Thread: Do I Leave The Spine Taped

Hi
Not sure if this should be in the Honing or Stropping forum, but here go's.
Have just refreshed a razor on a 12k hone. I have taped the spine as recommended by Neil Miller as he made the razor shave ready to start with.

I then did 10 laps or so on a Cro oxide strop. I am now going onto a linen & leather strop. Do I leave the spine taped or should I remove it. Or does it make any difference.

Thanks.

Personaly, I don't think you need to.
The strop will give a little and the leather should contact the entire edge.
Not sure about using a paddle strop though as you wouldn't want to use to much pressure.

you do not need tape on your hanging strop

Thanks for clearing that up promptly. Its a hanging strop I will be using.
Just need a bit of quiet time to see if the shave is as good as it was when I first got the razor honed.

If the spine is taped during honing it must be taped whenever you refresh the edge on an inflexible surface. A barber hone for example. On a flexible surface such as a strop it is unnecessary and probably undesirable.

weirdly I recently had better luck refreshing my wustof tridente on my shumate barber hone without tape than with tape, and I'd originally honed with tape.

Originally Posted by loueedacat

weirdly I recently had better luck refreshing my wustof tridente on my shumate barber hone without tape than with tape, and I'd originally honed with tape.

Interesting. Picturing it in my mind's eye, I think the very edge would have been raised by the shoulder of the bevel ? IOW the actual edge shouldn't have made direct contact. In that case perhaps the hone smoothed the scratch pattern on the bevel somewhat to give a smoother feel ? Or could it have removed a burr or a bit of the thinnest part if it was folding over ? Everything to do with the very edge is on such a microscopic level that it is hard to know for sure. For me anyhow.

The "huge" difference in Taped -vs- Not taped is rather a small thing...

It works out to about 20 laps on a Norton 4k to erase a freshly honed taped edge... A shave worn taped edge is even less...
I have never actually tested this on a Barber's Hone but they do cut rather fast for as fine as they are so I imagine that this is rather close too...

I am of course talking about 1 layer of 3M electrical tape...

Originally Posted by Craig101

Hi
Not sure if this should be in the Honing or Stropping forum, but here go's.
Have just refreshed a razor on a 12k hone. I have taped the spine as recommended by Neil Miller as he made the razor shave ready to start with.

I then did 10 laps or so on a Cro oxide strop. I am now going onto a linen & leather strop. Do I leave the spine taped or should I remove it. Or does it make any difference.

Thanks.

In general if the razor was honed with tape freshen on a hone with the
same amount of tape.

No tape is needed when stropping.

A 12K hone like the Na Superstone will reset an edge with a little
effort because they cut so fast. If you hone first without tape then
tape and hone very lightly the bevel will push itself out to the edge.
With a couple cycles the tape will no longer be needed.

Check with Neil Miller, there are a lot of folk that add tape
only for the last final hone to develop a very fine sharp secondary
micro bevel. With modern hones refreshing without tape is very
possible even if the razor was taped previously.