My first wedge...

Just picked up a Wade and Butcher at the local antique mall. Pretty wedgie.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/dnjrboy/SOA2qhU...0/DSCN3871.JPG

I have done about 4 aggressive pyramids with it on my norton 4/8 k. I was a little bit mystified that it wasn't really getting very sharp. I had to work to get it to remove some hair from my forearm.

I was thinking that maybe the small amount of hollow might be causing a problem, so I put 5 layers of electrical tape on the spine and did another aggressive pyramid. This has made it quite a bit sharper, now my right foot is missing all of the hair from the top of it (and 1 toe, I have a hard time stopping once I start).

I don't really want to have to lay on the electrical tape every time I strop. Should I remove the tape and do a couple of more pyramids? Could the almost full wedge shape be giving me problems? Rather new to honing and any quidance is appreciated.

I have only ever honed one true wedge, but it took muuuuuch longer to hone that any of my other razors. This makes sense, of course -- you're removing much more metal on a true wedge (where the whole plane is touching the hone) than on a hollow (which is only touching at two points). By putting on a few layers of tape, you're recreating a spine and cancelling out the true wedge-ness of the razor. And you'll have to add all those layers back when you strop it or touch it up, which seems like a lot of trouble to me -- but maybe I'm just lazy.

cass

i would take off 2 layers when you hone it again then the next time take off 2 more and you will have 1 layer to hone on, and it wont seem like it is taking forever to do

Jwoods is dead right here, the 5 layers was a little heavy but it worked soooooooo :D
I would have set the bevel with 3 layers, the gone down to 1 reset the bevel and finished the razor with just the 1 layer....

Just my .02 cents

Glen,

Why not start with one layer, if you're going to end up that way? I was thinking it might have been to save hone wear on the spine, but if you're going to do one layer anyway, why start with three?

I'm not challenging your wisdom, just really curious, as I'm new to this.

cass

I was just going to ask a similar question. It seems to me that the tape on the spine is not thick enough to actually change the angle, I assume then that it is more for spine protection. If so, do I need to keep the tape when stropping (if only 1 layer when honing)?