Many thanks for the history of these! I really appreciate having the context in comparison to my other vintage razors. I love the way these shave now that they are honed up and ready to go. These will certainly not be daily razors and will be used sparingly, so I anticipate little to no appreciable hone wear any time in the future. They are simply elegant and very light/nimble. I will probably take a little bit of hand polishing to the blades to get a bit more shine but otherwise I am going to leave these well enough alone.Those are very good shavers indeed. The scales are made of ivory. They are manufactured sometime between 1925 and 1940. They do have a little hone wear but not more than that you an use them daily for 15 to 20 years before they are worn down.
The markings:
- Söderfors extra specialstål=Extra special steel from Söderfors (a small mining town)
- The three crowns symbolises the three crowns of Sweden. At the end of the viking age Sweden was made up of three independent kingdoms that was united in the middle ages.
- MK stands for Master Quality (Mästerlig kvalitet). Heljestrand did, during the 1920´s produce razors for Kindal but they were of a design that are totally different from Heljestrands ordinary production and they have nothing in common with the Mk series. Those razors have names like Le Duc, Le Royal, Le Prince etcetera.
The razors you got do, together with Mk29 to Mk33, make up Heljetrands flagship series. There are differing opinions about which one that are the best of them, but there are people that say that the Mk31 are the best razor ever mad. Personally I´d say that they are wrong. The best razor ever made is clearly the Mk32.
Heljestrand was not the first to manufacture these razors there are very rare razors manufactured by Jernbolaget. I got one and I´ve only seen two others. Hopefully I´ll get my paws onto another one some day.
In any case I congratulate you to a pair of very good and good looking razors. I shaved with a twin to them this morning.
Kind Regards
Polarbeard
Oh I have shaved with one of the pair now, the second to follow this evening. They are extremely pleasant to shave with and incredibly smooth. They took my refresh very quickly and the edge is seemingly flawless. I particularly appreciate how nimble and light they are, yet still cut like a hot knife through butter. I do plan to enjoy them, I just don't want to cause any unnecessary wear so they remain a treat to use...perhaps for special occasions and the like!
