Originally Posted by
brightred
i have about 30 heljestrand razors. most of them are ecxellent razors. i love them for the outstanding workmanship and their elegant blade shapes. so i am a bit of a fan myself and try to find these razors in different places. a couple of years or so ago, there was a seller on a swedish auction site (the seller had been active for a few months only) who had excellent NOS heljestrands for sale. when i received the first one, i noticed that the sender was a certain Mr. Kindal. needless to say i asked if he was a member of THE kindal family, and, if yes, if he could shed some light on the MK/BK/RK mistery. turns out, he is a grandson of magnus kindal and seems to know about these letters. of course he might be wrong, but in my opinion this is as close to the facts as i can get. but i do agree that a lot of things are still in the dark, like the question of ownership of heljestrand. in this case i rely on the information provided by the kindal shop in paris and some research that was conducted by members of french forums.
as i said in a previous post i'll see if i can get some information about the owners of heljestrand post 1907 from the grandson of MK.
measuring my 30 heljestrands i get this:
all the ones that should be 5/8" wide (3, 4, 7, 8, 24 (5/8" version) and 31; 13 razors total) are between 17 and 18 mm wide.
all the razors that should be 4/8" wide (2, 7 (4/8" version), 9, 24, 30; 12 razors total) are between 14 and 15 mm wide.
all the razors that should be 6/8" wide (6, 10, 22, 32); 4 razors total) are between 19.5 and 20.5 mm wide.
a 3/8" version of a nr 24 is 11 mm wide.
most of my heljestrands have very little hone wear. in no case the difference is more than 1 mm. but then i have 30 specimens "only".
yes, this is indeed quite strange: all these Le Duc (quarter h.), Le Prince (half h.) and Royal Kindal (full h.) were quite expensive in 1957. for example: the 9/16 Royal Kindal cost more (SEK 16.65) than the 8/8 nr. 134 (SEK 15.80)! from a shaver's perspective it seems to be wise to spend $ 50 for a Royal Kindal instead of $ 300 for a clumsy and badly proportioned 134. but well...
regards,
hans