I’m posting this not so much as to ask advice, but to seek knowledge about why??

First off, I’m no novice to honing as I’ve been at it for about 3 1/2 years. I’ve got about 150+ razors under my belt and all came out as nice shavers! I’ve honed near full wedges to extra hollow to bellied in all kinds of sizes from 4/8 to 8/8.

Those that have tasted my edges have always found them nice!

Now Here’s My Question/Problem!

I received an Ontario Cutlery 13/16+ square point from a friend down in Texas for a cleanup and a hone.

The cleanup was very easy and the blade looks very nice! Now here’s were I have questions!

The spine has a very, very, slight smile to it and it has little to no signs of hone wear, except at the very end of the toe and it’s very slight and it’s even on both sides!

However the edge of the blade was a roller coaster!!!!!

When the edge was placed on a smooth and flat surface there was a ‘bump’ that if measured from the center of it was about 1” from the heel. Then if the blade was rocked, it showed that there was a hollow next to it and a very small high spot about 5/8” from the toe.

After much contemplation I decided that the only thing to do was the ‘dreaded’ bread knifing! I used my well worn DMT 325 and went to work. At the end, I switched to Glen’s recommendation of using a 45 deg and then I lowered that to about 20 deg.

I put three layers of tape on the blade and went to work on the DMT, I constantly changed tape! I then started to go again with only two layers of tape and then finally one layer.

I moved to my King 1200 with new tape. I used slurry as I normally do and then repeated my system with clear water and then the Wet Thumbnail Test.

The area where the ‘bump’ was wouldn’t pass the test!!

I looked at the edge under my loupe and it looked like a good set bevel!!!!

I went back to work on the King and got the same results!!

At this point in time I said; f—k it! I went ahead and honed the razor up to the Naniwa 12K! Then did my typical post honing stropping.

Now here comes my problem!!!!!

While the area in question wouldn’t pass the thumbnail test or the arm hair test, I made a point of using that area on my jaw line and chin and it shaves fantastic!!!!!!

I do hope that Lynn, Glen, Randy, Stefen and others with years of experience can at least ‘try’ to tell my why the basic test failed but it delivers such a nice shave!!!

It beats the Hell Out Of Me!!