Thread: To tape or not

Lyn you know as well as i do that the best edges come off the bench grinder followed by a good stropping on 80 grit sandpaper. When you use your grinder remember that if there are no sparks flying your doing it wrong. lol

Originally Posted by Deerhunter1995

Lyn you know as well as i do that the best edges come off the bench grinder followed by a good stropping on 80 grit sandpaper. When you use your grinder remember that if there are no sparks flying your doing it wrong. lol

That's what i've been doing wrong..i've been using hones..i'm gonna run downstairs with my NOS Fili EPBD and give this "new" method a go...thanks deerhunter...lmao.
But seriously..I always use tape..just because i'm fussy and prefer it that way.

Originally Posted by nessmuck

Ward, don't be so tough on the beaver.

LOL ...
Only in the 50's could you get away with calling your kid Beaver Cleaver

sure thing i enjoy helping you guys learn the new meathod of sharpening. By the way there is one fraise that i cant belive was aired on cable tv(ward you were a lil hard on the beaver last night) lol

Originally Posted by nessmuck

Ward, don't be so tough on the beaver.

Ward,
Can you post me a link to your beaver tail strop vendor.
I lust after beaver on occasion and today is just such a day.
I promised myself to resist but my SO tells me that
a full wide strop might be OK.

Thanks in advance.

if the electrical tape catches on fire due to the sparks, you know you have attained the pinnacle of the art of honing. I personally use a belt sander as a honing device. I then strop the razor on my unshaved cheek and that works wonders.

Originally Posted by Deerhunter1995

Lyn you know as well as i do that the best edges come off the bench grinder followed by a good stropping on 80 grit sandpaper. When you use your grinder remember that if there are no sparks flying your doing it wrong. lol

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Welcome to SRP. Forgive my levity in my previous post. Couldn't resist. What gssixgun said is on the money as is what AFDavis11 posted. I used it when I was new on all razors and now only on some of them. One layer of 3M until you feel like you know what you're doing and then it is optional. Check out the SRP Wiki honing tutorials and beginner's guide too. You can find them here.

Wait..... !! That was funny.

Originally Posted by JeffM

New to honing- Do most use electrical tape only when honing a major restoration or on a new store-bought as well? or never use it?

Tape has two common purposes.

The most common is to protect the spine when
more aggressive honing is done to reshape or
restore a blade. Tape makes a lot of sense
when using a hone coarser than 1K grit.

The second is to adjust (increase) the angle of the
finished edge. In some cases this adjustment is
designed to produce a micro bevel. Increasing the angle
can also result in a slightly less fragile edge or
just present a much smaller amount of steel to a
fine but slow finishing hone.

With a previously well set bevel and finer hones like the
4K/8K Norton combo and finer there is little or no reason
for tape (IMO).

I had to breadknife out a nick in a smiling wedge, and really wish I'd used tape when resetting the bevel. Ended up with really uneven wear on the spine, and in the end put on two layers just to get ANYTHING to happen.

Other than that, I don't tape. Eventually I'll try to reset that wedge without tape, but I wanted to shave with it again.