Thread: To Tape or Not to Tape

Originally Posted by gssixgun

huh????

I am lost on that one, what I meant is that if you use tape then decide you want to eliminate that bevel angle, then you would take the bare spine on a Norton 4k hone or equivalent and do about 20 laps and the very slightly steeper bevel will be gone...

Okay, completely disregard my question. I lost myself on that one.

Thank you for the clarification though...makes sense.

Originally Posted by Richard

I really can't see where on thickness of black electricians tape would hurt when it comes to honing. This is especially true if you are restoring a blade. I've bought some good ones and in my zeal to bring back the edge neglected the taping and ruined the spine.

Rich

'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.' Mark Twain

This is an interesting thought and there has been more than significant discussion here. Most older razors bought that are not in NOS condition usually have an amount of flattening to them already. Also, there a ton of new guys who pick them up with the flattening uneven across the spine and even different on the other side. With one piece of tape, you end up with the same uneven flattening and have a dickens of a time trying to establish a bevel vs. simply accepting the fact that there is going to have to be a fair amount of metal removed.

But, as Glen has already said, there is a ton of personal preference regarding this topic.

Have fun,

Lynn

I have few razors with some fancy gold washing/engravings on the spine so with these i think there is a good reason to use the tape. With my other razors there is really no actual reason for tape at all, but to keep it simple i just use 1 layer of tape with everyone.
Another place to use the tape is when you set the bevel with some unsharpened blade. Tape speeds things a little. With uneven spine there is no sense using tape (until the spine is perfectly even on both sides),

Originally Posted by Fbones24

Just a quick question about this.

Lets say you were following the pyramid method on a norton 4k/8k starting at 20 laps. This would mean that the tape should be changed at least three times during this pyramid to avoid reverting to an "untaped bevel." Is this accurate?

For the amount of laps indicated and the little pressure involved when using the pyramid method to hone, I would think you would not need to replace the tape.

Have fun,

Lynn