I’m not a woodworker at all, but I have a basic hardware store chisel that I sharpened to about 130 gf BESS. I would expect that soon you will be able to get sharper than the 400-500 range. When I speak of bevel angle, I refer to just one side, so 15° would be a total of 30° both sides. I mention that because I'm not sure what you mean by 60°.
I’ve found two things are most important in sharpening. The first is to maintain a consistent angle while sharpening. If you grind too flat then you are grinding off the edge on the bevel just wasting your time. Grind too steeply and it’s cutting a new edge on every pass. For me at least, it is next to impossible to maintain a perfect sharpening angle by hand!
The second is complete burr removal. If the burr is not removed the actual sharp edge is never exposed and the burr smashes down and either covers the edge or folds over to one side. Right off the sharpener I’ve seen knives read +300 gf. Remove the burr and it drops to 150 gf.
If you are getting wildly inconsistent readings over the length of the edge then either it is not evenly sharpened or there is varying amounts of burr in different areas of the edge. Remember the test media is only .009” diameter so it is very difficult to measure the exact same spot on the blade by hand more than once. For example, a “toothy” edge can show slightly different readings over the length of the blade just because the edge is not perfectly smooth.
I’ve found a good light and a 10X loupe or better still a USB microscope can be very informative:
http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=68
I’ve found two things are most important in sharpening. The first is to maintain a consistent angle while sharpening. If you grind too flat then you are grinding off the edge on the bevel just wasting your time. Grind too steeply and it’s cutting a new edge on every pass. For me at least, it is next to impossible to maintain a perfect sharpening angle by hand!
The second is complete burr removal. If the burr is not removed the actual sharp edge is never exposed and the burr smashes down and either covers the edge or folds over to one side. Right off the sharpener I’ve seen knives read +300 gf. Remove the burr and it drops to 150 gf.
If you are getting wildly inconsistent readings over the length of the edge then either it is not evenly sharpened or there is varying amounts of burr in different areas of the edge. Remember the test media is only .009” diameter so it is very difficult to measure the exact same spot on the blade by hand more than once. For example, a “toothy” edge can show slightly different readings over the length of the blade just because the edge is not perfectly smooth.
I’ve found a good light and a 10X loupe or better still a USB microscope can be very informative:
http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=68