Thread: Fun with Verniers calipers and tape

Greetings,

I recently sent of a number of razors to Bart. He mentioned that he uses Verniers calipers to calculate the amount of tape needed for razors, wedges in particular. I turned this into the following spreadsheet in the hope that you'll find it useful.

The spreadsheet makes two assumptions:

1. You will be using regular electric tape, not something 5m thick (hence the formula Bart came up with: =DEGREES(2*ASIN((B4+0.3)/2/C4))).
2. The ideal angle for a bevel is 17°: "I believe that most of these old wedges were not designed to lay flat on the hone for sharpening. I believe they were usually honed knife-style (with the spine lifted above the hone). A razor shaves best with a bevel angle of approximately 17 degrees, +/- 2 degrees. Lower than 15 degrees and the edge becomes too weak, over 20 degrees gives a horrendous shave."

I'd greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions, because I would like to put this spreadsheet into the Wiki if you find that it makes sense: Honing_Angles_Matrix.xls

Thanks in advance,
Robin