It's a drag how he doesn't protect the spine on the initial honing especially when he practices what seems like quite an aggressive, high pressure level honing technique. I'm not even trying to start a pissing contest about spine wear being necessary to maintain bevel angle because it is true, but I'd be annoyed if I ordered a snake razor and that damascus look I was paying for got blitzed on a 600 grit hone. Personally, if I were paying a fortune for a custom razor, I'd probably go with Bill Ellis or Devin Thomas. The workmanship levels on their stuff is just incredible....