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The Ben Hur DE razors

As many of you already know, the Herkenrath Company founded the Ben Hur Rasiermesser-Fabrik (a German razor and blade manufacturer) and began producing Ben Hur razors, both straights and DE's, and also DE blades. The brand name may have been influenced by the Lew Wallace's 1908 book of the same title -- although it is ironic that a German company would have chosen this name, Ben Hur was a Jewish prince who became a famous charioteer champion.

The Apollo brand name was also registered by the Herkenrath Company and was the more popular brand name found on their DE razors, incouding slants and adjustables. Here are a few recently acquired Ben Hurs, a rarely seen Bakelite model, a conventional flat and the less commonly seen slanted Ben Hur. The Ben Hur polishing cloth was a nice touch -- found with some of these fine razors.

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The finish on these beauties is like new -- no pitting or corrosion on these chrome plated razors.
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Just like new, but likely from the early 1950s, possibly even pre-WWII. Preserved in someone's bureau and finally seeing the light of day.
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Lovely razors. I enjoy reading your posts, thank you for the historical perspective of your razors. And by the way, you have a wonderful collection.
 
Lovely razors. I enjoy reading your posts, thank you for the historical perspective of your razors. And by the way, you have a wonderful collection.
Thank you. I've been fortunate to find some real classics, beautiful razors and great shavers.
 
These look marvellous Jake. Very nice that Bakelite one, haven't seen one of those before.
The slant you show came as Ben Hur as well as Apollo, both with either a chrome or a nickel finish. Judging from the foto's your slant has the chrome, your regular DE the nickel finish.
Then there's also this razor, a Ben Hur-Apollo hybrid. The handle has Ben Hur marking, the baseplate Apollo, yet the two are assemble together like a Merkur 37: basepate and handle cannot be separated:
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These look marvellous Jake. Very nice that Bakelite one, haven't seen one of those before.
The slant you show came as Ben Hur as well as Apollo, both with either a chrome or a nickel finish. Judging from the foto's your slant has the chrome, your regular DE the nickel finish.
Then there's also this razor, a Ben Hur-Apollo hybrid. The handle has Ben Hur marking, the baseplate Apollo, yet the two are assemble together like a Merkur 37: basepate and handle cannot be separated:
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That is one unusual, likely unique razor Richard. Very cool. Thanks for sharing the photos -- too bad there aren't any of the original engineers around any longer to comment on this hybridization. I wonder if it was part of a production run or simply a one off aberration. You likely found the needle in the haystack of Apollo/Ben Hur razors!
 
Jake, I just love your informative threads with historical data and those awesome drool inducing photos. Thanks! - They make one just lean back and enjoy :a8:
 
Jake, I just love your informative threads with historical data and those awesome drool inducing photos. Thanks! - They make one just lean back and enjoy :a8:
Thanks for your kind words -- it's all part of why we're in this hobby and why collecting these little gems is so much fun.
 
Every time I see the name Jake appear in the New Posts I know we will be seeing another great razor that is almost impossible to find.
 
Thanks @Jake for opening this discussion and for sharing so many fantastic razors .. Thanks to my research in recent years I was able to know with certainty little information on the Factory-German Forge Herkenrath and Co. of Friedrich Herkenrath, who have started with the production of very high quality blades, scissors, and subsequently safety razors. Brands Apollo, Ben-Hur and Pacific go hand in hand and are from the same company.
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This model of razor was one of those that made the success of the German company, so much to use it in the logo of tax documents.

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Collecting these objects for me very fascinating for me has always been a pleasure.

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Not long ago I found this model .. when I observed it closely I was stunned. I never thought of finding a work like that in those years ... they managed to give a marble effect, both to the box and to the comb of the razor. I do not believe there are many examples like this:

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Over the years I have found numerous razors of this company with box written Apollo and razor Ben-Hur or the opposite .. I also happened to meet Apollo Mikron with head Written "Apollo Mikron" and under written head "Ben-Hur Mikron ".. I solved this mystery by contacting the nephew of a former factory worker (now unfortunately dead). The answer was that in the last years of activity the company in the form of "domestic" has continued to sell these razors and since there were few pieces and not being able to reproduce they assembled the remaining pieces by completing the sets for sale.

written apollo on the case
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written ben-hur behind the head
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written apollo behind the head
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written ben-hur on the head
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At the beginning I thought that these pieces had been changed or replaced after the sale .. but it's not like that they were sold already like that ..


As for the name Ben-Hur I think it was created after reading the book .. but I'm not sure
fact is that there is a lot of similarity with the actor in the film of 1925 Ramón Novarro.

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Thank you.

Benedetto.
 
Hi @Benedetto
Some really nice razors you show, and some nice historic evidence you show as well. Indeed an amazing resemblance with the moviestills!
Your razor with the brown bakelite handle I have in a slanted version. Other difference is that with mine, the baseplate is metal. Unfortunately, there's some platingissues on the inside of the head.
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Also, there's the ones I spoke of in my first post in the thread. On both photo's, Apollo top Ben Hur bottom, chrome left, nickel right.
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nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
Of course Jake's thread and beautiful pics are great as usual.
But the razors and scans @Benedetto and @efsk posted are truly stunning ... thanks so much. That last slant with gorgeous bakelite handle looks like it's got a little extra twist for that impeccable smoothness!
Great stuff, gents.
 
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