david weaver
It was actually knife torture tests that I saw breaking with much less tolerance to bending. Not bending force, but how far they'd go before they break.

Could've been steel that wasn't up to spec, but that wasn't documented.

I may be an old fart, but I still like my steel to be squished by something heavy if given the choice. Concessions to that if the alloys start getting nutty, but I don't drink white wine and don't usually go for carbon above what's in super blue or much of anything else.

(Lie Nielsen does A2 quite well, though - best I've seen when I've actually measured - and LV's V11 is nice, but not something I'd give up White #2 for, nor my old wards - but those are getting tough to find - especially in parallel irons)