Manufacturing method of honeycomb structure, and honeycomb formed body

A manufacturing method of a honeycomb structure comprising:

• a forming step of forming a forming raw material, and forming a honeycomb formed body having partition walls defining a plurality of cells which extend from one end face to the other end face and which become through channels for a fluid, by extrusion, cutting and drying;
• a convex end portion forming step of forming a convex end portion projecting from the vicinity of a center of the one end face of the honeycomb formed body obtained by the forming step along a central axis direction of the honeycomb formed body and comprising a planar convex end face, and processing the one end face so that its cross section has a convex shape;
• a mounting step of directing downward the side of the one end face on which the convex end portion is formed, and mounting the honeycomb formed body on a shelf plate so that a part of the convex end portion abuts on a shelf plate surface;
• a firing step of firing the honeycomb formed body mounted on the shelf plate, to form a honeycomb fired body;
• and
• an end face grinding step of grinding the one end face of the honeycomb fired body obtained by the firing step, to remove the convex end portion.