Thread: I'm not sure how or when it happened

That makes sense, keeping the wear even at edge and spine. Some folks (myself included, recently) want to keep the spine wear minimal, though. The habit I'm getting into is, with a blade I haven't honed before, to hone all the way through without tape so I get the same polish on the spine as I'm getting on the edge. After that I'll protect the spine unless I put a chip in the center of the blade... then I suppose I'd want to bring down the spine as I pull in the edge.

Otherwise I'll just take the blame if a lifetime of touch-ups skews the geometry. Mea culpa to my blades' next lifetime of users.

With a full wedge, though, In my opinion tape is critical. It's as much to preserve your hones as anything. I have one wedge that spun out of control on me, and there's now as much honed width on the spine as at the bevel. That all happened before I had read much here, alas.

Ahh, this all really boils down to opinion and preference. My original question was to fill what I saw as a logical gap, and you cleared that up for me.

I must say I admire the attention you paid to your honing. You must be able to really get in the zone.

Thanks roughkype, but unfortunately not, i have a long way to go they pass HHT but now i need to work on efficiency, consistency, and just generally feeling what the hone is telling me among other things. also, i'm sure they could be sharper. From what you're saying you have a much greater idea of control and matching wear than i do, i'd not considered it and am glad you mentioned it because i will from now on.

I also agree about honing without tape all the way thru on a new blade for even wear, but i think that the 220 and 1k are just too rough on the spine and as a bevel set can take a while sometimes (in my case the 1k polishing) that its just not worth what it does to the spine IMO of course

I agree about the full wedge, I have one that was about to head south so i set it aside until i'd figured honing out a little better, and as gssixgun said, I'm going to revisit the pyramid system as there's a reason it's so universally used.

If you have a proper bevel and a sharp edge, and you go on to tape the spine with the intention of creating a secondary bevel, aren't you therefore intentionally dulling the edge? The secondary bevel will have a bevel angle less acute than that of the primary bevel, and it would appear that you would have had a sharper edge by leaving the primary bevel alone.

i think the tape increases the angle therefore creating a more focused secondary bevel at the edge? I think that's what roughkype is saying.

I think of it like a diagram of a lens focussing light where it passes thru the lens and the light meets at a point closer to the lens than it otherwise would have been. I guess the tape is the lens.

I've done secondary bevels before and have had some success with them. I've stopped doing it because it doesn't seem to make any sense. Assume that you have a good edge, then you have a choice of finishing with the same amount of tape or adding a layer to get a secondary bevel. If all else is equal, then that bevel with the added layer of tape will differ from the primary bevel in only one way, a less acute angle at the bevel. Is that really something we want to achieve or something we should attempt to avoid? Putting in more work, not to mention more tape, for a duller edge makes no sense.

ah i understand, your saying that the angle at which the bevels meet is wider and therefore the edge won't be able to be as sharp? sorry, i misunderstood

That layer of tape for just the final polish changes the angle by a small fraction of a degree, and just focuses the final hone's action on the final edge. With my hand lens I see a polish line about 1/4 the width of the bevel at most. It's a little bit like the magic marker test, a nice verification that my very last 10 laps did what I meant for them to do.

Originally Posted by tekbow

ah i understand, your saying that the angle at which the bevels meet is wider and therefore the edge won't be able to be as sharp? sorry, i misunderstood

Yes, that's my point. I've done secondary bevels when finishing and have had good luck with them. But I have to wonder whether the edge would have been even keener if I'd not added the tape and just polished the primary bevel. All in all, it really isn't much of a difference. But if that is the case, why create that small difference when all it does is technically make the bevel angle more obtuse (less acute)? When I've done it, I've also enjoyed the visual confirmation of those few final finishing strokes. The reality has to be, however, that I've created a secondary bevel that cannot logically be as sharp as the primary bevel I started with. I used to use secondary bevels when touching up a blade, but I've stopped doing it because the primary bevel is just as easy to touch up, and the results logically have to better.

I thought that I should add that I have had plenty of opportunity to employ secondary bevels. When I get a razor that has a tall bevel from using too much pressure while honing, from not using tape in the honing process, or one that's just been honed a lot, I use tape to create a secondary bevel. The tall bevels look ugly to me, and I don't want make them any worse. I'll throw on three layers of tape, and the secondary bevel I put on it will be almost invisible. It's unfortunate for a razor to have so much avoidable wear on it, and I'm just not going to add to it. Secondary bevels do have their place.