When I was just starting to hone the tape saved my razors from ruin. The tell tale for me on that is that in the beginning I was putting so much pressure on the spine that the tape would wear quite quickly and need to be change often. Now when I hone my tape gets very little wear. It is the pressure that new honers put on the spine that causes that unsightly wear. Oddly enough the correction is the same as the prevention, tape. I think if you have done a lot of honing it may not be all that important to use tape, but tape saves razors both before and after the wear.
Nice job getting that old girl back to work.