Thread: Ebay honing question (subjective)

I've recently taken to keeping my eye on ebay razors. What a wild world that is!

I have a question then I'll submit my rational for constructive criticism.

Given that I prefer to hone with tape on, should I approach ALL ebay vintage razor buys with the idea that I'll need to set the bevel on each and every one if I am going to shave with them?

My idea is "yes". Rational? I have no idea of knowing whether the razor was last honed tape off or tape on. Seems to make sense to me. Please, as I said, councel is welcome.

Regards,

Siguy

Treat every razor as an individual when it comes to honing.
Exam each one & determine the course to hone it.
To tape or not to tape, is Life's eternal question.

You with find a few threads on SRP on the question of taping,,,,,,just a few,,,

Every eBay razor I buy gets a new bevel regardless of what it looks like. That way I know the bevel is set. Its the way I do it. Others my not but it really all depends from razor to razor.

Rational indeed! It is virtually impossible to refresh an edge unless you know at what angle it was honed. A layer of tape will alter the honing angle, so unless you know exactly how it was honed you probably will be struggling..
For this reason I think it is a very sound idea to set your own bevel. Unless it was honed by one of the honemeisters here, that is

@Hirlau,

I've decided to not put too much emphasis on to tape or not to tape. I just go with "to tape" and be done with it.

DOH! MODERATOR, CAN YOU MOVE THIS THREAD TO WHERE IT BELONGS? I accidentally posted it under Razors.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Originally Posted by Siguy

DOH! MODERATOR, CAN YOU MOVE THIS THREAD TO WHERE IT BELONGS? I accidentally posted it under Razors.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Moved it to the Honing section for you

Yea, probably…

It seems almost every time I don’t, I end up at a 1K having gone backwards in progression.

Just to move forward, as I should have from the beginning.

Well, you could inspect the edge under magnification and if it appears to be OK, strop and shave. If it shaves OK, leave it till it needs honing and then tape it and set the bevel so all your razors are honed the same way. Or just tape it, set the bevel and you are done.

I generally go the last route because most of what I get of the bay needs cleaning+polishing and that destroys the edge anyway.

Bob

If the bevel is set without tape you can hone it with tape with no trouble.
To go the other way you need to reset the bevel.