Anti skate and tonearm damping query


I have read a number of threads relating to both antiskating and tonearm damping on the JMW 9" Sig.arm and find myself a bit confused.......I have been experimenting a little and have reached the conclusion that I must be deaf. I have not used the additional antiskating system, I have tried twisting and not twisting the leno wire and can hear no difference. If the Leno wire is not twisted therefore no antiskate, will this damage the stylus or the album??
I have also filled the damping well above the taper to the base of the point and still cannot hear 'the music being sucked out' or indeed, an improvement. Do I fill the well up to the point!! and then work backwards. Those that finetune using the damping seem to have some sort of epiphany when the 'sweet' spot is reached.

Can someone please shed light on how I should be going about setting the AS and finetuning the damping on the arm. The table is a scoutmaster with super platter and sds, the cartridge is the dynavector Te Kaitora Rua

Thanks
wes4390
This is a great resource for figuring out stuff like this:
http://www.cartridgedb.com but this time I'll save you the trouble.

Your cartridge has a pretty low compliance, even for a moving coil (10, compared to say Transfigurations at 15, or vdH at 30) and weighs 9.8gm. Your Sig TA has an effective mass of 9.5gm, which is borderline-low for such a stiff cartridge suspension. Here is the compatibility chart for your TA and cart: http://www.cartridgedb.com/resonance_from_arm.asp?adesc=VPI%20JMW%209%20Signature&amass=9.5
If you read down the left side until you come to 10, the compliance of the te Kaitora, and then read across to the cart weight + mounting hardware column (figure 9.8 gm + 1.5+ gm for mounting bolts and nuts, total = 11.5 -12 gm) you will find yourself (barely!) in the 'green' zone at 11Hz, which is the natural resonance of your arm/cartridge combo. Lower (like 8Hz) would be better but you're SAFE for all but the wildest, loud, low-frequency tracking conditions!

With a cartridge with as stiff a suspension as yours, you probably should not need any fluid damping at all. Even a slight amount could slow down bass transients. As for AS, line contact styli (like yours) develop very little friction in the groove because of their shape, and therefore the arm tends not to "skate" toward the spindle with any significant force. If you feel more comfortable, twist the wire until the floating arm just barely creeps toward the outside of the record and that will be plenty ;-)
I actually do not use any with my 12.7 or JMW 9" arms. The amount suggested is often wrong and it is impossible to apply the correct amount all across the record. When I do use it I try to use as little as possible. Use Denon 304 on the 12 and 103 and AT OC9 on the 9".
IMHO the wire on the Signature arm is to stiff for the twisting method to work. I use the VPI anti-skating gizmo with just a bit of anti skate applied and no twist of the wire either way.