Thread: With Coffee You Get Hess 44

Ladies and Gentlemen:

What frustrated me was the last antique store, which was closed. What, was everybody out to lunch? No, of course not. This blasted store was regularly closed on Tuesdays. What's this? What store closes on Tuesdays? Sundays or Mondays, maybe, but Tuesdays? I barked a few choice Assyrian words to myself and retreated to a coffee shop.

An hour or so later I headed out to my car, but somehow my feet marched in the other direction to the last antique store I knew in the neighborhood. I already had shot the morning food shopping, anyway, and was on the way home, so what would hurt to stop in the last antique shop? One more for the road, so to peak.

The display case had four razors. Two were junk, one with cracked scales. Oh, fine, I told myself, I should have settled for a jug of hooch as one for the road instead of the blasted antique store. The other two razors, marked at $110 each, had scales in cracked ice. They were unblemished. Well, that was a good sign, at least. I asked to see the razors.

They both had the word Forty-four in metal inlay on the scales.

Nah, it couldn't be, I assured myself, not after a frustrating day — store closed on Tuesday, for heaven's sake. I held my breath and opened the first razor — a 9/16" size. The blade sparkled. Not a speck of dust. Not a dot of a water mark. Sparkling as a starlet's smile. I was in love. The etching was perfect. So was the writing on the shank, on both sides of the razor. The scales were perfect, too, although the pins a breath loose.

Was this an unused razor? Was it new? I don't know. Even a new razor didn't look this new. The man said the razor came from an estate sale — a barber's. I opened the second razor, an 11/16" size. My breath froze somewhere inside me, because this razor was in the same mint shape as the other. Two starlet's now teased me. Oh, dear, dear.

Some 30 minutes later I headed home. A paper bag lay on the passenger seat with two stainless steel razors in it. They were Hess 44 — Hess Hair Milk Laboratories, St. Paul, Minnesota. I had a smile from Wisconsin to Solingen, Germany, where the razors were produced. After much haggling, my tab had come to $84.48, with tax.

Looking back, that coffee I had tastes even better.

I don't have a picture, because my camera is in heaven, but I did find a link in the Wiki to a Hess 44, although the one in the photo is a square point, whereas my Hess 44 razors are round point.

Hess Hair Milk Laboratories "44" 11/16 - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Obie

Very nice find Obie! Hess razors are wonderful Enjoy!

Sounds like a great find congrats and good job on the haggling

Originally Posted by CarrieM

Very nice find Obie! Hess razors are wonderful Enjoy!

Hello, Carrie:

When I saw the first razor and the word Fortyfour written on the scales, I knew what I would find once I opened the razor. At the same time, I feared I would find half the blade missing. That's happened to me before. I once found an old Boker with fine looking scales, but when I opened the razor, it looked as if Alvin the Chipmunk had bitten a chunk out of it. I was lucky with these two coveted razors. Yesterday was a good day.

Stay well.

Obie

Awesome find. A 44 is on my hit list.

Great find congratulations. Specially 44 is worth it. it should be frozen steel blade(if i am not mistaken)

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Great find congratulations. Specially 44 is worth it. it should be frozen steel blade(if i am not mistaken)

Hello, Sham:

Yes, it is frozen steel. A beautiful razor, I might add. Today Mr. Norton and I got together and honed both razors. Tomorrow I'll shave with the 9/16" and Friday with the 11/16" razor. Provided my honing was good enough, I look forward to applying aftershave lotion with a smile.

Stay well.

Obie

Congratulations; I have had 2 Hess 44's and both were excellent shavers. The steel seemed very hard on both, and the bevel setting phase of honing took longer than usual, compared with Friodur's. The Hess razors are very high quality and give a nice, comfortable shave. Seemed less harsh than the shave from a Friodur, although both give easy BBS shaves. Now I am sorry I sold my Hess razors! Hope to find another, and keep it. Stopped at a favorite antique store today while driving across Tucson, and found 2 new razors. One had a notched blade and the other one was a repin with longer scales than the blade. Oh well.

Obie! 'Big 'Grats. I'm very jealous. 'Hope they just keep putting smiles on your face (my criteria for keep vs sell).

Nice grab, a similar thing happened to me with the "oh might as well check this last antique store since I'm here" situation. Yesterday I traveled for 1.5hours to the suburbs only to find that two of the five antique shops I wanted to visit in an area were closed only on Wednesdays, so I feel your pain on that as well.