Thread: honing razor

So, I certainly need to send my razor in for professional honing. But since I've already butched my razor from trying to hone it myself, I figure that I might as well try again with some assistance while I'm still looking for a professional in town. I've done some reading on setting the bevel and sharpening, and though I'm sure there's still much I don't know, the thing that's giving me the most trouble is an incongruency across the blade. What I mean is, this: the middle portion of the blade becomes sharper(determined by arm hair test) than both the heel and point area. Also, though this may not be an issue, if I put the blade straight up with the edge facing down, the point and heel area are slightly raised so as to not touch the ground though the middle does. But this may be the design of all straight razors. My razor is a square type by the way. This also may go along with the first thing I mentioned, but I did a magic marker test, and the middle portion gets shaved off with fewer strokes than the point and heel. I tried to fix this by simply sharpening just the point and heel(bit more difficult) but I either didn't do it long enough or I messed up in some other way. If I can just solve this problem, than I think I can handle the rest. Sort of, I'm still not sure how I am supposed to know when I have the best bevel set, is it dependent on how well it passes the arm-hair test? Anyway, any advice and instruction would be greatly appreciated. Oh and, I have two nortion water stones: a 250/1000 grit and a 4000/8000 grit.

Although the razor may be a square point the blade itself sounds like it is a smiling blade, you will have to use a scything stroke (semi circular) with the heel leading.

Try to post on honing section in that case you will get more help.
what you are describing is a smile face blade.
it will a lot easier if we see pictures of the blade . Check the spine of the blade and see which parts has more hone wear.
if it is even spine wear i doubt it then you can make circular motion honing and sharp the blade.
i would suggest stay on 1k norton until you see you have set bevel from heel to tip.
After that you can move on for higher grit stone.
It will be better if you are learning to hone start learning in bad shape ebay blades.
in fact full smiling blade is hardest one and you are trying to learn how to on this blade is kinda tough jump.
In the other hand if you do too much damage it will be more work to next person to fix the problem.
Easy way will be send this one for honing and you try to learn on cheap blades.
hope this helps.

you tryed the marker test with 45 degree x swooping x and rolling x ?
if your looking for a honemeister in town i suggest stating what town your from

Hello, I've moved your thread into the honing forum where, as hi_bud noted, it will get more attention. Here is a 1961 barber manual excerpt that may be helpful in dealing with that blade profile. You might also check out the 'rolling x' in the SRP Wiki here.

Thanks for the advice and instruction so far everybody. Here are some pictures. Hope they help. I was checking the edge again and I'm not so sure if it's actually a smiling blade. Sometimes I get the impression that the middle is a bit more raised than the heel and point. I'm basically lost at this point.

look like that blade got more then one issue
the heel is starting to interfere with the edge hard to tell if it creating a raise yet but it does need to be rounded off a bit
And if you continue as you have it will probably develop a frown
I do believe the barber manual is exsplaining about indusing a smile so you may want to check that out

That looks like it has a slight frown to it. IE: the blade is wider at the heel and the toe than it is in the middle.

You might find that making contact with the edges of the hone helps here. So instead of making contact with the middle of the hone, you're getting contact with the edges as you make your X stroke.

i'd say it looks like a frown ,that not a smily by the looks of it

Have been mention already it is frown blade.
how to fix.
Easiest way(in my mind) is.
tape spine of the blade exact size of the smallest portion of the edge?
what i mean.
you will need to tape in this case middle of the blade. size of the tape should match(will better if a little smaller then size of the frown.)
Start honing on 1k level until you will get even hone wear on the spine of the blade.
Don't pay attention to the edge. it is larger smaller means nothing so far.
As soon as you get even spine hone wear you will see your edge will even up.
gl