Taping the spine?

I know that if you are trying to prevent losing gold wash, or you have some nice design work on a blade, it is advised that you use electrical tape to fit around the spine.

Wouldn't it make sense to use tape no matter what blade you have everytime you hone, in order to prevent honing wear, and possibly flattening of the spine as time goes on? Or, would you guys suggest not to do this? How long would it actually take to flatten a spine (given the conditions that you are not completely overhoning all the time, and that you hone approx. every 2 months)?

If you've got gold leafing along the spine then you'll want to tape it every time. If you're talking about gold leaf on the blade itself, since that doesn't touch the hone you don't need to worry about tape. The coarser and faster cutting the hone, the more it will wear away the spine.

X

I think if you had one razor, and you touched it up on the hone once every two weeks, and you didn't have to work out nicks or anything, you could probably use the razor for 200 years before you ruined it by honing.

That's assuming your honing techinque is good and it only takes you a few strokes to touch it up.

When I was learning to hone, I had one razor that I must have honed for 50 hours on different grits. Most of the time I didn't tape the spine. It definitely showed the hone wear, but not as much as you'd think.

I only tape on the coarser grits--1K and below--and for the initial work on the 4K. Once I have the bevel established an smoothed out, I'll take the tape off for the final 4K and 8K work. Many guys leave the tape on until they're ready to strop; I find the extra drag makes it hard for me to do the final, extra-light finishing strokes.

Josh

Personally I always tape the spine, both on the Norton 4/8 and when I use a pasted (hanging) strop. I can see how there might be extra drag because of it, but I guess if you start that way you adapt to it with time.

As to how long until the spine wears down, I wouldn't have a clue. I've bought and been given some pretty old razors with a fair bit of hone wear, and others with almost none (maybe these were taped...;) ).

I've got a feeling that taping the spine is like the environmental debate - you probably won't see major effects in your lifetime, but think about the kiddies of tomorrow. A bit of taping today could save numerous species of razor ending up on the endangered list. After all, we owe it to the children. [Sorry, I think there's something in my eye....]

James.

the one thing I think about when it comes to this topic is will taping the spine eventually lead to an incorrect honing angle? Given the razor is built so it's at the perfect honing angle when laid flat against the stone, presumably that means that for every little bit of metal being taken from the edge, a like amount would have to be taken from the spine in order to maintain that angle?

Any takers on this theory?

Andrew

There's a wide range of acceptable honing angles. Take a micrometer and measure a bunch of your 5/8 razors (or whatever your favorite size is). You'll be surprised at the level of variation.