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

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Be careful, my friend, or you might find yourself modelling it as a necktie in the advertising promo...

Regards
Neil

I would wear it with pride!
(I would also demand payment in single malt until uglibugli is one of the few words that come over my lips)

Necro-thread, I know but I saw this on tradera and was reminded of this thread.

Rakkniv CV Heljestrand Excellens på Tradera.com - Rakning - Samlarsaker

Screenshot


It's already at 300 SEK(about 30£, I think) which is quite absurd for an 'uglibugli razor' imo(though not nearly as bad as on Gents I suppose), that's more than I paid for my ivory MK31 in similar condition.

Well Baxxer, all in all you have done a pretty good job in hunting these 'notched' razors down - I'm guessing that most of us wouldn't even have thought that they existed if it was not for your excellent detective work!

I have re-read the entire thread now, and still cannot imagine how any designer could have been happy with that notch, which looks for all the world like a fault.

The notch is so regular from razor to razor, and of a strange shape, that I still entertain the idea that it could have originally been a fault that was exploited for some reason or another.

I guess in the latter days of razor production drop-forging (or impression die drop forging) took over from hand/hammer forging in a big way - you could motor through some metal blanks with a semi-automated system. Perhaps that's how it cam about - an unseen fault in the drop-forging die, unseen until a fair number of razors had been made. Perhaps they just carried on and persevered... you can never tell, especially with a nation given to partaking of surströmming!

It would have been great to see a plan book or have the words of someone involved with this model, but that is most probably not possible, so we will never know.

Regards,
Neil

I know what the notch is for.

If you look at alot of kukori knives (knives that Nepalese ghurkas use) they have a notch that is at the end of the blade. Now while there is alot of speculation as to why the ghurkas put these notches in their knives alot of the ghurkas I worked with in the military said it was to allow the blood to drip off of the knife before reaching the handle and thus prevent the blood from hindering a sure grip on the knife.

So see, it's simple the maker was just inspired by the ghurkas and wanted to prevent blood from getting on the scales. Maybe he was seeking out a solution for a Sweeney Todd character.

Hi Neil.
Sorry for the long wait, but gained some experience with the CVH Excellens now, and thought i´d share it.
Haven´t been able to take good pictures of the notch, they hardly say anything on the pictures. when i do get better pictures i´ll post them for you. meanwhile these pictures is the best I could do.
First I got a razor knife that didn´t look like the one they show on their website (gents.se). the tip was rounded and had only the word Excellens imprinted on one side. Spoke with Gents and she didn´t seem to know that they had such differences on some razor knifes in their stock. Anyway i sent it back and got the razor knife I´d ordered from them.

My experience with this razor knife (my first) is very positive. It´s easy to sharp, stays sharp and the manoeuvrability is excellent.
I think after using it that the notch is there from practical reasons, the blade is very small in it´s width, that i can imagine that if the notch hadn´t been there i would easily cut my finger on it while using it, as it is now I can use the notch to hold it more stable and manoeuvre very free while shaving without beeing scared of accidentally cutting my finger. And I think it´s a beautiful knife.

Have made many mistakes and learned from them, it´s fun too and i´m never going back to the Gillette razors ever. I can´t blame the knife for my mistakes, the knife has just been Excellent :-) but I don´t have any experience from any other razor knife either.

hope this can help, and looking forward for your reply.

regards, vinz

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Hi Vinz,

I agree with you, at £100 more than a dovo bismarck it does seem expensive. However, they are basing their valuation on a perception, ie the mark Excellenz, not the actual razor itself.

FWIW, CVH made very good razors from very good steel, and in my opinion a good cvh is better than a good dovo. A case of horses for courses I suppose. At any rate, your horse has bolted and there is no polnt in closing the stable door, so be happy with what you have and forget wnat you paid.

The grind is, as you say, quite stiff being somewhere near quarter hollow if memory serves (which is why that stuff about stabilising is all hot air) and they give a great shave.

I would be very interested in seeing more photos, particularly well focused close ups of the notch in the heel, perhaps with the light quite harsh and at a raking angle to show all the little surface marks, as I am still not sure when the notch was created. If it has come about as a result of some sort of a regrind used to restore a blade that has been stored away for the best part of 40 years or more, then shots like this may help us determine that.

Regards,
Neil

No matter how many times I look at these I just can't see them as anything else but damaged razors.

There is no justification for that chip that I can think of. With straight shaving fingers have no business at the area I marked with red, they should stay in the areas marked with blue.



If the shank is too short, that's a design flaw and making a chip at the blade heel so that it can be held safely there is not an acceptable solution to me. The sharp point I circled in orange is anything but safe.

Originally Posted by gugi

No matter how many times I look at these I just can't see them as anything else but damaged razors.

There is no justification for that chip that I can think of. With straight shaving fingers have no business at the area I marked with red, they should stay in the areas marked with blue.



If the shank is too short, that's a design flaw and making a chip at the blade heel so that it can be held safely there is not an acceptable solution to me. The sharp point I circled in orange is anything but safe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know much about making razor knifes. I'm a beginner compared to many of you and just got that feeling using it. You are probably right about the design flaw, and maybe they tried to Solve the problem with that notch. the width between the back and edge is 12mm, and when i use it i can hold My finger on that notch, wich makes for more possibilitys manouvering and it feels more stable when i use it that way. Flaw or not, It is very comfortable to shave with for me. I'm just speculating/ guessing about why they might have put a notch there, if this is a bad razor I can't wait to try a good one because this one feels excellent to shave with. But I am a enthusiastic beginner and don't have anything else to compare with for now.

I have to measure my mk29s and mk30s as they are rather small.
I'm not surprised that you get excellent shaves - heljestrand is one of my favorite brands. I'm sure that sooner rather than later you'll get more razors and be able to compare. Get a standard 5/8 or 6/8 razor next time (I'd recommend heljestrand and if you've paid the asking price of these a mk31 shouldn't be out of reach, just make sure it's in good condition - ask questions here before you buy).

I remember this thread from way back. I haven't gone through all of it, but I don't think the source of the notch was ever figured out ? Here is one post showing the razors being sold commercially with that flaw.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ml#post1152977

Originally Posted by gugi

I have to measure my mk29s and mk30s as they are rather small.
I'm not surprised that you get excellent shaves - heljestrand is one of my favorite brands. I'm sure that sooner rather than later you'll get more razors and be able to compare. Get a standard 5/8 or 6/8 razor next time (I'd recommend heljestrand and if you've paid the asking price of these a mk31 shouldn't be out of reach, just make sure it's in good condition - ask questions here before you buy).

------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the suggestions Gugi :-)
It felt a bit over the top to buy that razor, but learned from it, it feels good anyway because i perceive the razor as being very good, the price! i am trying to forget :-) as suggested earlier in this post somewhere :-)

I bought a digital microscope the other day and took some better pictures of the notch, but don´t know if the pictures shows anything of value, there on another computer and i`ll post them as soon as i can, i´ll try to actually make it very soon this time.