Thread: question about tape

Agreed. How about next year you take Pyramids and I'll take tape.

In case the point being made here is too subtle...

Welcome new straight razor enthusiasts. A great way to show appreciation for one of the most generous, sharing communities anywhere is to take the time to familiarize yourself with the abundant resources they have taken the time to provide you in the form of the wiki etc. Don't let your feelings get hurt - assume positive intent on the part of the senior members. Show some respect-get some respect.

I haven't seen any tape residue on any of my stones, but I rarely go lower than 4K grit. I also lap my stones pretty regularly, and that practice may have eliminated any residue that might have shown up otherwise. A while back I did some work on 220 and 1K grit, and even though I was replacing the tape frequently it didn't seem that tape residue was finding its way to the stones.

I don't tape the spine for normal honing chores. Using tape to hone garantees the edge will have a slightly more open angle. Narrower angles cut better. My feeling is that the flats on the spine are suppossed to wear down (get wider) as you hone off part of the edge - so that the angle at the edge stays the same for the life of the razor.

Many people use tape when grinding a frown or chips out of the razor - so that it doesn't get 10 years worth of spine wear in 1 day. Personally, I'd rather have the better shaving narrow edge angle, and can live with the look of the spine wear.

We talkin' about tape again.................

Have we talked about the HTT (Hanging Tape Test)???? I wonder how many degrees of Hanging Tape we can come up with..........

Sowwy Y'all..........

Originally Posted by Lynn

We talkin' about tape again.................

Have we talked about the HTT (Hanging Tape Test)???? I wonder how many degrees of Hanging Tape we can come up with..........

Sowwy Y'all..........

Jesus Lynn, that just gave me nightmares of the term "Hanging Chad"

Take a deep breath and relax. It's all in fun. Tape is a very controversial subject. Try an "advanced" search with the word "tape" in the title.

I think this link will capture my search with 57 threads with tape in the title.

Straight Razor Place Forums - Search Results

But you can do it yourself.

Don't think that every post on here is directed at you personally. If you don't want to search, just wait a few days for the next person to ask the same question and you can read those replies.

By the way . . . are you honing a razor?

It's important to read several threads on every subject, because the answers to important questions come from several threads. If you jump on one thread or one answer you might make a big mistake.

And so you know, I was actually poking fun at Glen and the others for answering your question. The last guy that asked took a pretty heavy razzing. I think you got off pretty easy, but then again if your deep into honing a razor with tape and are frustrated, then I'll apologize for the group and hope we can move on.

I think the real reason I continue to use two layers of tape is because the veterans in this forum like discussing all the nuances of it so much.

Hi, RamRod,

I'm just off training wheels when it comes to honing, but I've had some of the same questions. Tape is, for me, something to protect the razor from my own inconsistencies. I use one layer of tape because I don't like hone wear, and I can't say that I am always "spot on" when it comes to all the little quirks of honing. My theory is that if I tape the spine, I can also reduce the chance that I will inadvertently put a frown or uneven wear enough to require correction. Tape acts as a buffer and allows me to focus completely on the edge.

The tape will be worn down with honing, so change it frequently for the freshest edge. YMMV, but I believe that anybody getting into honing can benefit from using tape, it just makes things simpler so you can focus on what really matters. Good luck!

I can see that tape will take the brunt of what a hone does to the spine. And since it is peeled off and discarded after honing, it would stand to reason that each successive honing will be with a fresh tape and the dimension of the spine should be exactly where they were last time.

Glen has told me that he uses it every time, no exceptions, save a Japanese design. My simple question is would it not benefit use from the very beginning, a NEW razor, and not an older vitage razor? And once you start that, using tape on the spine, you should use it every time thereafter or else you will hone further up the bevel creating a dual part bevel, am I right on that?