Some old style knives have heels shorter than the middle of the blade. Kind of awkward to use, but more curve makes things slice easier. Puts more weight toward the tip, and encourages the knife to follow the arc. A style of Tokyo nakiri I think, have this.
Also, when doing initial ura work, the uraoshi line can make contact everywhere except one spot in the middle of the blade. First, bend the knife away from the ura, so that part of the ura can be sharpened to establish the line. Then straighten back, and sharpen as normal. Use a flat plat as reference. This helps to avoid hammering the iron.
I think this can also be done to make the uraoshi sharpen more evenly, by bending and thickening the uraoshi line where it's thin, but I haven't tried that yet. I've only done it where the line is non-existent, and no uraoshi means duburring cannot be done unless the knife sharpened with a back bevel