That's it. That's my question. Backstory involved a quarter hollow W&B, a near nervous breakdown, loss of all confidence in my ability to learn honing, several hours of checking and re-checking everything I was doing over the course of several weeks, a "please help me" post, several PM's and skype sessions, and a consideration of transitioning totally to DE shaving. 3 layers of tape, and 20 minutes later=shaving sharp. I know some people are fundamentally against the use of tape. So that made me wonder. Do even the tape haters have to use it sometimes? I guess I should tell you I'm kind of a purist I guess. I like natural stones, and not taping razors. But what works, works.