Carl Victor Heljastrand

Aquired a just shy of 3/8 MK#02 seven months ago. Came across another MK, except its a MK#01, from C.v.Heljestrand. Eskilstuna, Sweden.
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Attachment 166882Carl Victor Heljestrand was a Swedish industrialist who lived and worked in Eskilstuna, Sweden for most of his life. He was born in Eskilstuna on the 30th of January 1816 and died on the 29th of July 1861. He is noted for his work in the company started by his father, Alderman Olof Heljestrand, which produced steel products such as scissors, table forks, knives and straight razors.[1]

CVH seldom are "large" razors, they are usually a bit on the tiny side.
But they are hell of good :)

Aggelos, Congrats on your purchase.

I've heard the same thing. How are they to hone?

Well, not my purchase this time, but I do have one MK31 and a Hellberg which, when all is said and done, are quite the same razors (same patented swedish steel, same blade shapes, etc)

I find them pretty easy to hone actually, but I am a patient worker with a slow and long honing technique. The steel is sturdy and supple at the same time, I don't know how to express it any other way.


That being said, I've had issues with a MK31 blade (long story), but its behaviour was quite unique, and I suspect the frown it had was a consequence of... Well I don't know, even a very low grit stone did not even start to correct it, like it was dead. But overall, it was a damaged blade, and undocumented behaviour.

Some other members, such as Thaeris out of my head, will tell you as much I gather

3 of the 6 razors I own are Heljestrand. They are amazing shavers and amazing to view as well.

Nice :) Well this is pretty much the best you can find (I do prefer MOP myself, not caring that much for tortoise)

That being said

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amazing to view as well

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I... Actually disagree. While MK31 and MK32 (among others but chiefly those) are most of the time gorgeous, I'll give you that, some CVH may look... Plain to some.
But all of them AFAIK are indeed amazing shavers :)

If we drop briefly into the world of reality, there are a lot of amazing shavers but I've seen few double sets of razors as beautiful as those two cased Heljestrands! Breathtaking almost.......and surely once in the possession of someone of significant wealth.

They are actually from an original 7 day set originally sold in Paris at M.Kindal circa 1910. I acquired them from a good friend of the forum. they are my Holy Grail set. thank you. The period correct case actually housed a pair of MK32's in Ivory which I sold and kept the case for the MK31's in Genuine Tortoise. These will be passed down as a family heirloom someday.

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Originally Posted by WW243

If we drop briefly into the world of reality, there are a lot of amazing shavers but I've seen few double sets of razors as beautiful as those two cased Heljestrands! Breathtaking almost.......and surely once in the possession of someone of significant wealth.

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One more :)

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu104.jpg

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu106.jpg

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu107.jpg

Wow, that's a tough one, a family heirloom. I'm sure their value will only increase over time but the true value is in dream state they put you in if you are immersed in this odd little corner of the world of vintage straight razors. Guessing you have begun priming an heir for the next caretaker.......a grim side note, I was at a fleamarket in Honolulu a couple of decades ago when a kid rolled up in a van and must have unloaded a lifetime of someone's collection of Japanese ceramics, small pieces....the one's he had left were extraordinary so I can only imagine what he had when he first opened for sale. They had no real meaning to him.

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Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

They are actually from an original 7 day set originally sold in Paris at M.Kindal circa 1910. I acquired them from a good friend of the forum. they are my Holy Grail set. thank you. The period correct case actually housed a pair of MK32's in Ivory which I sold and kept the case for the MK31's in Genuine Tortoise. These will be passed down as a family heirloom someday.

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I'm feeling feint.

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Originally Posted by Thaeris

One more :)

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu104.jpg

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu106.jpg

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captu107.jpg

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Originally Posted by Thaeris

One more :)

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And there he goes :)

You know, Thaeris, I was trying not to put too much oil on the fire because I thought you were hoping for people not to get too verbose on CVH :)

Well fsck, may as well add this picture
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...2008.08.02.jpg

(the original blade was the dead one)

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/13/33/95/13/captur58.png

Yum. CAV.

I acquired a diminutive MK 30 last year. Small and precise, the two pin razor feels solid as a three pinner; the deep set thumb notch is unique; and the jimps feel like they were machined by someone who never wanted one of his razors to slip.

Laughed far too much at this one :roflmao

Is it unusual to see a one piece MOP scale? I don't recall seeing one, not that I have seen that many razors....still, all of the MOP razors I have seen have been segmented.

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Originally Posted by Aggelos

And there he goes :)

You know, Thaeris, I was trying not to put too much oil on the fire because I thought you were hoping for people not to get too verbose on CVH :)

Well fsck, may as well add this picture
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...2008.08.02.jpg

(the original blade was the dead one)

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As far as I remember, I only saw one piece MOP on Kindal's razors.

Aggelos' one is not the first I saw. Ferdi also has one or two. :)

Edit : I said crap, I also saw one piece MOP on old incrusted french and english razors. Napoléon Bonaparte has a pair of one piece MOP incrusted with gold... :p

http://razorland55.free.fr/barbiere/...apoleonIII.jpg

Edit bis : Aggelos, I already gave up the idea to find any more MK at a reasonable price outside antiques markets ^^

One piece MOP on Dovo #41 Stainless...No longer in production.

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Originally Posted by Thaeris

As far as I remember, I only saw one piece MOP on Kindal's razors.

Aggelos' one is not the first I saw. Ferdi also has one or two. :)

Edit : I said crap, I also saw one piece MOP on old incrusted french and english razors. Napoléon Bonaparte has a pair of one piece MOP incrusted with gold... :p

http://razorland55.free.fr/barbiere/...apoleonIII.jpg

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Looks like abalone, not quite as refined as most MOP I have seen. I wonder why?

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Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

One piece MOP on Dovo #41 Stainless...No longer in production.

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Originally Posted by WW243

Looks like abalone, not quite as refined as most MOP I have seen. I wonder why?

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They are MOP. Sourced from the Philippines. Cost to Dovo too high thus ceasing production.

Anyway, thumbs up for Thaeris being a true gentleman.

He was actually the one who targetted me to the MOP one, even though he knew how much a newbie I was at the time.

Of the 3 Kings of the natural scale material: Ivory, Mother of Pearl, and Tortoiseshell. It would seem to me that the easiest to duplicate in a synthetic form would be Tortoiseshell. But the synthetics don't come close.....I'm only going by images on a computer as I have never handled real tortoiseshell.

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Originally Posted by WW243

Of the 3 Kings of the natural scale material: Ivory, Mother of Pearl, and Tortoiseshell. It would seem to me that the easiest to duplicate in a synthetic form would be Tortoiseshell. But the synthetics don't come close.....I'm only going by images on a computer as I have never handled real tortoiseshell.

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Trust me, faux tortoise doesn't come even close to the real deal. I will say if the Dovo #41 would have been a better more substantial BLADE, I would have kept it. The scales were absolutely beautiful!

The three of them have imitations, none of them convincing.

To answer your question about MOP looking like abbalone : there are actually several kinds of MOP with different hues and colors

The scales look kind of clunky to me.

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Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

They are MOP. Sourced from the Philippines. Cost to Dovo too high thus ceasing production.

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I believe you, it even looks different and I would imagine a difference in feel. Then there is density......

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Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

Trust me, faux tortoise doesn't come even close to the real deal. I will say if the Dovo #41 would have been a better more substantial BLADE, I would have kept it. The scales were absolutely beautiful!

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Well that's what Dovo sales often are : a huge clunky heap of choice material

They were clunky paired with that 5/8 Dovo stainless blade...on a more substantial piece of steel...maybe perfect

I used to do some guitar restorations years ago. Had a contact who would scour the ebay for old sources of tortoise shell to repurpose. Lots of old cameo boxes, cosmetics boxes, hair brushes, things of this nature. I would frequently purchase picks and pickguards of genuine tortoise which had been repurposed from these antiquities (disclaimer here: this is totally legal.). There are sources for artificial material that VERY closely resemble the properties of genuine tortoise. The Thiers Issard faux tortoise is nearly indistinguishable from the real deal.

And since I haven't seen any sexy ivory yet in this thread, my own contribution: my beloved CVH MK No. 33 (yes, that's "33"):
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