You wanted a SHSH test, so here it is.
So, I know this is late, but I figure I would throw this latest test in here. I figured I would pull up this old necro thread and add it here for some hidden fun.
First let me explain where I screwed up. I freehand sharpened my SHSHII and was going after 15 dps. Well, that did not go so well. I measure the edge and I got an edge width of 0.149" and thickness behind the edge of 0.046. Just measured today on the sweet spot. The maximum width was more, so the edge varied from 8 to 9 degrees per side. The sweet spot is 8.8Ā°
Since I screwed up and I am going to have to redo the edge, I figured why not see how much it can take. So I decided to have my kid video me chopping some stuff with it to see how much damage it can take. I started off going into soft pine boards for about 20 something hits with no damage. Only to find out that my kid had not hit record. So we did it again, but since there was no damage, I went straight to heavy gauge copper tubing from home depot. Anyone can buy this stuff and replicate my results. They have two or three thicknesses and I got the thickest, which looks to be about 1/8" thick tubing, 5/8" diameter. As for toughness, it is between pine and bone in how it reacts. It starts to deform and as it cuts it creates high stress points that can cause edge damage. I have hit this stuff with my 15 dps edge with no damage to the edge.
I figured this would do damage to the edge and it did. Here are the pics of the blade and edge. The indentations below are all an average of 0.009" deep. So I will likely need to take 0.02" off to get rid of the damage. Which is relatively minor damage. I could probably strop off the damage, but taking edge off will bring my angle to a higher number. While I would never recommend going anywhere near this angle, it is good to know that the edge can handle moderate abuse at such a low angle.
and a closeup of the edge, lots of rolllng at the very tip of the edge, where the thickness is nearly unmeasurable since due to how thin the edge is. What's most impressive is the deformation at such a thin edge and no induced fracture.
the video is here: