Thread: Scotch Super 33+ for taping spines.

While not dealing with hones directly I posted this here because it deals with part of the honing process. Scotch Brand Super 33+ vinyl tape. Avoid this like the ebola virus. I just bought a nice big roll and taped several razors in preparation for honing. After honing I removed the tape and it had left ugly nasty black adhesive residue on every blade! The stuff is incredibly difficult to remove. Alcohol won't touch it. Maas won't help. Perhaps the individual roll I bought was somehow defective but I wanted to put the warning out there. Horrible stuff.

Use the tape itself to remove the residue. Works like a charm.

I think someone considered it superior for resisting the abrasion of the hones. I use it. Utopian taught us that a while ago (using the tape to remove the large residue).

Heh, goes to show we all have different preferences

The 33 is my preferred tape for honing. It is the right thickness, and it wears really well compared to Nitto and other stuff I've tried.

Originally Posted by Theseus

Use the tape itself to remove the residue. Works like a charm.

I love this place.

I've had the same experience with that tape. Not only does it leave a hard to remove adhesive on your blade, the tape is slightly too thin, and less abrasion resistant. I find pieces of the tape roll off and make a mess on the hone when it starts to wear. I'll only ever use old school, name brand electrical tape. No residue, no mess on the hone, perfection in tape form

OK, here's something quite strange. I ran across the "core" or empty roll of the previous tape I bought. Guess what? It was 33+ also but I had no problem with that roll at all. My current roll must be of a different production batch or something. I would not expect a quality control issue from 3M but apparantly there are differences from one roll to another. Odd.

I like the Duck 0.007 mil one, no residue and I find it behaves at least as well as the super 33.

All physical processes will produce different outcomes due to natural variability - the only question is the magnitude of the variation and whether that is acceptable or not. A whole industry has developed around manufacturing and automation for just such purposes, known as Statistical Process Control. I am sure 3M are quite familiar with it, and have probably spent several millions of dollars over the years on it. That's just a guess though.

In any event, I favour the cheapest tape I can find. Currently that is a 5 pack from the local supermarket for 2 dollars. It may not be as durable as more expensive tapes, but when it wears out I can just replace it because it is pretty cheap stuff. It produces no glue residue at all, probably because it is so cheap the glue is basically flour and water...

James.

i have found that mineral oil takes the residue of lickity split on my razors and leaves the blade protected. YMMV but its what i do! lol