Thread: tape on wedge?

I am curious if anyone tapes the spine of a wedge when honing, not to protect the spine but rather to lift it a little to create the effect of honing a hollow grind – i.e. less metal surface area on the hone.

One of the old barber manuals says that when honing what it calls a "French wedge," you should lift the spine very slightly.

I know there are those who tape for cosmetic reasons, and there are others who emphasize the importance of honing both the edge and the spine in order to preserve the angle of the bevel. I don't want to open up that debate, and my question is different. I'm asking if anyone hones a wedge with tape for non-cosmetic reasons, such as more time-efficient honing, a better edge, preservation of the slight concavity of the sides, etc.

And if so, do you keep the tape on when you move to pasted strops?

I used to tape the wedges (not for cosmetic purposes). My thinking was that it would be easier to hone. Never used pasted strops, just plain leather - and for it sometimes I kept the tape, sometimes I didn't - depending how I felt at the time

I don't tape wedges anymore - mostly because of the hassle, my tape roll disappeared, skills improved. etc. Sometimes I do lift the spine a bit on some wedges - on them I would not actually hit the edge with the hone if I don't.

Cheers
Ivo

You should do the initial honing without tape, then when the razor is popping hair and you're moving to your highest grit hone, then if you want you can tape the spine with some thin tape (like 3M Scotch tape) to put that final polish on the edge.

Speaking of honing wedges, I'm looking at a Wade & Butcher I just picked up at a local antique shop and the hone wear stripe is much wider than what you'd see on a hollow ground. I'm going to assume this is quite normal, even with a wedge blade that has not had a lot of honing done to it just because of the geometry of the blade.

Is this something you guys with wedges have observed?


It makes sense to tape it to put the final polish on it. It will change the angle ever-so-slightly at the edge allowing you to work right on the edge.

It sounds like a fun project in geometry to figure out exactly how much a strip of electrical tape will change the angle at the edge...

I always use tape even when honing on the abrasive pasted paddle strop.
The major reason is cosmetic but it also keeps the angle constant. I do believe that trying to create a micro bevel and maintain it is difficult. If it were a better method than the norm then all the millions of men that have used straight razors before us would have standardized on that method. The fact is they did not. Some people will use the microbevel approach to honing and if it works for them then more power to them. However as a general approach that we can recommend to new guys I cannot recommend it. I also find that the traditional method of honing can make most any razor not only extremely sharp but it can be to sharp.


Just my two cents,

MP, was it the point of your suggested method to create a microbevel?

No, just to avoid all that work using an extra fine hone polishing all that metal that doesn't need it. Don't use electrical tape for this, BTW, use scotch tape instead. That lifts the spine enough that it only takes a few laps on the finishing hone without creating a noticeable microbevel.

Microbevels are an interesting idea but are tough to maintain on the heavy blades. The only place where I have consciously used microbevels is on the extra hollow blades, where the different bevel angles can be created by using pressure differing levels of pressure on the blade. I think either bill ellis or robert williams has mentioned this as well. I've also played with creating convex bevels using a hanging strop but haven't been too pleased with these, though more experimentation is probably needed to fine-tune the amount of tension on the strop. It's not a really high-priority thing for me though.