Uneven Honing Sharpness

[Denvernoob]

I am hoping for a little guidance, and the good news is that this coming weekend I will have a chance to sit down with a number of expert honers and get some additional clarity, but I wanted to throw this out there for the community at large....just to see what the response may be.

I have what is essentially a NOS Dubl Duck Goldedge. It had a small chip in the toe which came out readily on the 1k Norton. I taped the spine and went through a normal progression. This razor had never seen an edge that I could see, so I took my time with it. At the end of the day, the first third of the blade (toe back) is OK....but not as keen as I would like. The second 2/3 are shave ready by any standard. I really don't want to lay into the metal too much to bring the toe around to shave ready because of the virtually unused state of the blade, and certainly don't want to finish it without tape on the spine. I briefly tried placing a finger on the toe to apply a bit more pressure, as well as rolling strokes, but it just didn't want to get "all the way there." I walked away from it because getting frustrated isn't solving any issues, but I am curious what you folks might think I could do to fix it?

My progression:
1k, 4k, 8k (Nortons), 12k (Naniwa), CrOx/FeOx (Balsa), plain webbing, leather.

Thanks!

-Ted