Thread: To Tape or Not to Tape

Hey guys,

I recently began looking at razor care, and I came across this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ne-taping.html

It seems pretty technical to me, and I am in no position to interpret the calculations, so I'm asking you guys:

What are the advantages/disadvantages to taping?
If I do tape, how often should I replace the tape?

It depends.. if your razor was originally honed with a single piece of tape then I would continue to do it that way. If it was not and you do not care about hone wear on the spine then you do not need to tape. I personally tape every blade more to prevent excessive hone wear than anything else.

The first year and a hundred or so razors I taped. I did this because I didn't have confidence that I wouldn't cause excessive wear on the spine. At a year I took a new old stock Solingen and measured the spine with a micrometer. I set the bevel, sharpened and finished it with no appreciable spine wear. The fact that Lynn and some of the other honemeisters don't use tape unless it is for a particular application such as damascus or large chip removal influenced me to try no tape. I haven't used tape since unless for the fore mentioned special applications.

it depends what is your plan

Originally Posted by griff94

Hey guys,

I recently began looking at razor care, and I came across this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ne-taping.html

It seems pretty technical to me, and I am in no position to interpret the calculations, so I'm asking you guys:

What are the advantages/disadvantages to taping?

if your blade has some worked out spine than you may protect it but sooner or later you will end up taking it off.advantages you will have true angle between edge and spine. i don't tape and usually don't care about spine wear.This is just razor not Gold.

If I do tape, how often should I replace the tape?

as soon as you see it wear down replace it. gl hope this helps

With a good blade with little or no hone wear, once you get it sharp and treated with proper care it will only see finishing stones (Escher, Chinese (formerly C12K) or similar) and chrome pastes and leather. I don't see the need for tape for most of the blades I have except for some wedges that have some issues.

If you are new to honing then the benefits of taping say you probably should use tape.

If you are an old hand to honing then you would not be asking the question and would have already made up your mind...

It actually works out the every layer of 3M #700 tape adds less than .75 of a degree of angle to a 5/8 razor...

In another thread after a ton of people measured their razors, the range was from about 13 degrees to 22 degrees for vintage razors the average fell at about 16 degrees...

If you are going to use tape, keep it flat, straight. and replace it often... You can tell by feel and sight when the shine is worn off the tape and it starts to grab the stone..

The choice is ultimately yours, and BTW it takes about 20 laps on a Norton 4k to eliminate the bevel from a single layer taped spine and change it to an untaped spine bevel just for info...

ps: this info doesn't translate to adding more than 1 layer of tape, that is getting into a different area...

Oh yeah and as to the sharpness issue, I would make a bet that not one person on a blind honing test can tell the difference on their face between the same razor honed with tape and without tape, again only 1 layer....

Still not a fan of taping unless for specific purposes as Jimmy indicated........I really don't feel it is necessary or of any benefit for every day honing.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The choice is ultimately yours, and BTW it takes about 20 laps on a Norton 4k to eliminate the bevel from a single layer taped spine and change it to an untaped spine bevel just for info...

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?

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

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?

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...