I don't have the experience of the other commentators here, they have given you the best advice;
But-
We do have something in common, we are both new and we both can sharpen knives. I thought that straight razor shaving would be a cinch. What a foolish thought. As stated above, knives and straight razor sharpening is as different as night & day. I spent close to a month of day on, day off, sharpening of old razors before I could get one to shave me comfortably. I had read almost every thread here on honing and bought the best equipment.
With that said, forget about your knife skills here, they will only confuse and frustrate you with the straight razor. I did not see a remark from you about having a loop or pocket microscope to see the edge with. That sharpie is not going to give you a view of that edge with the naked eye. You think you see the edge, but you don't. I don't possibly see how you can see the true status/condition of the edge without magnification. My limited experience says that a possible answer is that you are cutting a bevel on the shoulder of the bevel that was there to begin with; there for you are never touching the real edge. You cannot see this problem without magnification. This problem kept me on one razor for almost a week.Thank God it was a wedge or it would be a metal toothpick now.
As one of the members said in a thread that I read, "You are flying in the dark without magnification"

Again take my advice with a grain of salt; I've only been doing this for 6 months. I hope I helped.
John