I wasn't there, only you can answer: "...isn't the spine hitting it?". Slow down my friend. By the sound of it, to keep you shaving, another razor is in order as most of us have two or more razors for just that reason. When I travel, I take two razors just in case I damage the edge somehow. A coticule will work just fine for honing, but advice can be all over the place because the "grit" on coticules are all over the place. Most of the time we veteran honers will recommend a synthetic set of stones from Naniwa, Norton, or Shapton. I'm not saying anything bad about a coticule, but I've had quite a few and the one I have now sits and gathers dust when I sit down to hone razors. High magnification will help you to see what is going on when honing, this is a good thing. On your razor, if you can see a chip, then it needs some bevel repair work & that requires a coarse stone like a 1K or even coarser. Whatever you do, please use one layer of tape on the spine while learning to hone. Lastly, if your razor will not shave arm hair, it will not shave your face either...good call. When your coticule comes in, you can watch some of Lynn & Glen's (gssixgun) video's. If they are using synthetic stones in the video's you can use your Coticule's BBW side in place of 4K and the coticule side in the place of 8K.