Taping a spine is done purely for aesthetic reasons to minimize or prevent hone wear.

Honemeisters will commonly tape spines as razor owners may squawk about spine wear.

You'll hear many arguments for and against taping spines. Some razors due to their aesthetic value pretty much require taping to preserve their overall look ("damascus" steel, etc).

I've found that it's typical for "newbies" to pick up on the spine/hone wear issue and IMO incorrectly put much more negative weight on spine wear than their should be. Hypothetical example: You'll see someone ask if a very nice used vintage razor on Ebay is worth buying. Almost invariably, and most often from a newer member, you'll see a comment about how the razor looks nice "but.........it DOES have some hone wear". The feisty side of me, keeping the retort to myself wants to say "Duh, it's a used razor.".

Thankfully I keep my feisty comments to myself most of the time.

I rarely tape spines and actually like the look of both the bevel AND the spine gleaming back at me with mirror like reflections with the hollow separating the two. To me it looks sweet and baaaad! Then again, I don't have $1,000 custom razors either, so I can see both sides.

Some will say that taping the spines on razors that are meant to be shaved with is akin to only driving a sports car at 5mph around a parking lot for fear of yielding wear and tear on the vehicle. Wait, maybe I'm the only one that says that.

Everyone is different. I can see both sides. Neither is "right" or "wrong". It's user preference. Honemeisters probably do, or if not they should tell a razor owner EXACTLY how they honed a blade if they did use tape though. It would make a rehone much much easier for the next person honing to know what kind of tape/how many layers, etc.

Chris L