I Am Praying this Does Not Come off Like a Lame Question

No worries mate. For me I believe that by accident going tapeless I use the right amount of pressure. By being aware of spine wear/contact it changed the amount of pressure I used.I know that the resultant effect for me is a sharper edge, as defined by the thumbpad pressure test. All these things are subjective to the evaluator. Its when your alone with you ,your straight and hones that the metal hits the rock. It takes time to develop the feel. You were not missing anything. I share my mistakes, as well as how I overcame them in the hope that it will help someone else become better. If I have 10 straights and I pay $20 per to be honed. It makes more sense to me to learn how to hone. Tape gave me a false sense of security and made me more aggressive than I needed to be in relation to pressure of the stroke. Short answer " I am still learning, this is what worked for me" .

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Originally Posted by ultrasoundguy2003

No worries mate. For me I believe that by accident going tapeless I use the right amount of pressure. By being aware of spine wear/contact it changed the amount of pressure I used.I know that the resultant effect for me is a sharper edge, as defined by the thumbpad pressure test. All these things are subjective to the evaluator. Its when your alone with you ,your straight and hones that the metal hits the rock. It takes time to develop the feel. You were not missing anything. I share my mistakes, as well as how I overcame them in the hope that it will help someone else become better. If I have 10 straights and I pay $20 per to be honed. It makes more sense to me to learn how to hone. Tape gave me a false sense of security and made me more aggressive than I needed to be in relation to pressure of the stroke. Short answer " I am still learning, this is what worked for me" .

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Two things come to mind as i read your posts..

1. Your edges got better because you are paying more attention to the finishing stages when you take the tape off, edges tend to get better when we slow down and pay attention :)

2. You're compensating for the tape coming off by doing exactly what you should be doing, which is directing a slight amount of "Torque" toward the edge of the razor while performing the stroke..
We don't mention the torque very often on here but if you dig through the older posts from people like Randydance, Lynn, Hvydutysgt, Mparker, myself, and a few others you will find it talked about.. It is very hard to try and describe that actual action through typing, but I point it out like crazy when sitting across the table at the meets...

Anyway that is what I get out of your story

You nailed it exactly. I wanted to use your quote in my previous post. I am in that process of learning it properly. And the torque is what I am trying to communicate I used the verbiage "pressure" but all I can say is "Thank-you" for explaining what I am learning . I need to run into you at a meet. I cant say enough about the in person mentoring teaching aspect of the learning curve. It is greatly accelerated. Right now I am in a room alone using this site and members such as you to learn. The nuances are numerous. THANK-YOU for weighing in and explaining it better than I was able.

I never use tape anymore and I have dovo straights. After a few years I hardly see any wear and not anything to worry for. Happy shaving!