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

Yeah, I've got that as well. I guess it comes with the territory. *shrug*

Cool to have a birth year Rolls.

I'll never have such luck: my own build was in '66 and by then Rolls Razors weren't made anymore. But then I've got a birth quarter Gillette Slim, so I've got that going for me which is nice.

 

The hone is cracked and needs replacement so it is unusable. The strop needs to be conditioned and the blade needs to be totally worked as there are small nicks all over it, well not so small. :^) To shave with it would be like trying to shave with pavement. lol

 

I totally agree with your assessment.

 

I got a NOS blade today that I bought on eBay. It is interesting in that it is acid etched rather than engraved like my other blades. It came in a nice metal case. The edge is perfect, just needs a little stropping. Also the guard is a little different in the way it sets on the blade.

I have a few other blades now honed and stropped so well that one in particular glides across my face. I can't even feel it as I use it. Maybe I have the guard flipped down. lol Really though it is smooth and takes one pass to get a totally smooth shave.

 

Did you hone on other stones as the included one? I don't get my blades as sharp as you describe, so I thought about getting them honed by someone who hones straights and has the tools and stones for the job.

 

I use the hone with the Rolls to hone and I use the Rolls strop. The hone I prep by cleaning and I often use some soap and a green scrub on a kitchen sponge. The hone can get loaded with metal from past use or it can be dirty from all the years misuse or just sitting. Also, if it is grooved from improper use, by slapping the blade back and forth as it is used, I take it out, put a bevel on the opposite end, on the opposite side and use the back, which is the same material but now you have a new hone.

I hone very slowly, as has been described earlier in this thread, of getting a double click, so the blade is going down to the hone surface slowly. The guard first touches the stone and then the blade, and that is the double click. If you don't get this you are going too fast and the blade will get nicked and you will not have a good cutting edge. I hone until I have a nice clean cutting edge, and the built in hone will do this. I look at the blade with either my directing scope or my 10X loupe. I also turn the blade 180 degrees so that any irregularities in the honing will be rectified. On a blade that really needs reconditioning, this can take a while.

Once you have a clean edge, the strop is used. Most of the time the strops are dry and need reconditioning. I use Fromm, which is for strops but I also have some original Rolls strop dressing, and they work great. Even though the Rolls dressing is old and I have 3 of them, it seems to hold up fine as all of mine, one NOS and two that are used, are all the same. Sometimes you need to take the strop out of the lid. There is often a backing on the strop that has deteriorated. I have cleaned this off and replaced it with a hard cardboard of the same thickness. Before doing this I clean the strop well and recondition it. Once all this is done you are ready to go. All of my blades are done on the Rolls hone and strop as I want to use it as intended and I wanted to know if you could truly do "everything" with just the Rolls setup and I have found that you can.

 

Thanks for your extensive answer!
It's nice to read it all can be done on the Rolls, time for cleaning and prepping my hone and strop. And a evening of zen and repetitive movements.
Do you have an estimate amount of strokes on hone and on the strop to make. My blade is sharp but is still tugging on the whiskers, so it's not sharp enough...

 

On the honing, it all depends upon the blade. If it has little nicks, which is common, you have to hone until past these points. How long? I have honed for a half an hour and as short as a few minutes depending upon the blade. I have one that was all rusted and took it as a challenge. I cleaned the blade of rust, buffing it out with my dremel and a buffing wheel with compound, then I cleaned it with polish and then to the honing. I have probably honed on that one for 45 minutes and have a little more work to do. I don't really mind it. The blade looks cool as it looks like surface acid etching with what the rust did.

On stropping, at first you will need to strop a lot. I do 30 to 60 up and back (each stroke is up and back) after the blade is sharp after each shave and a few strops before a shave. After an initial honing, it can take a while and for that it would be good to get some kind of compound for the strop. I have a couple of NOS blades and can see the same edge markings as what the hone leaves and then a bit of a polished surface on top of the scoring from the honing from the factory. It looks like what I get after using the hone and then stropping. Your initial stropping could be 5 minutes, depending upon what you have on the strop. I found that you just have to work it until you get it so it is comfortable.

As mentioned above, I have one blade I honed, then just stropped every day for 60 cycles for about 2 weeks, as I wasn't using that blade to shave with. Then the other day I used it to see what it was like. Wow, it is sharp and it started out, pretty dull.

 

Thanks!
Hope I too will get to this point of sharpness. I'm off to a campsite next week, ideal for this kind of job I think.

 

My first shaves weren't so good and I finished up with my Bic throw away. I figured if they did it years ago, either the Rolls never really worked and that is why there are so many around that look almost new, many didn't understand how to use it or they hold up very well unless abused. So I just kept working on it. The biggest change came about after reading on here, that early information from Rolls that you needed to use the hone so that you hear the double click, when the guard first hits and then the blade. You will not get this if you are honing too fast. After this I got good edges on my blades and then back to stropping, and the rest, for me is history. I will say that using a dissecting scope was very helpful for me to see what was happening and that when the blade is slapped down, small nicks occur and these will never be stropped away. Start with a clean sharp blade and strop that and you have a good shaving edge.

I have a Darwin Universal also. Their big downfall is that they don't use a hone made of some sort of stone but special compound you put on the same surface as a strop and it never really does much. So the combination of the Rolls hone and strop does work, but there is a learning curve. If you are getting a rough shave, work on the blade some more, not your face. :^)

 

One other thing, you will eventually need to clean the geared section on each side and lightly regrease it.

Also, and this is important, the friction sleeve that applies the pressure on the blade as you hone or strop, needs to apply enough pressure or nothing will work. If it seems really easy to strop or hone it needs to be cleaned. There are some images on this thread on taking it off the center roller but it is easy. As can been seen there are two different friction sleeves they used. I use my thumb nails on each side of the friction plate to work it off of the central roller. I then clean the brass roller and then the friction sleeve (inner) with a q tip and something that will clean it. You never lubricate this with anything. Then you press one end of the friction sleeve back on, slowly, and then press the rest into place. After you do it once, it is easy. I have about 6 or 7 Rolls and have cleaned them all. Just be careful with the friction material and everything will be fine.

 

Spot on!

 

I picked up a Rolls Shaving soap bowl. I would guess it is 50 or 60 years old. The lid has a nice emblem like on the case of the Rolls. It is like new and very strong. Great for holding the shaving soap. I got some stones to get all the tiny nicks out of the blades and have near perfect edges now. I then strop with the Rolls. I am getting excellent shaves now. I even was able to get the Darwin into shape with the better water stones but the weight and feel of the Rolls is more to my liking over the Darwin Universal.

 

Sweet! Where did you find it?
Pics! Pics! (please)

 

Ebay. I got a NOS Rolls from England about 2 months ago as well. The one you see in the brochures. It cost a bit but the accessories are fun to have and hard to find.

 

Congratz, mate!

 

My Rolls shaving soap dish. It was made in NY. I would guess late 1940 or early 1950's. Perfect shape and works very well. The Rooney shaving brush is the finest I have ever used. The Kent is a BK8 and while soft and great feeling can't hold a badger hair to the Rooney. The Rooney is the thickest knot I have ever seen or felt. It is a number 3 stubby. I have Simpson brushes as well and they are fine but again, the Rooney put them to shame. It is all good though.

 

Beautiful! Most excellent! Enjoy and thanks for posting

 

Envious of the bowl of course...