Slight frown inside a smile: technique?

My experience: I've brought unproblematic razors from "butter-knife dull" to shave ready, and maintain my own, but have never fixed a frown or struggled with bad geometries.

I picked this up at an antique store and cleaned it up. The basic profile is a slight smile, but there is a bit of a frown at the center, extending about an inch and a quarter. I think the photo below shows it pretty well: see the light showing between edge and hone, right under the place where the "apple" on my iPhone is reflected in the blade.

Do you think this can be tackled by honing (that is, without grinding)? I've got time to be patient on, say, a 1k. If so, any recommendations about stroke, pressure, tricks?

Thanks.

Attachment 164148

I should add: it was cheap, and its value to me is some novice-level troubleshooting practice. I enjoyed getting the rust off, and would enjoy the honing challenge…if it's doable.

I would bread knife it maybe 5 strokes then check and repeat as needed (I don't think it would take much to get that frown out, so don't go crazy). Slap some electrical tape on the spine (or not) and continue honing as usual. Using a mix of X and J hook strokes (takes care of the smile). A sharpie is good to use on the edge so you can see what strokes are getting the whole edge and what's not.

It should be fine I have honed out frowns by breadknifing but I have also fixed small frowns like this by just honing it out on the 1k to full bevel set rather than bread knife then progressing as normal,
Note it does take a while but if you bread knife it it will take longer to reset the bevel anyway
So go for it and learn you should be fine

It will be a little bit of work and perhaps you may want to review glens video on honing a smiling blade. I would hang on to that as much as you can, just loose the frown in the middle
gssixgun Restoration Breadknifing part 1.wmv - YouTube
gssixgun Restoration Breadknifing part 2.wmv - YouTube
gssixgun Restoration Breadknifing part 3 - YouTube

Thanks, everyone, that's just what I was hoping. And thanks for advice on preserving the smile. I'll let you know how it turns out!

that frown is not bad at all, before you attempt breadknifing that blade, I would take it to the 1k and do very light straight up and back strokes. Because way when you hold the blade flat, it should be that only the two high point on either side of the frown are touching the stone (if the edge is not warped). Once you take the high sides down to being line with the lowest point of the frown, then you can do the rolling x's, pigtails, or whatever smile creating stroke you like to sharpen the heel, center, and toe of the blade.

Just my two cents because I really don't like breadknifing unless there is a massive chip.

*edit - just forgot to add that the reason you're using very light pressure when removing the frown is so the blade will not flex and create a more pronounced frown. I suspect that is what happened to this particular blade as you can see the belly was beginning to get torn out from flex, as well as the toe being honed with enough pressure to create that "smile". The spine geometry of this particular blade does not indicate it should have more than a slight grin (if evenly honed).

I was always under the impression that straight up and back strokes are what cause frowns? Or maybe I'm just thinking of that particular stroke dishing the hone more rapidly. Just a thought, I have no facts to back that up