The "what is" and " how to" thread for the Rolls Razor

Oh wow, it looks like all my images from the post above are toast. Sorry about that - it must have happened during the Great Photobucket Cull of October 2013. I'll go through and edit the post now.

A bit of news on the Rolls Razor front. I have successfully restored a trashed Rolls blade to working condition and honed and stropped another to perfection.

Turns out the big secret is that the angle differs between honing/stropping in the case and honing on a stone. If you hone flat on a stone and then strop the blade in the case, all you are doing is rounding over the edge, which is bad juju. To successfully hone one's Rolls Razor blades one must first apply four layers of normal PVC electrical tape to either side of the blade's spine. This gives you the correct angle for later stropping in the case.

I don't think I'll hone in the case anymore, since the stone/lapping film gives a more consistent result. In fact, I'm contenplating contacting my local glazier to see if they can produce a Rolls Razor hone-shaped/sized piece of tempered glass for me which I can install into the case and use with various grades of lapping film as required.

In other news, Brasso works wonders taking light stains and scratches off a Rolls blade.

 

I found 1 today in a shiney metal box. Looks like its never been used. I know less than nothing about them but I examined the whole kit very closely. It has the original instructions and I could not find a scratch or wear mark anywhere. The asking price is $30.00 but I told her I would give her $20.00. I told her I would be back tom.
This place has bookoo vintage razors ranging in price from $12.00 for a Gem clog proof ton$30.00 for the rolls kit.
I realy want the Rolls kit but dont want to get burned. Is this kit worth $20.00? Like I said I Know absolutely nothing about thease.
Any help, greatly appreciated.

 

Up until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea what a rolls razor was. This thread has answered all my questions. The only problem is... When will I get one? Soon! Thanks all for the info.

 

Go! Go! Go!
If it's in good shape I'd gladly go for $ 30.00 as well - if I had the cash.

 

Great post, gregindallas! I'm a dedicated DE shaver and very, very new to the Rolls. Followed your post concerning the refurbishing process on a Rolls which I picked up because I couldn't seem to stop foundling it at the local antique shop. I noticed a burr on the brass spindle right on the edge of the groove where the blade holder rides. Not sure if this is from the manufacturing process or what. Any idea if this would have a detrimental effect on the fragile Friction Pad? Should I try to sand/polish it away, or not sweat it and hone, stop, shave, and be happy?

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Pics?

 

Thanks, Mike. I'll snap some pics when I get a chance!

 

Does anyone know what sort of material the friction pad is made out of? Greg?

I haven't gotten that far into the razor yet, but read Greg's caution that the friction pad is delicate, and if broken requires looking for a replacement razor. Surely there must be something that can be made into a serviceable friction pad. Is it a textile of some sort? Metal?

Thanks for a great thread on the Rolls.

Rougaroo

 

This is a very interesting thread. I wonder why I haven't seen it before now. I guess I might make a pot of Coffee and have a great read, thanks to gregindallas !

 

The friction pad is actually a honing stone. The other side is a leather strop.

 

The friction pad and hone are two different things. Go back to page 3 of this most excellent thread and scroll down to look at gregindallas' description of the friction pad assembly (the FPS in his pictures). The actual friction pad itself is the red thing between the friction pad clip and the brass spindle and provides the resistance for both honing and stropping. Greg provides instructions for disassembling the friction pad assembly and cleaning it up. He cautions that the pad is fragile and breaks easily.

I've blown up pictures of the pad trying to figure out what sort of material it is made from with no success. I will probably end up destroying one just to figure this out, but am trying not to go down that path. Rolls used to sell kits that included a new friction pad, clip, spring, and blade pin, and they occasionally come up on auction, but it would be a whole lot easier if a new friction pad could be cut out of felt/emery paper/cardboard/whatever.

Rougaroo

 

Gotcha, I see what your talking about now.

 

No. It's not made of Greg.

 

Another thing I plan to experiment with is that the real "friction" of the friction pad comes from the tension on the clip. The pad just acts as a gripping surface. Gregindallas is absolutely right about the pad becoming a bearing surface over time with migrated grease, dust, and metal filings.

I just scored a 1952 Imperial #2 from a local auction. When I opened it up it was brand new! Not only was all the literature still in the box, the blade still had packing grease and its paper cover on it. The strop still had a paper cover over its surface. The strop literally drank up leather restorer (I used Leatherique "rejuvinator oil"). The strop slipped out of the cover easily, but after giving it four good coatings of rejuvinator oil it had plumped up enough that I had to squeeze it a bit to get back in the cover. Waiting on the Dovo paste before I hone and strop this baby for a trial.

Rougaroo

 

Congrats on a great addition to your addiction! And let us know how you like it, please!

 

what a great post

 

I searched for professional services that sharpen Rolls blades and found this one in Scottsdale AZ: http://www.asharperrazor.com/straight-razor-sharpening-honing-service

I searched TSD and didn't see them reviewed, though it looks like a good place for straights, too. His price list shows Rolls honed and sharpened for $20.

Rougaroo

 

Still working away, bit by bit. A few more observations:
a. I've taken apart four Imperial #2's now and the friction pad is made of some sort of early plastic, maybe celluloid? I tried gregindallas' technique for cleaning and was especially wary of not breaking the pad trying to force it open. I ended up cleaning the grime away with Goo-Gone and q-tip cotton swabs. The Goo-Gone dissolves the grime, but has to be removed with water. When I wetted some q-tips to remove the Goo-Gone, I found that the friction pads "relaxed", i.e. opened up considerably, allowing me to really scrub the grime away. One of the friction pads was black, and the rollers for it were also covered in blackish stuff. After trying to remove it from the pad, it appears to be graphite. I'm going to assume some previous owner tried to lubricate the roller and pad with it.
b. The Imperial cases polish up nicely with compound, but for those of you with Viscounts remember that the cases are made of aluminum. Polishing compound on aluminum will be a very frustrating task. Aluminum polishes best with acid-based solutions - never, ever, use a basic solution like Simple Green on aluminum as it will turn it black. Try a simple rubdown with white vinegar and see how it looks.
c. One of the Rolls I'm refurbishing has some literature that I will scan when I get a chance, but it says never to hone the blade more than 15 strokes. It also gives some very good advice on the variability of honing and stropping depending on one's beard and how you like the blade. One person's sharp may be another person's too sharp, etc.
d. The flyer also gives the caveat about honing that you should hear two distinct clicks, one when the guard flips up and the other when the blade hits the stone. If you can't hear the two clicks, you are going too fast and the blade may chip if it hits the stone too hard.
e. Despite my previous use of Leatherique to re-nourish the strop, I must now recommend Dovo yellow strop paste. That stuff is great and leaves the strop feeling absolutely new.
f. I've sent the blades to A Sharper Razor for professional honing. Will report when I get them back.

Rougaroo

 

Great going, mate!

 

Received the blades back from A Sharper Razor incredibly sharp. I wish I had the technology to get a picture of the edge of the blades as they are mirror-finished. Not the sides of the blade, mind you, but the bevel itself. Shave this morning was as good as with any straight I've used. (Mitchell's Wool Fat, Vulfix Turnback, Musgo Real AS). I'd recommend Lee for honing your Rolls blades if you care to send them out.

So - having gotten some blades shave ready professionally, I've begun trying to see how Rolls might have really wanted you to use their sharpener to get a good edge. Bear with me, as I'm about to question some of the prior knowledge in this thread.

If any of you are straight edge users and do your own honing and stropping, you know that the flip is done relatively slowly and then the strop or hone stroke is done smoothly and fairly rapidly. Check out any video on YouTube for a demonstration. I questioned why when I tried to hone the Rolls and then strop it, I came up with small nicks in the edge of the blade that wouldn't strop out.

What I've discovered is that if you change your action on the stropping/honing handle you can get much better results:

• For honing, go gently enough to listen for two clicks when the blade "sits down" on the stone. This suggestion comes from Rolls literature itself. The first click is the safety bar hitting; the second when the safety bar clicks up and the blade does down. Move the handle smoothly to the end of the stroke, then slow down to flip the blade and again listen for the two clicks as the blade rests on the stone before smoothly honing again. Slow and steady is the hone stroke.
  
• For stropping, instead of the "batter, batter, batter" sound back-and-forth with the handle, again move the handle quickly as the blade moves across the strop and then slow as the blade flips to the other direction and gently down on the strop. Think -"smooth-turn-smooth-turn-smooth"

After stropping like this about 60 times, I found the strop surface was uneven. You could see smooth streaks on the surface. I refinished the surface of the strop with 600 grit wet-or-dry until the blade showed even strop marks across the leather, then reapplied some Dovo Red paste.

Much better results this way. Still not as good as a professional hone, but I'm able to get a non-professionally honed blade serviceable. Visually the blade bevel is about as smooth as Russian 7 O'Clock Gillettes, which are my go-to for double-edged blades.

If you cast yourself back in time and think about it, the folks for whom the Rolls was designed were straight razor users who were used to stropping their own razors. They would never have worked the sharpening handle the way we moderns do. They would have tried to emulate the same motions they would have used when honing and stropping their straight razors. On the other hand, all of us who have grown up with machinery want the machine to do it for us and for us just to supply the power. That may be why we mostly haven't been getting the optimum results. I'm hypothesizing that my "batter-batter-batter" stropping and indifferent honing led to the edge chipping when the blade repeatedly slammed down sideways on the hone/strop.

Don't take my word for this - use a magnifying glass to inspect your blade edges and then hone and strop as I describe. See if you don't see a difference.

Rougaroo