Thread: Some thoughts on taping and stropping

The other day I restored a JR Torrey barber's notch medium hollow. It had very little spine wear so I taped the spine when I set the bevel and kept tape on the spine all the way up to my finishing stone. I liked the feel of this razor. The steel is soft and light and there are no adverse skin reactions. However I was having to go over places two or three times which means it was not sharp enough and had to go back to the hones.

This time I taped the spine on my 3K stone and went without tape for all the rest. The razor is sharper now but there is hone wear on the spine. I could not have my cake and eat it too. As far as the tape or no tape debate goes I think that you get a sharper edge when you finish without it but you sacrifice your spine. It is a beautiful Catch-22.

I sat down to watch a movie and had the razor next to me. About an hour into the movie I performed a hanging hair test. It failed. Then I palm stropped it for about 20 swipes. It passed. This was quite an eye opener. I think that stropping a razor is a lot like the experiment I did in my 7th grade science class when we swiped a plastic comb on our heads for about a minute to create static electricity (that was back when I had hair on my head.) I think stropping is similar. It could be that it activates a field of electrons around the blade's edge which enables it to slice a hanging hair. I might be reading too much into it. In any event it appears that my razor lost its cutting ability after about an hour or so and had to be re-stropped. For maximum effectiveness I think it is best to strop a razor immediately prior to using it.

I'd be more apt to say your bevel is not properly set. I'd say go back and make 100% sure your bevel is set with tape. Keep tape on through the progression. Strop without tape.
And yes you should strop before every use.

I was just wondering which way were you holding the hair? Root in or root out? The reason I ask is, it is well known that due to the hair structure it is much easier to pass with the root out rather than holding the root in your hand or "root in". Many people don't seem to know this. At any rate....

There could be many things going on and I would do a few more tests before drawing any conclusions.

This is the reason why.

First, tape has so little of an effect on sharpness that you will not be able to detect it.

Originally Posted by slurrycurry

I think that stropping a razor is a lot like the experiment I did in my 7th grade science class when we swiped a plastic comb on our heads for about a minute to create static electricity (that was back when I had hair on my head.) I think stropping is similar. It could be that it activates a field of electrons around the blade's edge which enables it to slice a hanging hair.

No. Stropping clears debris off of the edge and aligns the edge.

Originally Posted by slurrycurry

I might be reading too much into it.

Yup!

Yup, I think you came to the wrong conclusion on the tape vs naked spine effects on sharpness. All using tape does is make a very minute difference to the bevel angle. It has no influence on whether the bevel is truly set or not. Bevel set meaning the two bevels actually meet all along the edge.

As Utopian said above, stopping adds a further refinement to the edge if done properly. I strop the night before which seems to work for me.

Bob

all good comments, the jist is, you didn't get it right. tape has no effect on your edge you put on the razor. and just as Ron said, the leather will align and smooth out your edge if its there. maybe it seemed sharper because when you went back to the 3k you finally set the bevel. and don't put any faith into the hanging hair test unless you have plenty of experience and a controlled baseline Tc

Most razors can be found in the wild between 15 and 25 degrees. Most are close to 15 than 25, but wider bevels do exist, and they do shave. So unless you put enough tape on the edge to make a 30 degree plane bevel, I doubt you diminished shave quality by changing the angle.

I have a couple of vintage blades that came with little spine wear, but cracked blades. They had to lose between a quarter and a third of their blade width, which makes the angle far wider than tape. They shave fine.

I might be wrong here, but I don't think that you should get too much hone wear from just one honing. Some of these razors are very well used and so very well honed and still show little spine wear. I am pretty sure that they didn't use electrical tape back in the day either.

Good luck and I hope you sort it out. Practice makes perfect so they say.

Originally Posted by Utopian

This is the reason why.

Thanks for that!

Does anyone want the rest of my lunch? I am willing to trade it for a nice razor