1st post and a question for the sharpening experts

Phaedrus knows a zillion times more about the Addict than I do.  If he doesn't show up in the next couple of days, PM him. 

But since you asked, and ignorance is never shy, here are some sharpening strategies which might take care of your problem: 

The first thing I'd do is strop and glimmer test.  More about that later.

Assuming you're sharpening to something more acute than 15* (you did thin, afterall), try a more obtuse micro-bevel.  Something around 20* ish.  Obviously, angles are going to be approximate.  In any case, something a little more obtuse than your current final angle -- and just a few strokes on your 1K and 4K.  No need to go back to the DMT for a long time. 

If that doesn't work, time to troubleshoot.  You may have sharpened in some high/low spots which are giving you trouble and allowing the knife to ding out of true too easily.   And, in spite of your deburring (sounds like you did it right, but you may not have chased the wire enough) you may be working with a wire edge -- which is even more  susceptible to getting out of true.  A wire edge is my first guess.

Do you know what the "glimmer test" is?  If so, what does your edge look like after stropping on un-loaded news print or shirt-board?  After a shift? How does your knife respond to steeling? 

All this stuff is solvable.  Once you figure out the knife, these problems will fade like a bad dream. 

BDL

It's always a pleasure to talk to someone as sophisticated as you about some of the fine points. 

Speaking of sophistication, I erroneously wrote "glimmer test" when I should have written "glint test."  So here goes. 

Glint Testing: 

Stand or sit in good light.  Put the back of the knife's handle against your cheekbone, so the blade runs straight away from the center of your eye, with the edge at eye level and straight up.  Wiggle the knife a little by rotating it.  If there are high and low spots, or the knife is out of true, you'll see glints here and there along the edge bevel.  If the bevel is flat and the edge true, the edge will illuminate evenly along both sides. 

Sometimes it helps to sit inside or in the dark and look into the shade.

Chasing the Burr as a Test: 

If you steel your knife -- keeping it down to a swipe or two on each side -- and detect a burr, you've got a wire.  I like to steel many (but not all) knives as a part of the deburring process, especially when sharpening at medium grit levels.  The "more harm than good" question rears its head if you're sharpening very acute angles, or dealing with an extremely hard alloy -- I think your Addict2 is marginal in both respects.  If you have a very fine steel, it's worth a try.  But be gentle.  At this stage you only want to bend the wire enough to see if its there.

Yet another test for a burr, is to make a couple of gentle passes on one side of the knife on your 4K stone and (again) feel for a burr.  The same with stropping on newsprint -- a couple of gentle passes on one side, then feel.  What you're trying to do is see if there's enough very thin excess metal at the edge to bend easily.  If so, you'll want to chase it until you can deburr it easily. 

When we talk about deburring, I know we get absorbed in dissolving burrs, using corks, felt blocks and so on; but the meat of deburring is chasing the burr (or wire) until it's sufficiently fatigued to come off easily.  Think of bending an old credit card back and forth until you can tear it.

Thumb Drag Test:

I can usually detect a wire with a thumb drag without steeling, but am unsure how to describe the feeling.  If you continually thumb drag during the various processes which make up sharpening, you'll most likely sensitize yourself to making some subtle diagnostics with nothing more than a touch. 

BDL

Sure it can be frustrating at times, but I guess the whole challenging part of it is sort of a motivator, and also adds to the accomplishment when you do get the result your looking for.

Another thought I had while re reading some was you may want to find something a little harder than the cork you have been using. I know many people (and some much better at this than I am too) swear by running the edge through a cork, and I do so as well, but more than once I have used a normal everyday 2x4. I have one handy when sharpening as I used a cut piece to make up a non slip stand for the stones until I break down and buy a normal stone holder, but the areas that are not covered in rubber seem to remove a burr really well

I wish I knew more about that steel so I could offer more specific advice etc, but when you think about it 10 min sounds like too little but all afternoon sounds like to much and I am one of those who tends to take their time with this, and typically doing 5-10 knives at a time.

Were you able to feel the burr with your thumbnail like BDL described, or was it too fine etc?

Any chance you have access to some kind of magnifier to try and see what your actually up against? I am sort of repeating myself but I found it helpful even though it really is tough to see more than a small sample at a time with higher magnification. Well guess it could be due to avoiding an eye exam in some twisted attempt to believe I still can see as well as 20 years ago

Either way do not let it get the best of you, and post up your findings.

I have a small steel steam table insert as a pond/stone storage, 2X4 section as a bridge, and thick shelf liner to hold them steady. Cheap and effective.

Jim