I've been making knives for 1-1/2 years, gotten pretty good; selling them, but having trouble honing my sharpening skills. I use a rig I built myself and use fine, medium and coarse stones from lansky. It's built on a 12x12x1 plywood base. the blade is clamped securely in place, from spine to edge its parallel to surface of base. The stones slide back and forth along a 1/4" rod, one end of the rod rests in an eye bolt that threads up and down for angle adjustment. The stones grind back and forth at right angle with the edge, along the length of the edge in an arc with the eye bolt as center. 
I first got the idea from the little lansky set up, then built my own based on pictures of heavier arrangements I saw pictures of, but hopefully the concept is clear. I remove a lot of steel on my 2x72 first, roughly establishing the angle then move the blade to my contraption. It works well but I always encounter the same thing: I get a nice burr from the point down along the belly, then once I reach the straight part of the edge, no matter how much I grind with the stones, I can't create a burr. Often my knives are scary sharp from tip to 1/2 way down but only sort of sharp the rest of the length. First I figured it was a matter of more elbow grease to remove the metal to create the burr but it doesn't want to form. No doubt some sort of geometry involved. I'm stumped- any advise, feedback, answers? Thanks!
I first got the idea from the little lansky set up, then built my own based on pictures of heavier arrangements I saw pictures of, but hopefully the concept is clear. I remove a lot of steel on my 2x72 first, roughly establishing the angle then move the blade to my contraption. It works well but I always encounter the same thing: I get a nice burr from the point down along the belly, then once I reach the straight part of the edge, no matter how much I grind with the stones, I can't create a burr. Often my knives are scary sharp from tip to 1/2 way down but only sort of sharp the rest of the length. First I figured it was a matter of more elbow grease to remove the metal to create the burr but it doesn't want to form. No doubt some sort of geometry involved. I'm stumped- any advise, feedback, answers? Thanks!