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I noticed that some of the C.V. Heljestrand straights have an MK with three crowns, and some of them only have C.V. Heljestrand Nr. I know the No.1, And the Nr. 2 Mean (number) abriviated, but what I don't get is why one blade has three crowns and the other one doesn't, same Heljestrands.
:popcorn:
Possibly a change in the company which resulted in the change of tang stamp. I bet they shave the same.
Lifted from another forum. All credit to user bosseb
The origin of the marking 'MK No XX' on the Heljestrand razors is from the Heljestrand agent in Paris, Magnus Kindal. He was a Swede who moved to Paris in 1875 and opened a bookstore there. He also sold knives and bought them in Eskilstuna, Sweden. He was a very talented sales rep and later bought the Heljestrand factory.
The markings on the razors are MK (Magnus Kindal), BK (Berte Kindal) and RK (Rickard Kindal). Berte and Rickard were children of Magnus Kindal. The razors were produced at different time periods. The quality is the same. The shop in Paris is today run by Makie and Caroline Kindal on 23 BIS Rue de Constantinople in downtown Paris.
The marking CV on the razors are from CV Heljestrand, the founder of the company and the guy who learned to forge razors in Sheffield,UK in the 1870's. He then made use of this knowledge on the steel from the mines in Sweden. The three crowns on the razors indicate that the factory was delivering to the Swedish Royal Court.
According to my main source (an old guy who had worked as an apprentice in the factory in the '30s Magnus Kindal was not very popular because he forced the smiths to only make one kind of razors at a time. Kindal (and his children) knew what the customers wanted; the smiths wanted to show off their knowledge!
The razors were sold via Paris in Europe and via Hoffritz in the US. All were marked with the MK/Heljestrand logo and sometimes rebranded for big customers.