Hi everyone,

First a (quite long) introduction to my doubt. Jump to the next bold letters if you wish:

Since a few months ago, I've started shaving with a straight razor... the hard way! I've got a SR from my grandpa (he passed away in 1982), and though it was quite rusty I've put it to use.

My "rough" stone is a grit #500ish, and my "fine" one is a natural, with unknown grit rating. When sharpening knives, it takes a lifetime to get rid of the #500's scratches on the natural stone, so it must be in the #2000-#4000 range. When you look at the edge with your naked eye, it looks shiny, but with an inverted 6mm TV lens (roughly a 150X magnification) you see the scratches quite clearly. It takes quite a while to place things (razor, your nose, the light, the "loupe") in order to be able to see something actually. This setup focuses when almost touching the surface. Green CROX paste on leather, and white "fine" paste on leather and it even looks shiny with a strong loupe.

Here it goes:
I have been browsing some tutorials and the libraries (a lot more yet to be checked) and have seen quite some different opinions on the electrical tape issue. No tape, one layer of tape, three layers of tape, and so on. But this is mainly focused on the final bevel angle. I don't know why but I've decided on the "no tape" variation. Though I've intentionally pressed more on the edge than on the spine, the latter one got scratched too. Does this happen to everyone? Any ways the "no-tape" fanatics avoid this?

Where I live (Buenos Aires - Argentina) it is not easy to get mentoring (I've read on this forum that in-person mentoring is a lot easier than youtube videos), and also the high grit stones (4000-8000-12000); so kindly don't suggest any of them as a solution ;-)

TIA

Martin