Thread: Question on stropping a razor after honing with tape

I recently obtained a wedge razor - Looking Very nice, and Shaves quite nicely as well. As I use it, it will eventually need some honing...Now, the blade looks quite nice (no scratches or anything it seems), so I am assuming at this point that tape was put on the blade for previous honings.

Then the question pops into my head.....

If you tape a blade for honing, it will change the blade ever so slightly - but enough to change the bevel slightly. So, what happens then during Stropping?

As the Honing and Stropping goes Spine and Blade edge both on the Stone or Strop, Why wouldn't you need tape on the razor while stropping as well? Is there any slight difference to strop a razor that's been honed with tape?

I'm thinking No, otherwise I would probably have seen some reference to this info before; but it also makes me think in regards to the angles that stropping would be Less affective because of the ever so slight angle change from the honing with tape on the spine.

Uh oh...I put this in the "Strop" section rather than "Stropping" section....

Mods..this probably needs to get moved over.

Thanks

Short answer, a hanging strop or even a leather paddle strop will easily compensate for the angle when using one layer of tape due to the give in the material. If you use the search function, top right corner of the page & type in the words 'stropping' & 'tape' you will see a bunch of posts that have addressed this & other questions such as using pasted paddles with taped razors etc.
It would help if you could contact whoever honed the razor to know for sure how to approach honing it.

Probably a redundant answer given the previous answer, and probably in the wrong section too, but i was thinking about this sort of thing on my drive to work last week....
Has anyone done the maths? I mean, what are the 'tolerances'? Even in regards to honing with or without tape? I thought about this as I applied tape to the razor for honing but found the tape I'd got from 'The Cheap' shop was thinner than the tape I'd used previously (3M, I think). What actual angle differences are there given a tape thickness of, what, < .5 mm and a blade width of 5/8 of an inch? There are a few variables, aren't there? Such as pressure and tape thickness. I get the whole 'save spine wear thing', but I'm not yet convinced there's a real noticeable change on angles. I may need to do some trig....

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

Probably a redundant answer given the previous answer, and probably in the wrong section too, but i was thinking about this sort of thing on my drive to work last week....
Has anyone done the maths? I mean, what are the 'tolerances'? Even in regards to honing with or without tape? I thought about this as I applied tape to the razor for honing but found the tape I'd got from 'The Cheap' shop was thinner than the tape I'd used previously (3M, I think). What actual angle differences are there given a tape thickness of, what, < .5 mm and a blade width of 5/8 of an inch? There are a few variables, aren't there? Such as pressure and tape thickness. I get the whole 'save spine wear thing', but I'm not yet convinced there's a real noticeable change on angles. I may need to do some trig....

I would like to inject this:

I shave with my Great Grandfather's W&B near wedge. I also have a Double Duck. I haven't bothered to measure the W&B since it's such a very heavy grind but the Duck measures 10 thousandths of an inch just above the edge. That's just 1 thousandths more of being the width of three average human hair on our head!

The tape I use for honing measure at 4 thousandths! I would think that the tape would provide a difference in the angles! At least on the more narrow edges!

Hmmmm, 10 thou of an inch! Who would have thought! You're most probably right, I know nothing, was just idly thinking, that's all...

Near wedge or extra hollow ground, it doesn't make any difference, since it's the angles you're talking about, and the edge is considered to be zero thickness in the analysis,

A single layer of tape will change the bevel angle about a degree, more on a shorter blade like a 5/8, less on a taller one like a 7/8.

The deflection of a hanging strop will compensate for this.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I would like to inject this:

I shave with my Great Grandfather's W&B near wedge. I also have a Double Duck. I haven't bothered to measure the W&B since it's such a very heavy grind but the Duck measures 10 thousandths of an inch just above the edge. That's just 1 thousandths more of being the width of three average human hair on our head!

The tape I use for honing measure at 4 thousandths! I would think that the tape would provide a difference in the angles! At least on the more narrow edges!

I've honed with one layer of tape all the way up to five layers and never had an issue stropping on my paddle strop without tape.

Leather, is a supple material, or it should be, the slight pressure on the blade while stropping will make sure the slight difference contacts the leathers surface. Tape or no tape the bevel is at a different angle than the grind of the razor, so all blades have this in common. Enjoy!