What kind of steel are you using? I found that on a couple of my knives that experience drag and get that matte look, I have and excess silica build up. Some vegetables are filled with silica ( corn,onions, asparagus and a few others that I can't remember.) This silica will abrade the steel at a microscopic level and will form a residue on the blade that gives it that sticky feeling. I mentioned to my friend who is a materials specialist of some kind what was happening and the matte spots I noticed on the knife and he took a look under the microscope and noticed the silica build up. It was a Ray rogers chef knife and he used A flat ground O1 tool steel that was mirror polished and it was quite sticky until I actually had to take some 800grit emery cloth and remove the build up and force a patina on it. I no longer have that problem as long as I watch how i clean and treat my knives. I don't know if this is the same thing that you are experiencing, but it could be.