OK, thank you for catching what I missed.
In that case the question is how often is he replacing it? The typical beginning honer puts too much pressure on the spine relative to the edge, which results in the rapid wearing away of the tape. This leads to the progressive lowering of the spine closer to the hone and raising the edge away from the hone. Only the full thickness of a fresh piece of tape will ensure that the very apex of the edge is touching the hone.