Thread: How Bevel is Affected by Taping

Originally Posted by Slant-Fan

I'm kind of new at this myself but I have jumped in with both feet. I am acquiring a fair amount of razors. Some high end and some cheap vintage ebay specials and I am doing a lot of honing. Having posted a poll asking if you tape the spine and looking at the posts that opined on the topic I have decided that I will only tape a spine if I am working a large chip out of a blade. Once it is out I will set a new bevel and hone without tape. That is the conclusion I have come to based on all that I have read on the topic.

Increasing the angle to get the chip out doesn't really save you anything except to give you the satisfaction of seeing the chip dissapear sooner.

Since you will then have to re-set the bevel with the tape removed. In the end you have to remove the same amount of material, and in my opinion it will be easier to do that with a single bevel, as you know when to stop when the chip is gone.

With a double bevel, re-setting the original bevel is more difficult, as it is hard to see if the very edge is still at the double bevel angle, or if you have finally got it back to the original angle. I know this, as I tried a double bevel, didn't much care for it, and had a long, uphill fight to regain my original edge.

If you want to get rid of a chip, go to some really low grits to speed the work (600 is fine), rather than changing angles. But that is just my experience.

Other than that, taping the spine to protect a gilded gold spine or something seems reasonable, but I don't go for that kind of thing anyhow.

P.S.- thanks Icedog for your calculations! When I did my double bevel experiment I used my CAD software at work to determine the angular changes.