Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
Planing end grain could be like chiseling dovetail waste. Pound on the chisel with a coarse cut and steel hardness and toughness will be tested. Or it could be like planing long grain where abrasion resistance is paramount and toughness and resistance to deflection are unimportant beyond a modest threshold.

Before David started I predicted the two steels would be similar on end grain because the greater abrasion resistance of V11 would be unimportant. I seemed to be right but likely for the wrong reasons. I'll bet the wear geometry on these blades is substantially difference from flat grain. Or simply, the blade is passing across much less material per foot on end grain. End grain is largely air space.

Where in the range of these challenges to edge life one finds one's self is going to depend on the wood and technique and a host of details. I can see now that my puny edge life likely stemmed from several important details that differed from David's experiment. The edge of my shooting plane blade looks like a dull chisel, not a dull plane blade. David has identified ways to improve.

I got suckered into buying a low angle block plane for end grain. I'm "dull" from using it after only a few feet.It sits unused if I can get something with a handle to work.