I picked up a Rolls with the pebble finish, the older version. The hone and strop section is a copper then nickel plated finish then the rest is brass. The shaving handle is neat as it has the section that clips onto the razor in a copper finish and the rest is brass. The case is in very good condition and it has the original instructions. I already got the blade up and running after doing a hone on my wet stones and then fixed the strop as it is a steal pin rather than brass as in the newer ones and had rust on it. Cleaned it all up and it is pretty.
I did read somewhere though, and take this for what it is - internet rumor - that when buying one of these honing it on the supplied stone the first time won't be enough - you need to have it honed as you do any straight razor that needs to become shave ready. After that the leather and stone can be used to maintain that edge.
That is what i do. I use a good wet stone to get rid of any nicks and take it down to a 8000 grit and then strop it. I get a great clean sharp edge and it doesn't take very long. I would agree, you rally need to use something besides the supplied hone unless the blade is new, which I have a few of. With a new blade, after cleaning it, a stropping will get it very nice. Otherwise I use wet stones first.
Thank you, GregInDallas for this informative restoration guide for the Rolls! I bought my Imperial a couple of years ago at an antique shop, but had read on other forums the case wasn't sufficient for getting a blade shave ready, so it's just been sitting patiently waiting for use! Now I've got it all ready to go, and HOPEFULLY shave ready for this evening's shave!
Shaved with the Rolls last night, and now I understand why guys talk so fondly about using straights! Talk about smooth shaving! I still need to dial in the angle in a few areas of my face, but this thing is quite impressive!
Can only hone to a 6k right now and its not looking good for me getting any hones this winter. Court and legal junk is killing my wallet.
Have you tried just lapping the Rolls hone and using it? I found that although a hand honed blade looked better, it didn't seem to perform any better
as someone with a Rolls and no resources to get what I need to restore it more than it is, I wish there were a Rolls restoration service someone here could provide for cheap. I'm pretty sure my strop is screwed up beyond repair (big cut) and I think my stone is cracked and also needs replacement, and I don't know what kind it is except that it has the two part handle, but it would be nice to be able to send it off and then receive it back in shaveworthy condition
I need to condition my strop side and find a backing spacer to replace the goo that used to do that job. Everything else on mine is great I got lucky.
Dana, sounds like you just ended up with a really bad Rolls. You may do better just shopping carefully for one in better starting condition. You'd then just have to clean, degrease, then lubricate it to get it in decent shape. I've refurbished some rolls, but unless you start with something in good shape (certainly no cracks in the hone), you are faced with buying more than one to get all the decent parts you need.
Another thing to remember: AFAIK all parts are interchangable. So you can shop for incomplete Rolls sets (which are cheaper, of course!) and exchange the parts you're looking for. As for the cracked hone: if I'm not mistaken you should read a few (or more...) pages back in this thread. There was a member who successfully repaired the crack and wrote how he did it! Good luck!
I just won a Rolls Razor "The Traveler" at auction yesterday. Almost mint with alligator case extra blade (with it's own case) Looking forward restoring it and giving it to my son. he seams to like mine.
my rolls hone is perfectly flat. I gave it 5 min or so on the case hone and 5 more on the strop but it tugged until I hand stroped it on a pasted board 100 laps on each side then 200 laps on leather laid on a marble slab. Now it feels like its not there. Magic whisker removal.
Great, mate! Could you please elaborate on the pasted board? I don't think it's a wooden plank covered in pastries (which would be nice anyway, but for a different reason ), but what is it then?
