Thread: Tape the Straight Razor Spine to Hone It?

Do you suggest taping the spine before honing or not?


Why, or why not?

There's a HUGE amount of posts here about that subject, it's one of the Straight Razor Eternal Questions. My story is that I normally tape, and the one day I didn't (on my Bengall) I overdid the honing a little and wore the spine a little, which pissed me off a LOT. My take on the thing is why wear the spine if you don't have to, unless you want to be REALLY 'basic' and do things exactly as 'they used to', in which case you'd be using an old barbers' hone, heating your shaving water on the wood stove and wearing button on collars and hob nailed boots (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Carl

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ape-spine.html

Bob

Wooooooo Hoooooooo Another Tape Thread

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

It makes me want to open up a thread,,"Why do Wade & Butchers cost so much?"

We need a hanging tape thread .......

I started out taping everything for the first year. Then I switched to only taping damascus or decorated spines. Continued with that for a few years. Now I'm back to taping everything again. One layer of 3M electrical tape is what I do unless it is a special circumstance, then I might use more than one layer, but rarely.

I'd advise anyone starting out to tape until you have your chops down, then try it naked (the blade) and see what you prefer.

I think this is one of those do a search and about a million previous threads will come up threads, not that it's not something I am guilty of too.

I will have to admitt that I like the different color tapes that Home Depot sells,,,I would swear that my strokes are faster, much smoother with the blue tape.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

I will have to admitt that I like the different color tapes that Home Depot sells,,,I would swear that my strokes are faster, much smoother with the blue tape.

I use the green so I know I am good to go!

If you tape the spine of the razor, wouldn't you have to tape the edge, too? I don't think you want to hone away steel from the edge and make the blade narrower, without also honing steel away from the spine to make it thinner to match. Am I being a total retard here or something? Cause I was told that the bevel angle is sorta important, and the bevel angle is determined by the ratio between width and thickness, and normal honing decreases both, more or less proportionally, and so reducing the width without reducing the thickness changes the bevel angle over time. Am I overlooking something? Apart from the slowness of the wear of course. I realize that it would be a slow process but what is slow to a tool that can be used daily for over a hundred years? Just sayin. Hey I'm a newbie. And I was taught to not use tape except in certain limited situations like honing a wedge which I haven't done yet.