Seth,
With taping, different personalities see it in differing ways. I'm a taper. I tape everything and always have, except a Kamisori or when the occasional urge to hone without it strikes.
I do urge those learning to hone a razor to tape in the beginning to avoid issues like you've run into. After you've more perfected the honing process you can decide if you want to continue with tape or quit using it.
You don't have to send your razor off to get it honed on a regular basis. Some do and just don't care about the honing part. Most think more like you and want to do the maintenance themselves. I'm just suggesting sending it out this once to get it all back in line and correct the heel and have a good recalibrated edge for learning razor honing.
You'll find, I think, that transferring sharpening skills over from knives and tools is limited. You drag metal over a hone to sharpen, but the pressure, angles and finesse are very different. Pressure and stroke angles, etc. vary greatly. Watching gssixgun's videos can help a lot.
We have members that offer to have one on one assistance, but I don't see any close to Phoenix. Here's the list..... Local Help - Straight Razor Place Library
You can also search members by area. Use the location function and remember that each member inputs their own location, so you may have to search by Arizona or Phoenix, or if Phoenix has a nickname, etc., etc. http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search
Love my Feather DX.
Again, :gl: !! You'll do fine, but this one time I'd send it off.
Regards,
Howard :)