Anytime you hone a blade on a steel, many say that you do not use an angle. You simply lay the blade flat. Your aim is to smooth away burrs and such, not to actually sharpen the blade. So, if I were to want to keep a housewife happy with unscratched pristine stainless kitchen knives, I would not use it.

The taper is something I would like to learn more on myself. From experience, I have seen two advantages this gave me. First, not having an abrupt edge for the blade to fall off of and damage the knife by scarring, etc. Second, I used the tip when doing repairs on kitchen knives' damaged edges, etc. I don't claim to be a pro or nuthin, just sharin'

BTW, when looking at the instructions for my Shrade Honesteel (it came in a leather sheath) it DOES say to lay the blade FLAT.