Troubleshooting an eBay Special

[BingoBango]

Here's the situation: I'm trying to hone a 4/8 Geneva Cutlery Co. I got on the bay for a few bucks. After going through the entire honing routine I was able to get a pretty good edge on it, except for the last 1/4" or so at the heel and the toe. I am using a 1K, 5K, 8K 12K Naniwa set and have a DMT for lapping. (Explaining "pretty good edge": If the Dovo I have from SRD is in the "A" range, and the razors I have from two other members with experience are in the "B/B+" range, the edge I have in the middle is safely a "C+". The toe & heel areas aren't shave ready so I guess a teacher would mark them "Incomplete". Maybe if the entire razor kept the "C+" edge, a few more laps on the 12K or a CO pasted strop could inch me closer to "B minus-minus" if that makes sense. Maybe it's a better edge than I think, but I'm hesitant to mark myself better just yet.)

Here was my routine: I did circles and X strokes on the 1K then moved off that with only about half the edge in the middle sticky sharp by the TPT, but the whole edge starting taking off leg hair with a little pressure after just a few laps of circles and then smooth laps on the 5K, so I don't think moving up was such a bad idea. I did 20 - 5K laps and 20 8K and thought it could be better, so I went back and did 10 & 10 and the edge came out even nicer, cutting down hairs with barely any pressure. After about 25 light laps the 12k, the meat of the edge is mowing down hairs really nicely with very slight pressure/resistance. The two trouble spots need a steep angle and pressure to do it, so that's no good. The bevel in the toe area is visible and thinner than the rest of the edge. The heel bevel is also visible but even with the meat of the edge. I can't get photos of it, but the bevel looks pretty normal IMO. Not particularly wide or thin, just like all my other razors honed by folks who know what they're doing.

Shave test: After about 20 laps on just my leather strop, all but these two areas are shaving a beard with just a few dabs of water - no prep or lather. I think this is a good sign and if not for these areas I think a good shave is in here since the stropping took away the little resistance I had off the 12K. The heel area isn't as big of a deal since it's sort of "out of the way," but not having the toe affects the shaving tremendously. The toe does not shave and needs to be kept off my face. It pulls a lot in that one spot and throws off the glide of the razor.

Some other info - the blade does not have a smile or frown, which I can tell by gently resting the edge on a flat surface. However, there is some strange hone wear near the toe on one side of the razor. (See photos. Ignore the pitting this thing was CHEAP.) Also, inexperience or the stabilizers or something is making it difficult to get the 1/8" - 1/4" by the heel.

My uneducated guess is the hone wear is causing the problem or it's poor lapping or poor technique. Then again, it could be all three or something I haven't thought of.

Discussing the hone wear: it seems like there's more wear near the toe on just one side. The attached photos show it really well - that white line is the bottom of the hone wear and runs at an angle along the spine. Is there a way I ought to compensate for this? (Tape? The rest of the edge worked out without it...) Also, the tang or the stabilizers seem to throw off the heel area. I've tried leading with the heel of razor on the stone, but I don't know.

If it's lapping - how do I make sure I have a properly lapped hone? The reason I bring this up is the pattern of the swarf on the stone isn't even across the width of the stone. Could be a bad indicator and I'm just making myself crazy...

Maybe it's technique and I need to throw in a rolling X or something else. Tips? I'm guessing I should do a marker test, but now that I've come this far I don't know how far back I'd go - I almost wanna say 5K and do light circles to make sure these areas get a good bevel, then move on with a rolling X... Seems like a waste of the work I did...

So that's about all I can think of for now. If questions come up I'll answer them in this thread, but any advice would be awesome. It'd also be nice to learn how to troubleshoot a razor and eliminate various potential problems. Granted I'm a newbie and probably being over-ambitious with this razor, but in the end I don't think I'm too far off the mark.

Thanks in advance for any sage advice!