Hellstedt Chisels
Added October 5, 2017 – I have believed for some time that the “H” enclosed in a circle was the trademark for Hellstedt in Eskilstuna, Sweden. However, I have had difficulty finding supporting information for this over the past few years. I am still working to either confirm or disprove this theory. If you have any information that can help, please contact me.
The Hellstedt brand of chisels come from Eskilstuna, Sweden. I have also seen Hellstedt iron bench planes which are essentially replicas of Stanley planes. I don’t know yet who actually manufactured the Hellstedt brand of tools.
Here is a good quality Hellstedt chisel made in the typical Swedish style.
The stamp on the back of the blade is an “H” enclosed in a circle. To the left of the circled “H” are the words “MADE IN SWEDEN”.
The handle on this chisel is masur birch and very attractive. The brass ferrule at the bottom has medium-fine diagonal lines knurled in. I have not seen many Hellstedt chisels and I’m not sure if this handle is original to the chisel. It looks a lot like a Berg, Eskilstunasteel, or Jernbolaget handle with the masur birch and diagonal knurling.
As with so many Swedish brands of chisels, information on this brand is not readily available.
Added October 5, 2017 – Randall Nelson owns the following Swedish Quality chisels and has kindly provided the photos below. I believe that these chisels may be re-branded Hellstedt chisels that were exported to Australia by G. & L. Beijers.
These chisels have labels identical to the Beijer Swedish Quality “B” chisels except that they have an “H” in the top circle instead of a “B”. Like the chisel above, these ones have tanged blades with beveled sides on the wider blades. Unlike the chisel above, these ones have handles made of beech rather than masur (curly) birch.
The blued steel hoops at the top of the handles are pierced and held in place with small nails.
Again, the decals below show the typical Beijer Swedish Quality brand color scheme — yellow background, orange-red outline and black lettering. There is an “H” enclosed in a red circle at the top and “Swedish” | “Quality (in cursive)” enclosed in a rounded red rectangle.
The shafts on the back of these chisels is stamped “MADE IN SWEDEN” followed by an “H” enclosed in a circle. As I mentioned earlier, I have believed for some time that the “H” enclosed in a circle was the trademark for Hellstedt in Eskilstuna, Sweden. I am still working to either confirm or disprove this theory.
Although it is difficult to see, the two wider chisels below on the right have “MADE IN SWEDEN” followed by an “H” enclosed in a circle stamped on the flat back part of the blade. Also, note that the brass ferrules at the bottom of the handles all have two rows of coarse vertical knurling.
It seems as though Ernst Hellstedts was not a maker but a reseller located in Eskilstuna.
The Eskilstuna website has some images of the office building.
So if Hellstedt was a reseller it does seem logical that the Swedish tools he supplied were made by either or both Jernbolaget and Berg. Thus the Hellstedt branded planes could have been made by Jernbolaget.
Thanks for the information, Kim. I’ll keep an eye out for Ernst Hellstedts next time I’m combing through the Eskilstuna web site.
Speaking of metal bench planes … I’ve seen a few Hellstedt planes and every one had a Berg blade in it, clearly marked as such.
Supporting what Kim and Birch say, my Hellstedt planes also all have Berg Irons, also stamped Hellstedt. The finish of these planes is fine, with smooth edges and square sides. This is very similar to my Anchor (Jernbolaget) planes, but very unlike my Memo planes, which tend to be rougher in finish, even the older ones. This suggests Jernbolaget rather than Memo made the Hellstedt soles. But Hellstedt was around since the 1800s (according to archives) so maybe many different arrangements could have taken place over the years.
Nice chisel! I’ve never seen one like that. Had you seen the H + circle on other Hellstedt tools?
Regards,
I may have some more pieces to add to the Hellstedt puzzle. I have four chisels that I got as a set about a year ago- one is a long blade 1/2″ beveled tanged paring chisel, clearly marked with “Made in Sweden” and the H in a circle on the blade and a sticker on the handle that shows the H in a circle at the top with “Swedish Quality” below. Lettering is black with a red outline and a yellow background. The handle is a typical Beech Solliden style. The second is 1/4″, with no mark on the blade and just the faint outline of what looks like the same sticker design on an identical handle. These handles are not the same as the one depicted above. However, there were two others,both socket chisels with Birch handles and the exact same stickers, but with a B in a circle at the top. Each of these blades is stamped “Kronan Eskilstuna Sweden”. The proportions of these handles do not match the one pictured above, either. So who is this circle B company?
I just posted a study on “Solliden style” chisel handles in the forum- one of the pictures is entitled “a wide array of brands”- the Hellstedt tang chisel with the circle H sticker is right in the middle, #4 or #5, for anyone who wants to see what it looks like. Obviously a different handle maker from who ever supplied the Masur Birch handle for the chisel shown above in this article. The plain Birch socket handles for the circle B variations are from some other, as yet unknown supplier.
I have seen a boxed set of chisels with the “Circle B” logo and have photos of the chisels and the box.
These chisels I saw were made by Kronan and were exported to Australia by G & L Beijers AB of Malmö Sweden. “Beijers” is presumably the “B” in the circle.
Beijers was an export company and they were represented in Australia by Stanley F. Coffey of Sydney. I haven’t done a lot of research on Beijers, but I do know they have been around since the 1860’s and they still exist in some form today.
Your chisel with the “Circle H” logo is very interesting. I’d like to see close-up photos of the handle decal and the stamp on the blade.
My father in law came to Narvik on a destroyer to blow up the heavy water plant that the Germans were constructing he emptied the workshop of tools being Welsh ans a boat builder which I now have planes chisels and hand drills all stamped Hellstedt this I think was in 1941 can anybody advise me as to the axact date and what ocured during that time the tools are all used and will probably serve my grandchildren well