Just found a Rolls Razor in box, no instructions, with strop, hone, & blade all in good shape. Asking price is $30. This seems fair to me but I wanted to get some other opinions quickly if possible.
Are we talking an antique store or online? I have never paid that much for one, but I have never had one come with a blade that was ready to give a great shave without a lot of work. I really need to send all my rolls blades to a hone meister. I am leery of buying a rolls online. There are many flaws that you may not see in a pic. In person, I would check to make sure the hone is even without any cracks. How does the strop side look? Is it supple, dry, cracked, etc... What condition is the blade? Was it lying on the strop for 30 years? You just can't tell these things easily online. Now, if you can see it in real life then maybe it is a good price.
I see some good rolls on ebay for about£10 with box and instuctions and delivery, I also saw one in an antique store for £9.00
Everything seems to be in great shape. I've seen 3-4 in antique stores. This one is the cheapest one I've found & in the best condition. Is the strop the red side while the home is black? Both appear to be uncracked & the mechanism moves smoothly.
Ok, so I just had to share this as I thought it was a bit humorous and lends an insight into the previous owner of my "new" Rolls Razor. I started to disassemble the strop and hone to start cleaning them when I found something. As I was pulling the strop out of the lid I found a creative shim that the previous owner used to most likely replace the padding that was glued to the strop initially. He had cut the original instructions and placed them underneath the stop so that the strop would fit in snugly. Not all of the instructions were there but it still was a neat find.
Not a bad "fix" really. I've found worse things under strops.:biggrin: May help: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-what-is-and-how-to-thread-for-the-rolls-razor.22371/
Yes, Greg, that link is lots of help. I'm following it to get it shave ready. Currently it's disassembled & I've already cleaned up the strop, hone, frame, & handle. Just waiting on strop to dry out before conditioning it. I've got the FPA removed but not fully disassembled. That is my next step. Looks like there is plenty for me to clean on the pad itself, lots of black on it. Thanks so much for your thread. I've got a replacement blade, not an original blade, so I'm hoping I can make it shave ready without having to send it out. How can I tell if it's sharp enough before putting it on my face? I've never used straights so I'm not familiar with how they check their blades either.
Shave ready Hard to judge that. I have a loop and a pocket microscope I use to inspect the cutting edge but other than detecting really bad edge damage, I don't know how much good they do. So, my general process is to take a likely blade and run it thru 2 complete honing cycles (back and forth 60 times is one cycle) making sure I get the double "click" each time the blade flips. After the double honing, I strop for one cycle and then "test" the edge by lathering a small area of my arm and seeing how it works. If the blade fails, I run thru another hone and strop cycle and try again. If by this time I'm still not getting a good cut, I start looking for a real honer or another blade. A trick to a good Rolls shave is to use short, slow but determined strokes. It's a different kind of blade from a different era. It's a vintage stright on a stick.:biggrin:
