Thread: Does anyone know anything about my C.V. Heljestrand 7 day straight razor boxed set?

Originally Posted by davidnichols

Thanks for everyone's replies and all of the helpful information. I don't plan on ever parting with this set.

Does anyone know what the approximate value is so I can add these to my homeowners insurance?

Should I use these razors?

Thanks again,

David

Welcome to SRP David. Of course you should use them ! Go to the toolbar at the top of the page and click on 'library' and check out the beginner's guide. Whatever you use should be expertly honed to 'shave ready'. Whether it is one or more of those, or something else you have. OTOH, one or more may already be shave ready.

FWIW, I've shaved with many different brands of razors, both new and vintage, and Heljestrands are among the finest shavers known to man. I have a 2 razor set with the same blades but horn scales and they are wonderful shavers. The one close up of the scales you posted showed a pin with a collar.

Generally Helje didn't use collars on pins with genuine ivory. Are all of the scales pinned with collars ?

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

Did they ever put collars on ivory? For some reason I thought they didn't ever do that...

I've seen several ivory scaled Swedes with collars, might be a Swedish "thing"

Wow, I have the almost exact same identical set but mine do not have collars and are numbered on the handles 1-7! They are awesome shavers, one suggestion, put them in a Alembi case for safe storeage.

Here are some pics of my set, I haven't seen too many of these sets, as a matter of fact yours is the only other set I have seen.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

FWIW, I've shaved with many different brands of razors, both new and vintage, and Heljestrands are among the finest shavers known to man.

Prices just went up 10 X, thanks Jimmy!

They are great shavers!

Originally Posted by Pithor

After use, carefully remove the blade from the holder and try to get the inside as dry as possible (as these are removable baldes, but I'm sure you noticed).

It's correct that the blades are removable, but I don't belive they were ment to be removed, only as a possibility to replace a worn out blade if anything.

The blades are held in place by because of the tight slot in the frame on these, but there are others with a small screw in the end of the frame that came with several spare/day set blades that could be swithed easily.

By repeatedly removing the blades on these you will eventually expand the slot in the frame to a point were it no longer is able to hold the blade and it will fall out as the metal in the frame/spine is quite soft.

I was once sharpening one like these and after a while I thought I was gonna loose my mind!
What ever I did it wouldn't get sharp or it did almost get there and then, poff gone!
I finally went to the microscope to really find out what was going on, then when I held the razor in my hand, touching the blade, I felt a slight "click".
I touched it again and "click", the blade was moving....

You are now entering "The Twilight Zone"

Originally Posted by Zephyr

It's correct that the blades are removable, but I don't belive they were ment to be removed, only as a possibility to replace a worn out blade if anything.

The blades are held in place by because of the tight slot in the frame on these, but there are others with a small screw in the end of the frame that came with several spare/day set blades that could be swithed easily.

By repeatedly removing the blades on these you will eventually expand the slot in the frame to a point were it no longer is able to hold the blade and it will fall out as the metal in the frame/spine is quite soft.

Then there's a bit of a dilemma, as there will inevitably get some gunk/lather/water in the frame, inducing rust. I don't use my F.W. Söderén (it came with four blades) at the moment because I busted the bakelite scales, but I have shaved with it ten to twenty times and haven't noticed any sort of expansion of the slot whatsoever. Dead tight.

But what you're saying does seem to make sense. There's a small dent on both sides on top of the blades that click in to a narrowing within the slot [EDIT] I checked again and there is no such thing. This is present on my E.A. Berg of the same type, I confused the two[EDIT], as well as some notches, so it's not a flat metal surface merely being held by a tightened slot, but still something that might be moveable.

How did you determine that the frames are softer than the blades? There was no worrying about screwing up the blade's temper when making the frame, so they could have hardened it to the same level as the blades, right?