measure the geometry?If you want to measure the geometry first you can. Or you can shave them as they are and judge them by the way they shave.
Thanks for the info, as a novice, I hadn't done any chip removals. Also, my experience with blade width reduction is from vintage razors. I had no practical experience on length of time it took, but realized it is more conceptual thing for me, not a practical reality. I would have had to started young for it to be part of my reality. I'm pushing double nickels, so little chance of me getting a razor to such a state.I've never really messed with taping the spine unless I was doing some heavy work like chip removal. I've not owned many razors that were so nice that I wanted to protect the spine from hone wear.
I have a razor that I've used for over 40 yrs. Honed as needed. It started as a 6/8. It's still a 6/8 minus a tiny fraction.
It would take a WHOLE lot of honing with tape to change the angle to one that is unsuitable for a good shave.
Only a barber honing a razor several (or many) times a day has to worry about wearing a razor out. In personal use with proper bevel set and no damage, honing is a very rare event.
Re-set the bevel every week using a coarse stone and a heavy hand, yeah, you may eventually grind one away, but if you don't damage the edge somehow you should never need to remove much steel once you have the bevel set.
Tape can be a "crutch" for someone with poor honing skills or inadequately flattened stones. Probably necessary on some very old wedges as they were actually intended to be honed free-hand and not with the spine in contact with the hone, or possibly some of the Pakistani razors I've seen that are both wide and thin spined -- they are reputed to have poor edges, quite possibly because they are too acute. Tape would fix that, so would honing with the spine above the stone free-hand.
Vintage razors were NOT designed to be honed with tape for the very obvious reason that tape, as we know it, did not exist then.
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.
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.
Thanks for the thorough explanation of tape usage!