As I understand it, the ruler trick produces a "microbevel" on the back of the blade - small, perhaps not more than 1mm in width. If you were to wish to remove that microbevel, it seems that all you'd have to do is grind the blade back by 1mm and you'd remove it.
It also seems that using the rear microbevel could mean that you wouldn't have to remove as much material from the blade to remove the rounded portion of a dull blade (when sharpening).
Mike
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