Lynn says less strokes is better and I'm sure it's true but it takes me more to get a sharpened blade for me. I am concerned about flattening out the spine.
Should I put electrical tape on the spine? Does it change the angle to much?

also. After I used the Norton 4k8k my blade was very sharp popped the hairs right off my arm, however when I used my 12k it seemed to dull the blade. I used a slurry stone so I don't really know what if anything I did wrong. The only thing I can think of is to many strokes on the 12k. So I took it back to the 4k8k and put it on the 12k but only about 5 strokes. It's fine now but I'm confused.

Anyway looking forward to your responses