Restored a Greaves... but have a problem

[DocMartin0321]

Hello all!

Well I'm finally on vacation, and the first thing I wanted to do was make a set of scales for an old Greaves that has been laying around. It is one of three razors in a lot of barber's items that I won on ebay. The first set or scales I ever attempted to make were for a Finney that came in the same lot (associated thread not too far below this one). When I bought the horn blanks on Etsy, I got two sets. The black buffalo went on the Finney, and the Honey Ox was for the Greaves.



I cut the rough shape, then spent 8-10 hours of hand sanding them into what you see, then all of the way up to 4000 grit micro mesh (ow my hands). I then polished them with black emery, green stainless compound, and finally hand polished with Metal Glo. The wedge is a piece of the same honey ox that was sent by the seller from some of his scraps, specifically for wedge making. He did this for me as a favor, since I did not have a wedge to transplant into the new scales (good guy all around).

I then spent some quality time with the blade to bring her back to life. I went through a progression of polishing compounds on felt wheels with my Dremel, finally hand polishing with Metal Glo. The blade still has some remnants of the pitting, but given that it is a full hollow, I didn't want to push it. She still looks good for being 160+ years old.
Most of that time was spent on the blade itself, because I generally like to leave the tang a bit rougher. I like the contrast for some reason.


All in all, I think it turned out very nicely. My only issue is how off center the blade closes, which can be seen in the two pictures below.



Before I started all of this, I could see that the blade had extra scratches and pitting on the stamp side near the edge. This indicated to me that it closed off-center and pressed against the horn when closed. I could also tell that it was bent where the tang meets the blade ever so slightly.

Maybe I should have stopped right there and sold the blade for a few bucks.

Instead, I took a gamble that maybe the prior scales were also warped, which may have exacerbated the issue. I thought to myself, "Maybe if I make a nice straight set of scales, with a slightly wider wedge it won't be an issue."

Well, it still closes way off center, and rests against the scale when closed!

My big questions are:
1) Is there any way to straighten her back up? (I'm not optimistic)

2) Is it the interaction between the blade and horn that causes pitting, or does moisture have to be involved? I dry my razors thoroughly inside and out after the shave, and let them sit in a stand open overnight before closing and putting them away the next day. Is this blade doomed to develop pitting despite my best efforts?

Thanks for reading. I hope you like how the old bent Greaves cleaned up, and I would love to hear your thoughts regarding the the above questions.