I'm not sure which historical models you are talking about . My Pierre Theirs LE has the smiling blade and has to be honed with the rolling X as do many of the blades that I have. One Theirs I received had a double bevel on one side and not the other. I had to hone that out to correct it. Many razors will not take an equal bevel on both sides but can still be sharpened and used with no problems. That is just the way it is. Not a perfect world.

I have bought four brand new Theirs razors and none were shave ready out of the box regardless of the vendor. I must add that I did not pay any extra to have that service preformed by the vendor. If you go to the linked threads in my previous post you will see the correct way to hone a razor that won't lay flat. That characteristic in a blade is not unusual at all.

As I learned on this forum I take a magic marker and mark the edge when I first begin to hone and see how the blade is hitting the hone for a few strokes by where the marker is removed. Then I adjust my stroke accordingly. Some blades hone flat and some do not but all can be sharpened.