For me, this has become academic, because I find I do a real honing once, and
the rest of the time I'm just refreshing. No sense in taping then.

You're right about the angle change. With the small bevel angle on a razor,
the percentage increase in angle is roughly the same as the percentage change in
blade width. So, if you take down an edge 10% (like taking a 1/16" off a 5/8)
your bevel angle changes by 10% (say 17 degrees to under 19 degrees). That
couldn't make much of a differeence or the misshapen edges you find on Ebay
wouldn't work. Yet you can fix that without a lot of work and shave well with
some strange looking blades (although I usually do what I can to make the blade
look better). Yet some really experienced guys like John Crowley and Robert
Williams balk at changing the bevel angle. I suspect there must be something to
it. But if we give the razor designers credit, we should assume that they built
plenty of tolerance into a product to be used by the public. I know in knife
sharpening there's a lot of leeway in the secondary bevel angle.

My technical sense tells me that if you're using eveen pressure, the spine and
bevel should wear the same. And that seems to be the case with every razor I've
done that started out even.

Hey, that's quite a haul on Ebay (and what a price- it would have been cheap
just for the Swaty). What's the fifth stone? Is the smooth one the one with
the marble appearance? What's the color of the smooth one?

One of the smoothest stones I have is the Super Punjab. Actually, it has two
sides- smooth and supersmooth. The supersmooth side is even smoother finisher
than a Honemeister. I noticed it's still available, but expensive.

"Randolph H. Tuttle" <randydance@...> wrote:
I agree with you 100 percent. The angle of the bevel will change with
every honing but the amount of change is so minute that it really does
not matter, IMHO. I always use the tape for the cosmetic effect.

As has been discussed on this forum in the past, the angle on the
bevel is not sancrosanct. What most of us really are trying to do is
maintain a constant angle while honing. Thats the important part.

There has always been another important assumption made...that the
amount of wear on the spine is exactly the same as the wear on the
bevel. Now that is a technical can of worms that I cannot answer and I
am not to sure that it is worth discussing. No matter what the answer
is I will continue to hone with the tape on the spine. (Grin!)

Randy Tuttle

P.S. Got really lucky on an Ebay lot, 2 Eschers w/rubbing stone and a
3 line Swaty plus another stone so smooth it feels like glass.
Ebay ID 270020052403

--- In straightrazorplace@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Lerch
<misterbenicio@...> wrote:
>
> I'm afraid I don't understand. If you tape the spne, the width of
the blade changs, while the thickness of the spine does not. Since
the bevel angle is strictly a function of the ratio betwen the spine
thickness and blade width, you're allowing the angle to change EVERY
time you hone. However, as a practical matter it wil increase by less
than 10% if you hone down the razor to 90% of its width.
>
> "Randolph H. Tuttle" <randydance@...> wrote: I tape the
spine every time that I hone a razor. This keeps the angle
> of the bevel consistent.
>
>
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