Thread: Been shaving two weeks, need help

Everyone is telling me to tap the spine. Are you sure? I thought the spine is specifically designed for the blade and that the spine is supposed to wear down with the edge evenly as a result of honing/stropping to maintain the right angle of the bevel? i.e. If you tap the spine for 40 years your spine will be the original thickness but the blade could be 2/8" shorter than when new resulting in a more obtuse angle between the blade edges than originally.

Originally Posted by gunslingor

Everyone is telling me to tap the spine. Are you sure? I thought the spine is specifically designed for the blade and that the spine is supposed to wear down with the edge evenly as a result of honing/stropping to maintain the right angle of the bevel? i.e. If you tap the spine for 40 years your spine will be the original thickness but the blade could be 2/8" shorter than when new resulting in a more obtuse angle between the blade edges than originally.

Razor angles range from about 10 degrees to 20 degrees, tape changes that angle less than 1/2 a degree it really doesn't make a difference, although there are some that believe in your train of thought....
You can change that angle back with 20 laps on a 4k stone on the razor the second time you hone it if it bothers you... By the time the razor is ready to be honed again the bevel will be convex enough that you can go any direction that you chose.... But if you wear down the spine at the beginning there is absolutely no fix for that....

Originally Posted by gunslingor

Everyone is telling me to tap the spine. Are you sure? I thought the spine is specifically designed for the blade and that the spine is supposed to wear down with the edge evenly as a result of honing/stropping to maintain the right angle of the bevel? i.e. If you tap the spine for 40 years your spine will be the original thickness but the blade could be 2/8" shorter than when new resulting in a more obtuse angle between the blade edges than originally.

If you are an experienced honer and it is a new razor or close to it the amount of spine wear you will create with an untaped spine will be negligible. In learning to hone you will probably do many more laps with more pressure until you develop you stroke and the feel for honing with very little pressure. There are times where more pressure is required but knowing when is also part of the learning process.

I tape all of my razors because I have so many that remembering which were taped and which were not would be more trouble then it is worth. If you have your razor honed professionally and get some old ebay blades to practice on you would be better off IMO.