Thread: Question About Honing - Covering The Spine Sides

Originally Posted by Tarkus

You see, this is why you have that Mentor status Hirlau.

,,,,,and everytime the Mod's read my posts, they walk away shaking their heads, saying"I cant believe we actually colored this one orange."

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Hones are disposable,Razors are not.

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I'll tape by default unless someone asks me not to. I just learned that way and stuck with it over the years. As Lynn said, the amount of metal that gets removed is quite minimal when done correctly so taping or not is really, in the end, an aesthetic subjective issue, nothing more. Although a bit of tape can help speed up wedge honing, so I guess sometimes it can be a practical issue as well.

You'd have to be doing some seriously frequent rehoning (starting all over from the bevel set) for taping to end up creating a geometry issue IMO, particularly on a new razor. Of course, not taping will always maintain the geometry when done correctly.

As for not taping reducing the life of the hone - what Lynn said for starters (tape can gunk a hone up); for seconders I think you may be seriously overestimating how much of the stone gets worn away when honing a well-behaved razor. Even the softer stones.

James.

I want five minutes of my life back. Like Charlie Brown with the football, I opened another tape thread. Argh!

Awesome thread! Great to see Lynn Abrams schooled by some new guys on how to hone a straight razor.

When we're done teaching Lynn, maybe we can help this poor Italian guy —



— understand that despite he and his family's multi-generational reputation for making the most beautiful straight razors in the world, he doesn't know what the hell he's doing, his technique is like smashing the windshield on a new car.

Seriously guys my take-away from this thread is

(a) the spine is made for honing: it sets and maintains the bevel angle. That's how razors are designed, that's the idea. Nothing wrong with taping — that'll work too and the results appeal to many, but it's not the default, quite the opposite;

(b) new guys should hold off on buying $200-$300 razors until they well understand razor geometry, razor maintenance, the choices available to them and their own likely preferences;

(c) when you have a problem with a service rendered by an SRP member, it is better to contact the member privately and directly, and post about it — if you must — only in general and carefully discreet terms.

My two cents but thanks all for the wild ride!

Originally Posted by Tarkus

Boy you are a newbe
Dont you know when you use colored tape you go 5 m.p.h. faster on your honing strokes.
Its like going to the auto store and buying a chrome plated oil dip stick, another 5 m.p.h.
You cant knock science. Har!!!

If you really want to the scientific way you should use red tape on the away strokes and then change to blue for the back strokes!

So the aesthetic issue is not a problem. I restored over a hundred wigmaker's razors, old crookless razors from the 1800s, Thiers Issard Spartacus vintage razors, Manufrance razors, I guess I shouldn't have bothered... The guys would have complained but I could triumphantly claim that minimal honewear is something normal...
Sorry to troll our chief honemeisters, we've got plenty of talented razormakers here in france that would also disagree with them, but again, as we say in France : la messe est dite.

In other words :

Originally Posted by Lynn

This topic has been so beat to death here.......
Have fun.

It sucks working nights, I miss everything.

I realize now that I've been worrying too much about the conditions of my razors' spines. I'm going to take all my Robert Willaims razors, the big W&Bs, big GBs and my Kenny Powells, take them down to 220 without tape to re-set the bevels, and then I won't have to worry about those stupid shiny sides on the spines anymore. What a relief!

I think you should post a whole lot more so people really think you know what you are doing.

Originally Posted by ace

I realize now that I've been worrying too much about the conditions of my razors' spines. I'm going to take all my Robert Willaims razors, the big W&Bs, big GBs and my Kenny Powells, take them down to 220 without tape to re-set the bevels, and then I won't have to worry about those stupid shiny sides on the spines anymore. What a relief!