Need information on my new Heljestrands. Pic heavy!

[penan]

Hello all. I'm pretty new at straight shaving and have only been owning one straight I bought in december, but the other day I bought a set of hones I'm waiting to be delivered. Since I have bought hones I thought I needed more razors that I can practice honing on, so I have been hunting razors the last couple of days. Today my first 4 straights arrived in two boxes, I bought them all for something like $85 and they are in much better condition than I thought (excellent condition actually). I have however never seen any straights like them before and wonder if you guys have some info on the straights. I have been googling some and it seems like all 4 razors are Heljestrand framebacks.

The black ones seems to have scales made of tree (but I'm not sure) and the ivory coloured might be ivory?


Black razors

On one of the black shanks it says:
"C.V. HELJESTRAND"
"ESKILSTUNA"
"PRISBELÖNT"
"STOCKHOLM 1866"
"PARIS 1855"
"LONDON 1851"
"1867" (this is written without a city name beside it, could this be the production year?)

And on the side of the spine it says:
"HÖGBOM BESSEMER STÅL"

The other black has the same inscriptions except for "STOCKHOLM 1866" and "1867", this razor doesn't have any inscription on the spine.


Ivory coloured razors

On both the ivory coloured shanks it says:
"PRISBELÖNT"
"C.V. HELJESTRAND"
"ESKILSTUNA"
"PARIS 1855"
"LONDON 1851"

And on one of the ivory coloured blades it says:
"HÖGBOM BESSEMER STÅL"


My questions:

The black razors have a blank mirror finish on the blade but the ivory coloured have a matt finish on the blade, is it suposed to be matt or do you think I can clean them to be blank?

Are these razors good shavers?

Do you hone them as regular (none frameback) razors?

When do you think they were made?

Is it likely that the ivory coloured razors are made of ivory?

Did I pay a fair price for them?

How do I clean the razors? (I have only lightly cleaned them in water and soap so far)

I'm really new to straight razor shaving and some of my questions might seem ridiculous, but have in mind that I'm learning all this from the beginning. If you have any information on any of these razors please share it, I basically know nothing about them. I will post a lot of pictures of the razors in the coming posts.

 

[penan]

 

[penan]

 

[penan]

 

[penan]

 

[Blix]

Woa, now that's a nice foursome of Heljes!

The scales on the blondes are most likely ivory for sure. You hone them like any straight, no difference there.
Now these are way too fine to learn honing on, and the hard Swedish steel isn't the best to learn on anyway. So I'd wait until you have honing down before touching these. Or have them honed.

 

[penan]

Woa, now that's a nice foursome of Heljes!The scales on the blondes are most likely ivory for sure. You hone them like any straight, no difference there. Now these are way too fine to learn honing on, and the hard Swedish steel isn't the best to learn on anyway. So I'd wait until you have honing down before touching these. Or have them honed.

Thank you for a very fast reply. Well I was prettty stunned myself when I opened the package and I don't think I will practice honing on them since they are in such great condition. I however also received this razor in the same package, and I will practice on this instead.

 

[kiwichris]

Wow - they are beautiful razors. Know of any more where they came from ??????

 

[penan]

Wow - they are beautiful razors. Know of any more where they came from ??????

Yes they truly are. I bought them off a swedish buy and sell site that very selldom has any razors at all for sale and only had some blurred pictures to go on. They had been up for sale for almost a month and no one had bought them, guess I got lucky looking in places where you usually don't find straights.

 

[Zephyr]

Congrats, you got yourself some great razors there, and for a very good price IMO

IRC these are made around the 1880-1890's

The light ones I'm pretty sure is Ivory and the dark ones are most likely made of horn.

Do NOT use these for practice honing, as Blix said, either wait til you have learned or send them to someone. (If you want you can send them to me and I can hone them for you, free of cost, just cover the shipping)

To clean them without going all the way with unpinning etc. you can use bathroom cleaner and an toothbrush and polish them with Autosol (You can get it at Clas Ohlson or some gas stations)

For more info about Heljestrand you can look here: C.V. Heljestrand Manufacturer

 

[Easttexasman]

I am jealous and congrats on the excellent find.

 

[penan]

Congrats, you got yourself some great razors there, and for a very good price IMO

IRC these are made around the 1880-1890's

The light ones I'm pretty sure is Ivory and the dark ones are most likely made of horn.

Do NOT use these for practice honing, as Blix said, either wait til you have learned or send them to someone. (If you want you can send them to me and I can hone them for you, free of cost, just cover the shipping)

To clean them without going all the way with unpinning etc. you can use bathroom cleaner and an toothbrush and polish them with Autosol (You can get it at Clas Ohlson or some gas stations)

For more info about Heljestrand you can look here: C.V. Heljestrand Manufacturer

Thank you very much for the information and it's very very kind of you to offer free honing . I will actually probably send them to you, but first I'm gonna try shaving with them. They are actually pretty sharp and I will see if it's possible to shave after some stropping. The weird thing is that they hardly have any hone wear at all, they seem almost unused.

 

[Zephyr]

Thank you very much for the information and it's very very kind of you to offer free honing . I will actually probably send them to you, but first I'm gonna try shaving with them. They are actually pretty sharp and I will see if it's possible to shave after some stropping. The weird thing is that they hardly have any hone wear at all, they seem almost unused.

Just PM me when you're ready

I'm not sure how they did in the old days, but I know the steel in the spine/frame is quite a bit softer than the steel in the blade and wil therefor wear faster, so it's recommended to hone these with tape regardless of what you use to do. Maybe they where honed freehand back in the days?

 

[penan]

Just PM me when you're ready

Sure will .

I'm not sure how they did in the old days, but I know the steel in the spine/frame is quite a bit softer than the steel in the blade and wil therefor wear faster, so it's recommended to hone these with tape regardless of what you use to do. Maybe they where honed freehand back in the days?

Well I essentially know nothing about honing yet, still waiting for my hones to arrive. However there is no hone wear that I can see, you can see for yourself when I send you the straights, you are more experienced than I am and it will be intersesting to hear your opinion. The scales have some wear so it would be strange if there is no hone wear, it might just be my lack of experience that can't see it.

 

[penan]

Rune you got a PM.

Today I shaved with the black straight after doing 20 laps on a green pasted strop and then 100 laps on a leather strop. I didn't actually think it would shave any good but I'm very impressed with the shave, so impressed that I had to try out one of the ivory ones a couple of hours later. My first impression is that these razors will probably outshave my F.W Engels Leader (the only straight I own besides the Heljes) after some proper honing.

Cleaning and Barbicide question
I tried to clean two of the framebacks today but the razors ended up with a slightly more matt finish than before and actually looke a tiny bit worse to my surprise. I first used Scrubbing bubbles and then some Autosol, do I need something to polish the straights with afterwards to really get the mirror finish? I do however think that the ivory razors are supposed to have a matt finish. I have some Barbicide at home, can I dip the razors with scales and all in a Barbicide solution without harming the scales? How many parts Barbicide and how many parts water do you guys use and for how long do you put the razors in the solution?

 

[Blix]

Be careful with chemicals on straights, scrubbing bubbles are more for DE's.
A straight should never ever be left in anything, a quick dip at most. Give the blade a quick dip and maybe use a q-tip to clean the inside of the scales.

 

[penan]

Be careful with chemicals on straights, scrubbing bubbles are more for DE's.
A straight should never ever be left in anything, a quick dip at most. Give the blade a quick dip and maybe use a q-tip to clean the inside of the scales.

Thank you once again for a very fast reply. Seems like I've got a lot to learn. I let them soak in Scrubbing bubbles for like 10 minutes or so, might not have been the brightest of ideas but there was hardly any harm done.

I must add that there was a great feeling shaving with a tool that is more than 4 times my own age.

 

[Blix]

I'm happy to help!

Btw, Rune lives 350 meters down the road from me, so I might be honing one of them


Yeah it's awesome to bring those old beauties back, and shave with them!

 

[duokun]

Those are gorgeous razors. from what research i have been doing looking into razors for when i finally take the plunge into straights, you got an amazing deal on them as well. Congratulations!

 

[KeithTheSnake]

What an amazing deal! I wish I could find a batch of swell razors at such a great price. Congratulations.