How to check if hewes reel is actually bent?

So I noticed two films in a row kept kinking in the corners, so I went ahead to check the reels. One quadrant of one of my hewes reels is half a wire diameter off (gap too small). I tried bending it back and it looks better, but is there a way of checking, without wasting a roll of film?

The one problem with SS reels is that once they get bent they will never work right again.

I make enough errors to have various types of bad film laying around -- so I would use such a roll to test the reel in the light. Nice to have when getting a new reel, also. Even bought new, I would prefer to run a test roll on a reel before using my exposed film.

Use an exposed roll, if you have one that isn't cut. Just be careful with it if it has pic you care about.
Or else, process a roll using your known good reel then test the bent one.

However, as Gerald says, re-bending a bent one to improve it is difficult. The nature of steel is to harden in response to bending, so straightening a bend requires more force than the original bend did.

Hmm, it's only about half a mm different
Could it be a loading error instead? Managed to snag two rolls on one of the stiffeners. I got my exposed film on it fine.

One of my Hewes reels is slightly bent. It is enough to be noticeable to the eye, but it has had no effect on loading film.

Gerald C Koch said:

The one problem with SS reels is that once they get bent they will never work right again.

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I have managed to straighten wire reels but that's just the cheap ones, not sure I'm strong enough to bend back a Hewes reel.

I've straightened a couple of cheap reels. Measure the inside-distance of the reel with a caliper at several locations around the circumference. A bent reel will be too small on one side and perhaps slightly larger on the opposite side. Measure a location 90 degrees away from the bent point, and lock the caliper. Then measure-and-bend repeatedly until the entire circumference is about the correct distance. Then try loading a scrap roll and see how it goes.

Mark Overton