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- #21
This poor horse sure takes beating after beating. But once more into the fray.
The spine has a function. The spine is not decoration. The function is to determine the bevel angle. It is designed so that it wears more or less proportionally to the edge. A razor should last a couple hundred years. Even so, usually JUST HONING it will leave the bevel angle pretty much in the zone.
When you do heavy metal removal is when NOT taping the spine is MOST important. You are putting about ten years worth of wear on the edge all at once. "Protecting" the spine from "hone wear" is not a good idea here. Spine and edge are meant to wear together, in step.
A razor with a particularly acute bevel angle often benefits from taped honing, both short term (compound bevel) and long term (geometry correction). These are few and far between.
A razor with an extremely wide bevel surface can be tricky to hone because it takes so many good laps to remove any steel, and only one bad one to screw up the edge. And so a compound bevel achieved by adding a half dozen laps on the finisher with tape can often make the edge come to life like never before. This is mostly seen with wedges or near wedges, or half hollow or less hollow razors with generations of wear, that have seen the edge wear away until the bevel is up into the belly of the blade. Here a compound bevel can be helpful. It is best to keep the final microbevel very very small. A half dozen of the lightest laps usually will gitter done.
And speaking of wedges, yes most wedges are very thin at the spine and originally were honed with the spine elevated by about a fingernail thickness. A layer of 3M Super 88 to set a base bevel (it will probably be rather wide, possibly most of the width of the razor!!!) then an additional layer of 33 on top of that to run the progression, and finally another layer of 33 for 3 or 4 laps to form a microbevel is the way I do a full wedge, when I am stuck with doing one, which I dislike but sometimes have occasion to do. The edge comes out quite nice. Unfortunately, daily maintenance on diamond pasted balsa is out, with a tape honed razor, especially with so much tape. You don't want the tape gumming up the balsa. Here you might possibly paste a hanging strop but I abhor this practice myself and never do it. No reason you can't except that Slash says that sucks.
Some honers are switching to Kapton tape from vinyl, with good results.
MOST razors should NOT be honed with tape. If you don't know, don't use it. If the bevel is over 15deg, it is probably okay and can be honed without tape. Don't assume it is too acute. FIND OUT. KNOW it is, before just assuming.
Razors... are they tools, or jewelry? A work of art should probably not be honed at all. Build a nice case for it and put it on display if it is too pretty for the spine to touch a hone. Otherwise, it is a tool, and it is natural for tools to look as though they have been used. Don't fear the hone.
Okay so abusing the razor with taped honing will have small effect for the years you anticipate having and using it. What about the next 200 years of potential use? Learn to hone correctly, and teach your sons and grandsons to do it correctly, and pass those heirlooms on, because when you go to that great barbershop in the sky, they will indeed be heirlooms. Worthy of USE. If displayed proudly, they should look as though grampa just used them and has used them all his life. Just my dos centavos.
Thank you for re-iterating, it would seem quite a few times, your method. It completely makes sense when you say it and I will try to follow the guidelines as much as possible.
