Thin bevel in the middle of the blade - what do I do?

[Tranqville]

Read in another thread: "I personally don't like the circular method, you can see the uneven wear on the middle part of the blade." (Galaktus) Since I set the bevel using circular on 4k Norton, could that be the reason for the mess-up in the middle? I should add that my first attempt at circular failed, and I only managed it on the second go. I definitely did more circular strokes than recommended trying to get the bevel set.

 

[Galaktus]

I don't like the circular method because the center of the blade spends the most time on the hone, therefore the center of the blade gets the most wear.
Use the magic marker on the edge bevel like previously mentioned. Learn how your honing strokes are affecting your edge bevel. Mark your edge, do ONE circular stroke, and see where the marker has worn off. Use the marker to see how an X-pattern wears the edge.
Honing razors takes practice, and persistence. The extremely fine grits used to hone a razor remove metal verrry slowly. This can lead to frustration to new honers.
My personal belief is that if the blade may be warped, the edge of the bevel is still the only thing that cuts your whiskers.
As also previously mentioned, you MUST get the bevel correct at lower grits or all your work after that is pointless. I cannot troubleshoot your razor without seeing it in my hands, but you may have a warped blade (which is not as uncommon as you think), or starting a "frown" due to improper honing.
The overall edge of your razor looks pretty straight, no smiles or huge frowns, so I recommend for honing, keeping the whole edge on the hone for the entire stroke. You may have to cant the blade at 45 degree angle or so relative to the hone, lead with the heel, and trail the toe. Use a lower grit hone (1000-1200 grit) until the bevel satisfies you. At these grits, the razor should effortlessly shave arm or leg hair along the whole edge. When you think you are there, use the marker with one stroke to confirm the bevel is straight and true along the whole edge. The black ink should be uniformly worn along the whole edge. Then you can progress to the higher grits.
Hope this helps.

 

[Brooksie967]

I just posted about the circle method in another thread. As long as your edge is perfectly straight you're ok to do so. Any smile will cause extra wear in the middle of the blade unless you're extremely diligent on lower grit stones.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Technically speaking any method that doesn't completely neglect area's of the blade for extended periods of time should be self-regulating assuming pressure is consistent. Frowning isn't caused by circular honing. Frowning can be caused by more pressure being exerted at the center of edge vs the toe and heel, and this will happen FASTER with circular honing for sure. Of course there are many other ways to create a frown in a razor. The problem being what it is, it's very difficult to diagnose the problem exactly across the internet. Even more difficult to instill the knowledge of how to correct it. I'd say for certain you need to get a razor with less risk attached to learning to hone on it before you tackle fixing this one. I don't think your problem is very severe from what I'm seeing, but the fix will open you up to doing some pretty serious damage if you perform it incorrectly.

 

[Gamma]

Just today - I had to deal with very nearly this exact situation. Razor is a Geo. Butler Trinity Works near-wedge.

The blade had been partially restored - edge was duller than a butter knife.
The first passes on the 1k showed zero-hit on the middle of the bevel. None, nada.
More honing showed the same - the typical Sheffield wavy bevel at heel and toe, but nothing in the middle.
The difference with my blade and the OP's is that I only had this on one side of the blade.

Out comes the 1k Shapton Pro, which is more like an 800x, and after an extended session that involved a variety of strokes - I have bevel on both sides. Mostly - the radical heel leading strokes cleaned it up.
There's much more work to be done though - on one side the toe isn't hitting correctly so I have to adapt my roll to get it finished.
This blade wll be a wonderful shaver, the steel is lovely. It just needs some more love on the lower grits and it'll level out.
I have some errands to run - so I'll get back to it later or tomorrow or whatever. Now that it's figured out, the rest of the work will be easy peasy.