At Greensboro last year I had a pair of QRs with beautifully curved blades. I wanted to offer them as curved track quick release skewers at my vendor's booth in the upcoming sale, but I had no sure knowledge of what they were.
There was a group of some of the CR list's most respected and distinguished (at least in my eyes) gathered just outside the front door of the Battleground Inn, so I got the items out of my car and passed them around the group. The comments were all in the range of "Well, they sure could be" or "They sure look like it" or "I don't know for sure if I've ever seen a pair, so it's hard to say". Peter Weigle finally held them in his hand and said how back in the day he and others used to put them in a vise and tap them into that same curve, or something to that effect. I think I just put them back away and did not offer them.
At any rate, I can't help but wonder if, given the fact that such a distinguished group could not say for sure, that it makes little difference whether they are curved originally or by a handy person from the era who wanted curved blades. If learned folks can't say, does it really make any difference? If you've found a pair and want to use them, you might as well. Who is going to tell you that you are wrong and be on firm ground?
I suppose that if there really is some savant who can say for sure, this post will bring them out, for sure. It certainly would not be the first time that I have been proven wrong.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Michigan USA