So I picked up a couple of Old Type's at an antique shop that are in good shape except for a bent tooth on the one corner. I don't want to mess it up, but is there any way to safely straighten them out?
When a tooth is bent 1 side is stretched and the other side is compressed, you can't compress the stretched side so the compressed side just tears.
That said, it's a crap shoot, I've broken more teeth then I've straightened.
I won't buy a opened comb without a clear picture of the teeth
I bought a Gillette New Deluxe Criterion open comb a couple years ago that had two horizontally bent teeth. I was able to straighten them by placing a stout butter knife between the teeth, for leverage, and then bending them back into position. If those teeth had been bent vertically, they would have certainly been broken if attempted to straighten.