I would expect that when I do purchase a new straight it will need honing and polishing. I have no problem with that. In fact I would prefer to have it sharpened by one of our advertised honemeisters. However, a warped balde is not acceptable. From all the negative comments here I would hope that someone from TI is reading through them and determining that quality process is in serious need of improvements. Perhaps not. It's an imperfect world and some commercial ventures are more of the bottom line types with lip service paid to quality control and customer service. Also, when a company starts to get into financial trouble quality control and custmoer service are usually the first things to go. But based on the comments so far I would have to say that TI is not going to be on my list for purchase.