Thanks for the affirmation @Euclid440! Ya, that's what I would have thought, but after seeing new razors with stabilizers near the edge and how some (like Filarmonicas) do tend to taper to the back when new ...the lack of honewear here gave me doubts like, hm, maybe somehow this is on purpose? But ya, heavy hand and/or tape makes more sense because this one I can't really see how you could hone it as is whereas the No 62 I started the thread with was clearly usable, just couldn't tell if it was that way new or had been reshaped.