well the jailbreak will never really damage your device, if you go wrong or make a mistake and see something not right on the screen or something that makes you panic you can always restore and start from scratch, this is why its always advised that you have a recent backup in itunes before attempting it especially if you are new to jailbreaking.
having said that I think you had the right idea to use the ipod touch for testing and you can really get used to how to jailbreak and once you do it a few times you can do it in your sleep so try it out on your ipod touch a few times.
with 5.0.1 you would use redsn0w and it is a tethered jailbreak, I dont know if you know the difference in un tethered and a tethered jailbreak but with a tethered jailbreak you would need to re-jailbreak the device every time you reboot it and it will sit there stuck at the apple logo until you jailbreak, I have never and will never use a tethered jailbreak even though I never really restart the device but some apps you install will automatically do that for you.
my advise is to wait for an un tethered jailbreak, there is one that is being released soon and just needs to be worked on so there is no bugs, you have waited this long to jailbreak, it wont harm you if you wait a little longer

thats just imo and I know many will disagree with that but if you do find any app(s) that you love, you will find it hard to go back to a non jailbroken state.