is without a doubt one of the finest loupe/magnifiers you will ever find...
I told Richard I wanted one immediately upon trying it....
Why didn't he tell me first that they came in???

Yours is coming to DC, so dry up, okay?

No mine is being shipped on Wednesday... at least that is what Barbara told me in my after purchase email....

I absolutely need one! how can I order and will you ship to Argentina? Buenos Aires city 1425

You can order directly through my site and pay with a credit card. Here's a link to the page:

http://www.richardspens.com/?acc=loupes

My magnifier arrived yesterday compliments of Richard and Barbara. It does all that Richard says. A great tool to examine the finer details of your pens.

Mark

I am not sure what I am looking at in the two pictures?
The r/h nib appears less 'schmutzy' to my uneducated eye

You've done better than I. I have yet to figure out what is being reffered to as schmutz.

-Nkk

Hi Richard,
I definitively want two, please confirm shipping costs to Belgium when these are available.
Thanks Francis