Thread: using shim steel to set a bevel and hone a true wedge

hah! good one the double sided tape inside the shim would be the ticket.

Originally Posted by bjrn

Really? My experience is that it wears down fast on really coarse hones. I think after 100 laps on the DMT C you'll be well through the tape and getting some decent hone wear on your razor...

I don't know why there would be a difference, honing pressure? I just honed out a 1/16th chip from a razor that was taped on the 325, and it was fine all the way up the grits.

As far as compression goes, if your compressing the tape to any significant degree, you are also flexing the edge enough to give possibly very poor results. ...unless its a wedge, in which case you can probably stand on it and not get a significant deflection.

Many people here use tape for all kinds of razors and it has worked well for nearly all of them. But if you can pioneer an easy way to get cheaply acquired shim steel to stick to the blade I'm sure others will adopt your method, probably even me.

(how about giving aluminum foil a try, it's harder than tape, incompressible, and cheap ....gets up and walks to kitchen...)

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

I don't know why there would be a difference, honing pressure? I just honed out a 1/16th chip from a razor that was taped on the 325, and it was fine all the way up the grits.

...)

It has to do with the quality of tape! All electrical tapes are not created equal!

Mine is not 3M tape, it's some bulk brand, so maybe that is the difference (fwiw, it measures 6 mil thickness, rather than 3M's 7 mil).

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

Mine is not 3M tape, it's some bulk brand, so maybe that is the difference (fwiw, it measures 6 mil thickness, rather than 3M's 7 mil).

I don't normally tape my blades when I hone, but when I do it is this stuff here that I use and it never wears on me...at least not yet!http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=350-056

Perhaps I was using the softest brand out there, I think I might have some from another pack as well that I could try and compare with.

Just an important clarification here, the title of the thread should be "using a shim to set an edge" not "using a shim to set a bevel". If you decide to set the bevel with a shim, then you must also use the same shim to polish the bevel on the high grits and touch up the razor every time after. If you use the shim to set the bevel then take it off to try to polish the edge then the high grits will not reach the cutting edge and you will get a reverse double bevel and a lousy shave (because the angle that you will be polishing at will be shallower than the actual edge leaving the low grit scratch pattern at the cutting edge). The same principle applies with electrical tape. Good electrical tape works fine and will not wear very quickly, so you do not need to make a metal device. If you feel that the wear will cause a problem then replace the tape when you move on from the low grits to the high grits. Electrical tape will not flex under pressure enough to cause an issue, if you think otherwise then you need to lighten up the pressure and just use the weight of the razor and/or use a better quality tape.

David

My idea was to set the bevel and continue to use the the shim to do all work on the blade as any hone or strop work on a true wedge will take a significant amount of time without something to lift the face of the blade off the hone. Using the same piece of hardened shim stock would allow this. It is more durable than a piece of electrical in addition to being reusable unlike tape. Thus I think the title of this thread is exactly what I wanted it to be.

Originally Posted by bjrn

Really? My experience is that it wears down fast on really coarse hones. I think after 100 laps on the DMT C you'll be well through the tape and getting some decent hone wear on your razor...

It varies. In my experience, the tape can last a long time on the DMT C, even hundreds of laps. The trick is not using pressure, because that will indeed melt the tape fast, and it also clogs up the DMT.

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

Just an important clarification here, the title of the thread should be "using a shim to set an edge" not "using a shim to set a bevel". If you decide to set the bevel with a shim, then you must also use the same shim to polish the bevel on the high grits and touch up the razor every time after. If you use the shim to set the bevel then take it off to try to polish the edge then the high grits will not reach the cutting edge and you will get a reverse double bevel and a lousy shave (because the angle that you will be polishing at will be shallower than the actual edge leaving the low grit scratch pattern at the cutting edge). The same principle applies with electrical tape. Good electrical tape works fine and will not wear very quickly, so you do not need to make a metal device. If you feel that the wear will cause a problem then replace the tape when you move on from the low grits to the high grits. Electrical tape will not flex under pressure enough to cause an issue, if you think otherwise then you need to lighten up the pressure and just use the weight of the razor and/or use a better quality tape.

David

David,

Good point! I was thinking the exact same thing -

Steve