Thread: To tape or not to tape?

Right or wrong? Honing with tape will wear the edge but not the spine, altering the bevel angle over the life of the razor?

Thanks.

Wow how did you made that pics?
This is exactly what happens when you tape. Time will come up you are unable to put the fine edge to taped blade. you will end up taking off the tape and putting some hone wear to the spine.
I hope you could drew pictures what i am talking about.
Can You do that?

Now for the bad news, by the time that happens you will probably be in the grave and your great grandkid will figure it out, if he cares to not use his Gillette Laser Plasma 10 Watt mega hair blaster... and use Great Grand Pops straight razor....

That is if you only hone when needed and hone properly

OK......who likes tape and who doesn't..............

I tape all my razors...because im just that anal..lol

Originally Posted by time2shave

Right or wrong? Honing with tape will wear the edge but not the spine, altering the bevel angle over the life of the razor?

Thanks.

Mostly right.
Most folk use tape when a razor is new
and later hone without it.

Tape does smooth out some spine irregularities
and speed up the honing process. If you look
at the differences in steel exposure a razor without
tape will wear more on the edge than on the spine
so it is not a big deal/difference.

Mostly it is a choice.

Next time you are in a micrometer and trigonometry mood
do the math based on some measurements.

OK, I tape my spines prior to honing. Does this mean I will go blind, grow hair on my palms or burn in the lake of fire?

I think it alters the bevel angle immediately.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

That is if you only hone when needed and hone properly

won't happen to me

Originally Posted by time2shave

Right or wrong?

wrong - you are forgetting that there is hollowing (your pictures don't reflect it), so the amounts of metal that is removed from the edge and the spine depends on many factors.

as far as how much it matters, that's closer to worrying about the angle being changed by wearing off the razor during shaving, than to what happens in real life. run the numbers (or look them up in the many threads that we've had on this subject) you'll see for yourself.

I just threw this one together tonight.
I wanted to graphically illustrate to myself what is being discussed in regards to tape or not.
I'm gonna do this properly in VectorWorks someday.
This is a very rough drawing of it, but illustrative in regards to the minor changes in angles.
How much narrower the spine gets in relation to how much is taken off at the edge size, that is the question. I think it varies a lot from razor to razor.