Thread: Big Heljestrand...and a few questions

Originally Posted by Mikael

Well, I do have a some Heljes without any M K or any letter markings. I´ve done some research and found out that a M K should be a full hollow ground. But Neil Miller should know more, I´ve sent a question to him. This is one of my Heljes without number or letter markings, it´s smaller than yours though (11/16). PS The scales are custom and in camel bone , so please don´t look at them for any reference.

Just condensing what a joint effort between Mikael, me and the Town Museum of Esklistuna has come up with:

There were three different lettering systems: MK, BK and RK, as well as Heljestrands with no letters. The 'K' designation is swedish for Quality - 'kvalitet' and the 'MK's were the highest quality, but we have not been able to find out what the M, B and R stand for.

MK, BK and RK were - apparently - different grinds. MK = Full Hollow, BK = One-quarter Hollow and RK = Half Hollow. BK and MK appeared in 1935, it seems, and RK came 1944. From 1952 It seems that MK (with three crowns inbetween) was Heljestrands only highest quality, with the
numbers 29-33. I say 'apparently' because I have seen a table collated by a member of this forum - 'bassguy' which seems to include a wedge, full hollow and hollow within the MK designation.

There were razors produced especially for France, but it seems that 'MK' has nothing to do with the sole french distributor Maison Kindal (House of Kindal) or Magnus Kindal, the proprietor. Below is a postcard from 1905 saying that M Kindal had the 'monopoly' (sole agency) for C V Heljestrand in France:



Magnus Kindal, btw, ran a family business in the town of Eskilstuna before setting-up shop in France.

Three models made for the french market were with white celluloid scales, all 9/16: Royal Kindal full hollow, Le Prince half hollow and Le Duc one-quarter hollow.

As far as the numbering goes, according to mparker in the 30 series the last digit would seem to indicate the width of the blade: 30 = 4/8, 31 = 5/8, 32 = 6/8 but I have not been able to confirm this - we would have to compare pristine examples as hone wear can be misleading and I have a suspicion that a metric rather than an imperial system was used.

Anyway, that's all the three of us have been able to come up, some of it intriguing, some of it conflicting, and the main part of the work has been done by Mikael and the Museum.

Regards,
Neil

I don't think MK refers to the grind. I had an mk 41 and mk 42, which are two sizes of a quarter hollow grind.
Of course I don't take the size too precisely either. I've had mk24 in 4/8 and 5/8 size, and mk31 can have quite some variation in the blanks themselves. I mean there is clear distinction between mk29 (4/8), mk30(9/16), mk31(5/8-11/16), mk32(6/8), and mk33(13/16-7/8) if you look at the blade length and weight, but may be because I've had way too many mk31s, I've seen them anywhere from light 5/8th to regular 11/16th razors (no hone wear, speaking of the factory condition here).
I wish I had taken a picture of the variations when I had them all.

Hi Gugi!

I think you can be right. It´s very confusing, I´ve got my hands on some factory price/model charts (I´ll try and get more of them, there´s a ton of models and different years spinning around Heljestrands) and in them the MK:s are reffered to as full hallow grounds, but I´m not sure I got all the years covered - the charts refers from: 1935, 1944 and 1952.

And I think you´re spot on when it comes to weight and width, I _think_ they used everything that was of good quality, even though they maybe not where of exact mesurmeants.

When I asked Neil some Helje questions and he didn´t know, he got my couriosity aroused, so he´s the one behind all of this and I only have put in some small pieces. I´ll keep digging and se what floats up, but many things are lost I guess. But that´s more fun, what´s this for example (the blade at the bottom)?:

I really like Heljestrands, that's why i've got so many of them, so I'm always looking forward to any info you guys can find.
There's one member who talked to the heir of their Boston importer, I should probably check with him if he has found anything interesting.

Originally Posted by gugi

I really like Heljestrands, that's why i've got so many of them, so I'm always looking forward to any info you guys can find.
There's one member who talked to the heir of their Boston importer, I should probably check with him if he has found anything interesting.

Excellent! Now we´ve got a trans atlantic venture going

I´m planing a trip to Eskilstuna this summer and I´m going to try and chat with a guy who worked for Heljestrand (and E A BERG or if it was Hellberg?) and now have a biz, doing knifes and some other stuff. I think you´ve heard of him, he sells the occasional straight now and then also. I haven´t talked to him yet, I´ve tried to phone him a couple of times, but no luck so far.

Cheers
Mikael

Originally Posted by Mikael

Excellent! Now we´ve got a trans atlantic venture going

I´m planing a trip to Eskilstuna this summer and I´m going to try and chat with a guy who worked for Heljestrand (and E A BERG or if it was Hellberg?) and now have a biz, doing knifes and some other stuff. I think you´ve heard of him, he sells the occasional straight now and then also. I haven´t talked to him yet, I´ve tried to phone him a couple of times, but no luck so far.

Cheers
Mikael

This is really cool. Keep us posted on what you learn.

Originally Posted by heirkb

This is really cool. Keep us posted on what you learn.

Will do. I plan on going to Eskilstuna in middle/late July, but have no idea if he´ll be there then. I may have some more info late next week also, but that´s unsure as of now ...

M. K. Magnus Kindal
B. K. Berte Kindal
R. K. Rickard Kindal

I have an MK 22 that's a 6/8 wedge. One of my favorite razors.

I got one that has no markings of MK but I cant wait till it gets here.




Initials aside , the most important criteria for me is the CV on the tang.