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Vintage sheffield for example was virtually always smiling. Ive never seen a really straight john barber, joseph rodgers or wade and butcher.

Except many or most vintage razors were smiling to begin with. Grinding them flat is destroying the razor for the sake of not having to learn to hone properly. That is just reinforcement of...

A rolling X stroke does not in any way compromise the edge.
There is zero benefit to grinding a razor flat, since even a bit of smile in the blade will also have a bit of smile in the spine, which...

I once saw pics of a custom razor I had made, after the owner tried to hone it. It was a smiling razor, with correct spine geometry: curved spine, which means that when the blade is on the hone, the...

Then again, this razor would be honeable with a rolling X stroke. There is no reason to grind it flat. Especially since it won't shave better, and now you also have a big flat piece of hone wear on...