You aren't going to have to worry about spurs until after the roos are a year or more.
The hot potato method loosens the outer spur so it can lift off the inner, fleshy nub easily, but you can remove them without the hot potato, which requires a potato for each spur, by the way.
You can simply use pliers to gently loosen the spur by twisting slowly back and forth. When it loosens, just lift off with your fingers. There may be a tiny bit of blood, and you can just put anti-bacterial ointment on the raw nubs. They harden in a day or two, and take over a year to grow back.
My two cockerels are nine months old and their spurs are barely a half inch long. I won't mess with removing them until they are almost an inch.
It behooves you to remove them or cut them short, careful not to cut into the quick (nub inside) like you do with toe nails. Long spurs can injure the hens, and have even been known to badly injure the rooster should he fall on them somehow. They may or may not be a valuable weapon in defense of the flock. But I haven't seen any rooster here in the wild where I live come out the victor in a scuffle with a wild animal.
