I had a choice today of cleaning the fridge or shaving. Shaving it was. For the razor I chose a razor that has not received much love, a Herder. This razor was described by one of my mentors (who rescaled it) as something that a worker pocketed when he snatched it from the QC bin, in other words, it was never supposed to leave the factory. But it did.
So it has been languishing in a drawer and I decided to have at it. I think I have had it for some 3 years and have shaved with it once before. I looked at it and it looked like there was a smile and a slight hollow in the spine. Laid the Starrett on it and it indeed has both a slight smile, and a slightly hollow spine. So I check my other razors and find that most of them have a slightly hollow spine! A couple lay on the straight edge dead flat. I don't have a lot of razors. But this still surprised me, and I did an Advanced Search, but could not come up with much on the topic.
Is a slightly hollow spine the norm for vintage blades? Is there a reason why some spines are dead flat and others hollowed? Anyway, it was fun making a new 'discovery' right under my nose.