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by deleting history you aren't deleting your vertex... you're just ignoring all the past operations that have happened on your mesh
when you edit your mesh a lot with lots of split polygons and extrudes and such, the history builds up...
do the tutorials that come with maya, you'll know what i mean..
it could be related to the way your normals are facing though.
that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"
Computer skills I should have:
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