Besides lapping, I would also chamfer the edges of your stones.
I have been back at this (honing) for 3 months, most of the time I can go from dull to shavable in 2 hours (including removing chips, frowns).
But I have had a blade or 2 that gave me fits. Just finished cmon that took 2 days of about 4 hours total. Just when i think I have a system something comes along and smacks me down.
I would ask do you use a loupe? To me it is imvaluable at telling me I failed to get a bevel set. Unfortunately it wont tell me what to do to fix it.
Some things I think contribute to failure is too much pressure, raising a slurry and pushing the edge into that slurry, rather than using a spine leading stroke, and not using enough spine leading strokes.
These are my experiences, ymmv.