Quote Originally Posted by ace View Post
I just can't figure why someone would take the tape off at the 4000 grit level. At that level, would there be no spine scarring?
As I said above, if you take the tape off after you set the bevel and don't reset the bevel, you will not be honing the edge of the razor. Only the very back of the bevel will make contact with the hone. This means that, no matter what you hone on, you will still have the same edge as you did before you removed the tape. You said you saw that in a youtube video, but just because something is on youtube (or anywhere else) does not mean it is correct.

As for the spine wear - if you look at a brand new razor, you will see there is a flat area on the spine and on the edge (at least every new razor I have seen). The amount of honing that a new razor typically needs will not change that flat area enough for you to notice the difference. The same is true of many vintage razors (unless they need a lot of work to reset the bevel - i.e. chips or many heavy grind blades) - there is already wear there and you will probably not be able to tell the difference with or without tape.

Two exceptions that I can think of are restored razors (where the flat area at the spine is removed during the restoration process as a result of sanding/buffing/whatever) or some sort of full-razor decoration process (such as a damascus razor).