Thread: Tape while stropping

Hi,
In learning to hone, and i have been taping spine while learning to hone. I finish on a 12k Naniwa and I bump up the edge with that on crox loaded balsa. I did buy some hard felt to glue to a piece of wood, to experiment with crox on that substrate . I was wondering if I finish on my 12k with tape, would I leave the tape on while stropping? Or is there enough give in the hard felt to contact an edge that was honed with tape and took off before stropping?

I think keeping the tape on the spine for the pasted strop is a good idea, both because it's pasted (and thus removing metal) and because it's on balsa and will have very little give. For these reasons you'll want to keep the stropping angle as close to the angle as you had it on the hones. Now, if you're just stropping on a plain unpasted hanging strop, the bit of slack will compensate so it shouldn't be an issue.

I’ve never had to leave tape on with a balsa, felt or table top leather, plain or pasted, crux is so fine I think you would have to do about 2-3hundred thousand laps to see any spine wear. And with CRoX very few laps anyway.

Unless you are using multiple layers of tape, the compressibility of the stropping substrate will more than compensate for slight change in angle created by the tape. Balsa, felt and leather should have sufficient compression. If you were stropping on rock-hard maple or glass, that might be a different situation.

There is no benefit to leaving tape on while stropping on a substrate like CrOx or similar as your not doing that many laps.

Are you stropping on both balsa and felt?

I leave the tape on until the final stropping, but I strop on hanging strops. I routinely strop between stones and just prior to final finishing laps on a freshly lapped stone. Both balsa and especially felt and leather have more than sufficient give to polish to the edge.

But you can test this for yourself, simply by inking the edge, a single wipe so the edge is cutting into the sharpie tip, then stropping.

Do be careful with balsa, too much pressure can lead to a microchipped edge. I find leather, canvas or paper a much better substrate for Chrome Oxide.

I have been stropping on balsa when practicing on Gold dallor razors, but I haven't been taping them. I'm ordered some hard felt to glue on wood. I'm going to start practicing on decent razors and I will tape them, and I will experiment with the felt, and I was wandering to leave the tape on or take it off during stropping

Originally Posted by Southbound

I have been stropping on balsa when practicing on Gold dallor razors, but I haven't been taping them. I'm ordered some hard felt to glue on wood. I'm going to start practicing on decent razors and I will tape them, and I will experiment with the felt, and I was wandering to leave the tape on or take it off during stropping

It doesn't matter tape vs no tape

There is ample give even on balsa to engage the edge while stropping we are talking about sub-micron sizes here

If you’re using Kapton you can strop with a hanging strop, it won’t affect the ‘drag’ much at all - you can just ignore the tape. I usually leave Kapton on while stropping because I check the edge afterwards. If the heel, toe, etc needs a little more work, I don’t have to re-tape the razor. If it passes I pull the tape.