Quote Originally Posted by jendeindustries View Post
I think we are talking semantics here, overall, but in the search for the ever better shave there is no end!

Taping of the spine is essentially what this experiment is dong, except for taping the entire way, only the edge of the edge on the last step will be produced. Taping has other reasons, usually - one is to avoid spine wear, not to adjust the angle of the bevel, per se; and the other is because of spine wear, the spine thickness to blade width ratio has been altered to the point where the edge is too weak without tape.

On another the knife forums, there is a guy who likes to do just what Mike is doing, but on his kitchen knives. He purposely stays right behind the edge, thinning out the bevel, if you will, and then on that last stone, he raises the angle so that the two sides meet in the middle. Here's a magnified pic link to a 3, 5, and 7 degree bevel (7 being the edge angle, so it's really 14 degrees in total on the knife when you flip it over) made by a Shapton 8K glass (white) stone.

It goes along the lines of avoiding over honing or burr forming, since the stone will leave scratches in the metal that could be too deep right at the tip. By doing this method, you avoid making the edge too fragile or too thin.

I am unaware that Mike's testing requires staying behind the edge as you describe the knife guy doing, as you say he is.

that is not what he said
In this case however,(missing from your overview) the only real advantage is reducing the number of strokes to establish the finish edge.