Thanks for the pointers Larry. I understand very well that a splice made quickly to simply store some blank tape would need to be re-made carefully before an important recording is made on the tape.
In any case since we use the Nagra IV-S TC for location recording, we wind the tape down to 7" reels for location work and then edit everything back together onto 10 1/2" reels in the studio. Once these pancakes are wound down to 7" reels there'd be either one splice or no splices per 7" reel.
When recording live on location with two machines, there's no avoiding splices and little choice as to where to make them when transitioning from one machine to the other, besides allowing for a sufficient overlap so that a good spot can be chosen. But with a 7" reel of 468 only lasting 15 minutes at 15ips, there's only so much overlap you can allow for. You would be surprised how many of the "Golden Age" recordings considered to be audiophile milestones today were made in precisely this manner - Decca's 1955 Keilberth Ring cycle, for instance. When listening to that, I don't think I can hear where they made the splices. I can't hear most of mine either, even on headphones. I have got to be quite good at it... The trick is to use a good splicing block, a sharp single-sided razor blade, and to demagnetise the blade before use.
I still haven't heard from the Project about shipping the pancakes to Cyprus...
Best regards,