Thread: tape and hones.

Originally Posted by Lemur

Try and get the original tape that the manufacture of your razor used, it has to be the best!

Not sure that's J.A Hellberg used to use tape lemur.

Who was the first razor honer to use tape? Is the answer J.A. Hellberg?

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Not sure that's J.A Hellberg used to use tape lemur. Looks like the first person to use a vinyl tape must have done so sometime around 1946. It's possible he is still alive and is a member of this forum. Please step forwar and identify yourself!

Hey, you stole my post!

Originally Posted by WW243

Who was the first razor honer to use tape? Is the answer J.A. Hellberg?

Glen.
Besides protecting the spine during honing .. What's the benefit of using tape? Layman storms I just read a six page post about this my head is spinning..

Originally Posted by Airportcopper

Glen.
Besides protecting the spine during honing .. What's the benefit of using tape? Layman storms I just read a six page post about this my head is spinning..

I have never figured out why Tape vs No tape is always a contention on all the forums,, If people would just do the actual tests and do the math, they would soon realize that there is no upside or downside... You can argue it for hours either way, which is what most of these threads turn into..

The only advantage that I have ever found besides protecting the spine is on razors that are borderline ready for a re-grind, you can't add steel but you can add a few pennies worth of tape to save a ton of grinding...

Basically they are your razors do as you wish

Aren't spine wear a good thing? To have the same angle even if the blade gets ground down. Like maintaning a primary bevel on knifes. I imagine if the temper are kinda even then the edge will be ground of more then the spine every time it's sharpened?
Can see the point in using the tape only with the fine stones, to get some edge to work on fast, but it's used mainly on the course stones?

Btw what kind of lupe are good in magnification terms?

Originally Posted by Einar

Aren't spine wear a good thing? Btw what kind of lupe are good in magnification terms?

I don't think excessive spine wear is a good thing because it alters the angle rather than maintaining it. If you consider that the optimum sharpening angle of round about 18 degrees is formed from the width of the spine and width of the blade, then excessive spine wear will considerably alter this formula so that you begin to get a much wider bevel - following this to a logical conclusion means that you end up back at a wedge.

There's a mathmatical formula for calculating how many layers of tape are required to get the right angle for honing (I believe it's on the Coticule site but may also be on the forum somewhere) so if you know the approximate width of spine, blade and tape it tells you how many layers to use.

Personally, I use tape more as a protection against hone wear and it's sometimes useful to just slightly change the bevel angle on difficult blades.

Originally Posted by Einar

Aren't spine wear a good thing? To have the same angle even if the blade gets ground down. Like maintaning a primary bevel on knifes. I imagine if the temper are kinda even then the edge will be ground of more then the spine every time it's sharpened?
Can see the point in using the tape only with the fine stones, to get some edge to work on fast, but it's used mainly on the course stones?

Btw what kind of lupe are good in magnification terms?

Basically it is to preserve a vintage razor, because they don't make them anymore. With the knowledge you can learn here, you can get alot of shaves before hitting the hones. I have had 50 shaves from a razor using just a strop, and there are others who have done much better than that. Add in pasted strops, and you can keep your razor in mint condition, with little or no hone wear. This will help maintain the value of you razor. A 30 x lupe is sufficient to see what is going on. Hope this helps.

I used to think that by using tape, I was not skilled enough as a honer(I don't consider myself a honemeister by a long stretch). When I saw Glen using tape, I knew it was ok for me to use it. I have a near wedge that I couldn't sharpen till I uses a double layer of tape. Now it shaves great.

Hi Ed,
I used one layer of tape to home that frameback, and I'd recommend you do the same. You may notice the frame is a little thin in parts; esp at the toe end. EVEN if the tape DOES clog hones (and I don't think it does; at least not that a couple of passes with a lapping stone or cleaning stone wouldn't sort) a hone can be replaced, that frameback can't.

Can I ask how far you are taking back the honing? I would highly suggest 20 laps on a Shapton 16k is really all it should need; I wouldn't think you'd need much more.

The Swedish steel is much harder than some; normally to refresh my edges i do 10 laps on the Shapton, but on my Swedish razors I do 20. I guess in a way this means more spine wear is possible.

Sure if you got all 'basic' you wouldn't use tape, but why wear the frame if you don't have to?

You'll also notice that razor has a very thin bevel, which seems common to framebacks. If you DON'T use tape, you'll need to re-set the bevel, otherwise you're just polishing the edges of my bevel, not making an edge.

Hope you don't mind me acting like a recently estranged mother...