Originally Posted by
elcraft
...I am anxious to start building some wheels! I started reading Sheldon's ...along with..Robert Wright- "Building Bicycle Wheels". There is a significant discrepancy regarding starting the Key spoke ...which is best ...?
For an average guy doing average riding on a decently built bike of average configuration, the margins in the design are so big that nuances like that simply won't register.
I like SBs line of reasoning, but as long as spoke tension is OK it's not the deciding feature that'll either make or break the wheel. Whether it'll hold up or fails is much more likely to be down to other issues.