Quote Originally Posted by HNSB View Post
For my own clarification, and possibly that of the OP...

If honing with tape on the spine, the tape must remain for all stages of the honing process, correct? I was just watching a video that made a lot of sense to me, that showed honing with tape to set a bevel and then removing the tape during polishing caused the edge to lift from the hone and not be polished.
Basically removing the tape causes the beveled side of the razor to rest on the shoulder created between the two bevels, and not on the edge itself.

That makes sense to me in theory, but I always like to know what real world experience shows.
Yes but .... in some instances a honer might want to correct a bevel, say with chips, by using tape on the spine. Once the chips, or maybe a frown, are corrected he might prefer to remove the tape and go back to 'normal' honing. He will have to reset the bevel but the lion's share of the work is done without excess wear to the spine. That is one instance where I could see it happening .... and have done it myself. .