Krank: First Taped Razor

[Mods feel free to move this to another sub-forum if it doesn't belong here.]

So my first self-honed, taped razor was the first razor I got. A German-made razor made for a local barber who got into the barber supply business. A "St. Paul & Minneapolis" "Stub" for Alfred J. Krank. It was a little chipped. Cleaned up with MAAS, etc. The blade's edge collapsed after one shave so the 2nd and 4th shaves were bad. Then I honed it past all chips, I thought I'd honed off all the semi-corroded "trash" steel but the blade's edge showed mysterious chipping after the 6th or 7th shave, which was a bad shave. So I go "what the heck?!" and decide to finally tape the spine and increase the total angle of the edge.

I'd honed about 7-8 blades by this point, depending on how you define it, so this wasn't new. Talking and learning under RandyDance helped me decide to tape the spines when ripping off lots of steel, like the initial chip-removal and bevel setting of eBay and others who need resurrecting. Since my little 4/8th square-tip Krank was acceptable for the first few shaves I thought I'd try to take it to a 3 layer taping, which I understand is fairly good considering the width of the blade at 4/8th.

I couldn't tell the difference in ease of shaving between the blade at tapeless vs. 3 layers of electrical. The blade gave satisfactory shaves for about as long as the other blade I'd honed and used until pulling. About a week and a half. Then I lightly lapped it (with the original tape-sleeve) 20 times on the finishing hone and it shaves real nice again.

So I think it's finally fixed and working. Anyway, it's my long-time project, got it in the holiday season of 2007 and now it's finally good enough for daily shaving. Darn, it was a long time coming, too. I didn't realize it had bad edge architecture until I'd used it more than five times or so. Yikes. I had no idea it could take so long to come to terms with my "local" razor!

Well I did move this over to the honing forum so that you'd some better discussion about taped spines.

I tape all of my spines simply because Glen honed my first few razors with tape on the spine, and I figured I'd keep everything consistent from that point forward.

Congrats on finishing that razor, too! I know I've got a few of those long-time projects sitting in my drawer as well. :)

So I'd been working on this A. Witte (another German-consigned) razor at about 5/8ths, a conscientiously muted spike point with a slight and very beneficial (from my experience) smile.

I have a cursed 4,000 Norton, betrothed to a very sexy and enjoyable 8,000 Norton. I must regularly "refresh" the 4k Mexicano side to ensure there is no disastrous swarf lurking in the micro-holes to entrench micro-chips in the otherwise pristine edge. So that is a refreshing with a DMT 8C (coarse for the uninformed) 8"x3" tablet so the initial cutting is done on something with a coarse face/grooves. What I've come to terms with is the idea of a taped blade, that is, at least one layer of tape (not at all like the collapsing nature of the Krank).

Once I had brought the Witte to the 4k, I removed the tape and smoothed out the secondary bevel, once that felt okay I put the tape back on and continued to work on the cutting edge (the primary bevel). Of course, turning the stone, switching sides, balancing the wear on the hone. I continued this to the Norton uncursed 8,000 side. I like to think that smoothing out the secondary bevel, which will be in harder contact with the strop than the cutting edge in a multi-beveled blade, is really taking care of the strop than anything else. But it serves a secondary purpose of "prepping" or priming the hone for the primary angle, just as the tape protects the spine the secondary bevel serves a protective role for the ultimate cutting edge's plane, by proceeding it in smoothing action, however slight. Of course I used the cheap solvent isopropyl alcohol to keep the synthetic waterstones clean (this one the spine (the adhesive's residue)).

This is how I've come to terms with taping the spine and an imperfect hone in an otherwise good honing progression. This is also partially adapted from the conception (born!) of ripping off lots of steel, removing deep chips from razors that are basically coming back from the dead (resurrection razor). Why? Because I need to repeatedly remove the tape and re-set it shifted to the left or right. Actually, because I know the concept, in the initial setting I cut the electrical tape off at the toe and, leaving the right-angled end of the tape off the tip, scissor off the end to let me see where it was centered, in addition to the hone-wear marks on the tape. That way I also eliminate the problem of a crinkled foldover of the tape to produce an uneven bevel-set on the tip.

So that's what I've gained from taping the spine.

'Cuz no one else said anything. Felt obligated to say something.

It sounds like you had a blade with some bad steel; corrosion, inclusions and sometimes just flaky and brittle. Usually this happens to me with the old Sheffields, but here recently I have experienced it with hollows as well. The only thing you can do that I know of is to re hone the blade every time it falls apart. Set the bevel and inspect, and inspect prior to every step up the progression and again after the shave. If you see any signs of the edge or bevel falling apart go all the way back and start over again.

I know that you did this or something similar, but this is for other guys as well.

Hey Axel, good to see you posting and still keeping at it.

Usually at this time of year the forums go kinda dead because a lot of people are on vacation, etc. Things start up again after Labor day and get very active about Nov-Dec.

Talk with you soon,:)