Quote Originally Posted by Utopian View Post
I agree with everything else you wrote, but there is an admittedly slight advantage to using tapes if varying thickness. Rather than creating a visible microbevel by adding a second layer totaling 0.014 inches thick, I can create a much more subtle one by switching from 0.007 to 0.0085.
You use tape when you don't want to waste precious metal, definitely from the spine, but sometimes from the edge too, fixing the edge with the least amount of steel lost. When you are using two, three or more layers of tape, it doesn't always means that you will be shaving with that X layers of tape edge. It's only for correcting the bevel in the majority of cases.
When your originally crooked bevel with the two tapes is correctly formed, you've wasted less metal and time if you compare it to using a tape that's a few tenths of a millimeter thicker, and keep honing and replacing until the job is done.
As for the thickness of the tape, I don't see a reason for someone to need the thinnest tape possible. I haven't seen a difference on shave, nor on the looks of the razor by changing the angle by a degree or so.
Also, a correct bevel formed using two tapes needs a few seconds to change from two layers to one, unless we are talking about a microtome or a full wedge (where the layer needs to be absolutely symmetrical and end at the exact same place every time you change it) so, again, it doesn't really matter.