Originally Posted by
Zephyr
So I tried to do some experimenting today, I honed a Hellberg wedge on Naniwas 1-3-8-12K with one layer of electrical tape.
I then gave it 15 laps on a balsa strop pasted with CrOx, one side with tape, the other without, then I checked the edge in my pocket microscope at 60 & 100 X and to me it looked like the side without tape didn't make full contact with the CrOx, it was not quite as smooth as the taped side, so I put tape on it again and gave the prvious untaped side 15 new laps, this time the edge looked just as smooth on both sides.
Since this was a single experiment I will by no means claim that this is the correct answer, so if someone wants to do some more tests and maybe post some pics from a USB microscope it would be very welcome :)