Thread: C.V. Heljestrand No. 10 with KB-extra mark

Originally Posted by Baxxer

I'm sorry for the delay, I needed my beauty sleep.
I'm more sorry that I can't provide any document's but I've seen this model about three or four different times, both nos and used and all of them had notches.

Here is a link to one with black scales, a bit blurry but you should be able to make it out if you enlarge the picture.
C.V Heljestrand Exellens 12 mm - Rakknivar & Rakhyvel - Hitta lgsta pris, omdmen och information
Attachment 129433

I don't need beauty sleep Baxxer - I could sleep for a hundred years and I'd still be plain ugly!

I saw that photo - BUT - it links back to the Gents.com store if you click on the buy-it link.

I find it odd that the razor (the white-scaled one anyway) has only 'Heljestrand' and not the full name on it, despite the alleged age of the blank. I also find it odd that the shadow cast by the blade doesn't show a chip - funny things, shadows...

They are only little, inconsequential niggles, though. The bigger oddity is that the sleeve is for an 'MK' model - someone else's initials (Magnus Kindal), so why would Mr Andersson want a razor with someone else's initials on it? Unless the sleeve did not come with the razor, of course.

Regards,
Neil

Neal, I'd've been sceptical too if I were you.
When I first saw the one they sell on Gents a couple years ago I tried to dig up some info on the model but couldn't find anything until last fall when I saw one on Tradera(pretty much swedish ebay) that used to belong to some guy's relative(I think he might've been a barber), it was the "Excellens" model and it had the same notch.
I think that it would be a very strange coincidence if all these identical notches on the same model were accidental.

Shadows are funny indeed, but I think this was caused by the angle of the light.

The MK marking doesn't stand for Magnus Kindal, actually, I used to think that too.
It's a quality marking and it's short for "Mästerlig kvalitet"(masterly quality), "BK" is short for "Bästa kvalitet"(Best quality).
This still doesn't explain why the razor would come in a 'MK' marked sleeve, since the 'excellens' razor isn't an 'MK' marked razor but we see mismatched packaging for razors all the time so it doesn't seem that far-fetched to me.

I agree with everyone who pointed out that it seems stupid to have a notch there, maybe it was some kind of gimmick that was unsuccessful but what do I know?

Kind regards,
Max

The heel notches on the Baxxer-examples are not the same as on my Heljestrand.



It is possible that there was a chip on this blade and that they cut a piece of it: I still think the notch has an unnatural shape (my image shows that the curve on both sides is the same: based on the 3.7mm diameter circle.
The fact that more razors in this post have the same strange notch is remarkable.

I also asked the previous owner but he has no information either.

On the web I did not discover another Heljestrand no. 10....

EVL, I think you are right about that.

I managed to find an "MK no 10", it should be pretty much the same design as your razor.

Baxxer - I stand corrected about the meaning of MK - for the second time! For a long while I maintained that it had nothing to do witk Magnus Kindal. Then Iwas persuaded that it was. Then my good friend Mikael, also from Sweden went to the cutlery museum and had the same info from them as you gave me, so I changed my mind again. Somewhere along the line I was persuaded enough to do another U-turn! I am nothing if not fickle, I suppose!

Anyway, gents.com is in Sweden (I think), as are you, so why dont you send them an email and mention this thread? If they would be so good as to furnish pictures of the razors so we can see that all the notches are the same, that would be good enough to make me eat my words, for sure.

Not that I have any issue with some folk liking the oddest things, like ugly and apparently useless notches on the heels of razors. Obviously some people find the incongruous little notch on some TI razors the bees knees...

Kind regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Baxxer - I stand corrected about the meaning of MK - for the second time! For a long while I maintained that it had nothing to do witk Magnus Kindal. Then Iwas persuaded that it was. Then my good friend Mikael, also from Sweden went to the cutlery museum and had the same info from them as you gave me, so I changed my mind again. Somewhere along the line I was persuaded enough to do another U-turn! I am nothing if not fickle, I suppose!

Anyway, gents.com is in Sweden (I think), as are you, so why dont you send them an email and mention this thread? If they would be so good as to furnish pictures of the razors so we can see that all the notches are the same, that would be good enough to make me eat my words, for sure.

Not that I have any issue with some folk liking the oddest things, like ugly and apparently useless notches on the heels of razors. Obviously some people find the incongruous little notch on some TI razors the bees knees...

Kind regards,
Neil

Yes! If the notch is supposed to be there, I can show it to the wife! She can see it is not broken after all and I shall emerge victorious!
I treasure small victories! After I do the dishes, of course!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Yes! If the notch is supposed to be there, I can show it to the wife! She can see it is not broken after all and I shall emerge victorious!
I treasure small victories! After I do the dishes, of course!

Who said you could take the marigolds of to type, Tom - she must be getting to like you...

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Baxxer - I stand corrected about the meaning of MK - for the second time!

Don't feel bad Neil, I was wrong once before too.

Just a far fetched thought .... my father taught me to hone pocket knives when I was about 14. When the edge of a Colonial brand Barlow, or a Case XX went all the way to the tang he would take a triangular file and create a V notch to separate the edge proper from the tang. This allowed the honer to start from what became the very end of the cutting edge.

Lately I've noticed that a lot of TI production is what we call 'shoulderless'. So rather than having vertical stabilizers , single or double, the back end just swoops away from the tang. The razor shown by EVL in post #23 reminds me of a shoulderless grind, only with the stabilizer behind the swoop. Far fetched maybe, but I am wondering if it isn't possible that this was an experiment by Helje ? Perhaps a run of blades were damaged by machinery making the same defect in all ? Back in those days it was even more "waste not, want not" than it is now.

I could be wrong ..... I was wrong once before.

Well, I for one, have ruined a few trying to relieve some stabilizer! Not like these, though! Perhaps the machine did take a "bite" of a few? A new model was born! Interesting way to create more honing area. Why leave the rest? It serves no purpose and looks as, well, a big chip! On that note, I got this one relieved to get a good shaver after breadboarding out a big chip! Finally starting to learn how!

Neal, I've sent an email to Gents so we can hopefully get some more input on this.
I'll update when I get a response.

Regards,
Max