Thread: To tape or not to tape - Newbie question

Ephemeral: the feeling of all steel on a hone. There are exceptions where I think tape is necessary which others have said.
Non-ephemeral: It now feels like it takes me forever to center the tape on the spine because I am a fanatic for symmetry.
Good Luck

Incredibly, and totally unexpectedly, a seller in mercadolibre (our e-bay associated site) showed up with a combo of two-sided stones: 1000/4000 & 4000/8000. I didn't give it a second thought ;-)

Still not decided to go further in the grit size, towards 12000-20000 range as I have seen in this forum; I might stay with the Nortons and stropping pastes for a while and see what happens.

Rgds

Martin

You also may want to look at Barber Hones, a 2 sided hone can be very similar in performance to a modern 4/8k synthetic stone.

I would begin my search at local barber shops, you might be pleasantly surprised at what else you fine.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

You also may want to look at Barber Hones, a 2 sided hone can be very similar in performance to a modern 4/8k synthetic stone.

I would begin my search at local barber shops, you might be pleasantly surprised at what else you fine.

Thanks, Euclid. I would rather wait for my set of Nortons, if they are supposed to be of "similar performance" (quite anxious about them, BTW). Local barbers, AFAIK, don't use the straight razors anymore for safety reasons (AIDS and such, I guess). I don't know how many of them know how to give you a nice straight razor shave, but some of them used to use straight razors to finish the back of your neck, for example.

They currently use a kind of holder, where they place half a disposable sheet (http://mlm-s2-p.mlstatic.com/navajas...3_082013-F.jpg), and they actually show you when they cut the sheet in half inside the waxed paper envelope, in order to ensure it is brand new.

One of the local shops for barber materials (clippers, foams, scissors, shears, brushes, you name it), which was actually one of the most important ones ("Casa Montagnac"), became smaller and smaller over time, and kept only their sharpening shop "alive", but ended up closing down recently.

Rgds.

Just in my experience ....... I began honing using one layer of electrical tape for fear of damaging the spine due to my ineptitude. After I had honed many razors over the course of a year, I began honing some without tape. I found that I liked honing sans tape but ........ I went back to using tape because with some razors it became a cosmetic issue.

I just didn't like any wear on the spine at all, even minimal wear. Add to that the problem of honing some with, some without tape, becomes remembering which is which. When it comes time for a touch up it is nice to know whether tape was used in the initial honing or not. So my default method became one layer of tape on all razors. Rare exceptions may call for more than one layer, but those special cases are few and far between, because I'm selective about the condition of the razors I buy to begin with.

My two cents .......

It is much the same here, which is why if you find some of the old barbers they still have a lot of their old gear, Stones, Razors and Strops that they would probably love to see someone appreciate and use… not to mention literally a lifetime of knowledge.

Even if you can’t fine old barbers, newer barbers can point you in right direction, they know who and where the old guys are.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

It is much the same here, which is why if you find some of the old barbers they still have a lot of their old gear, Stones, Razors and Strops that they would probably love to see someone appreciate and use… not to mention literally a lifetime of knowledge.

Even if you can’t fine old barbers, newer barbers can point you in right direction, they know who and where the old guys are.

I will. I used to visit barbers every month or so... years ago. Now I only visit one when my son needs a haircut and my wife is too busy to go during weekdays. I kind of got rid of haircuts... :-(

Next time I go with my son I will ask him. This guy is about 60 YO and the shop was his father's. He works there since he was a teenager, so there must be something old fashioned to look for.

G'day folks,

A month or so ago, I bought a razor from an antique store near where I live. It had a note with it saying it was honed with one layer of tape. I am a confirmed 'No tape' guy. Now when I want to refresh/hone this razor, I want to hone it 'no tape' My question is, is it a big job to convert the angle of the primary edge? Am I looking at going right back and reset the bevel on 1K and go through the whole progression? Or can I just follow a touch up routine, going back a hone in the routine and finish as normal?

Your advice?

1 layer of tape is meaningless, or about 20 laps to drop to bare steel
It varies with the stone of course but it is PDQ

People make a huge deal of nothing..

There is a vid on my channel you can watch by searching "gssixgun honing Tape vs No tape" and watch it happen

Thanks Glen,
I'm no mathematician, so thanks for the advice. I thought I'd watched all ur srp, vids, I'll have another look.


Cheers Bob