Rollin' with My Rolls - Better is the Enemy of the Good

The aphorism at the end of the thread title seems to apply to my experience with Rolls Razor honing. When I recently got into shaving with a Rolls Razor ( One Man's Unusual Straight Razor Journey - Sharpologist ), and after reading some posts about the poor quality of a Rolls blade honed in a Rolls device, I avoided the use of the Rolls hone. The quality and appearance of an edge hand honed and polished through a 12K grit stone series would certainly be a vast improvement over what the Rolls (with it's 4-6K stone) could deliver. That led to my bevel/taping test described in another post ( http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...dure-test.html ). I'd gone into my Rolls experience assuming I'd have to hand hone my blades but could strop them in the Rolls. I certainly got great shaves doing that. Then I started thinking about the aphorism in the title of this post and started to wonder…would the Rolls have remained in the marketplace for 30+ years if the hone didn’t work? Maybe my DIY, hobbyist views were skewing my approach to the Rolls.

So I took a spare 1934 Rolls blade that came with a battered Rolls Razor I picked up for parts and looked at the edge with a 20x hand lens. Clearly, this blade had not been hand honed or honed at all for years (decades?). It certainly wasn't sharp enough for shaving and the appearance of the edge (and everything else about the device in which it was included) indicated neglect, but the edge itself was intact with no chips. A wipe down with a damp cloth revealed the blade finish was in quite good shape with no visible rust or dark tarnish marks anywhere so I decided this was the perfect blade to test the quality of a Rolls honed edge.

I inserted the blade in one of my refurbished Rolls so I knew I was using a properly 'tuned' device that would apply the appropriate pressure to the edge during honing/stropping. The Rolls instructions advise to hone using about 50 double pass strokes. Given the age of the blade I doubled the instructions for touch up and did about 100 double passes. Unlike with stropping, I didn't do it quickly so no whack-whack-whack sounds could be heard ;-) I used a slow reversing move where I could hear a double click on each turn as the blade guard first contacted the hone followed by the soft click of the blade edge. I did this to be gentle with the edge as it seems to me that slapping a blade edge down on a stone is a good way to chip or otherwise damage a good edge.

Honing completed, I stropped vigorously with the Rolls for 30-45 seconds. Now for a shave test. This morning I lathered up and proceeded to shave with my newly honed 1934 blade as though it was my normal kit. I didn't give it any special treatment or change how I did anything, and... Surprise, I started my day with another great Rolls Razor shave! The shave was comfortable during execution and the result felt just as good as the outcome from using my hand honed blades. I was amazed!

This takes us back to my title. I am sure a hand hone blade has a 'better' edge than the Rolls honed edge. However, supposition, visual inspection, photos, etc. don't mean as much to me as the result. The fact is, the shave I got with the Rolls honed blade was every bit as comfortable and close as what I get with a hand honed edge. So why go through all the work to hand hone? I don't think I will any more and when my hand honed edges need a touch up, I'll just use the Rolls. Let’s face it, the Rolls was edged out (pun intended) by the marketing of less expensive DE safety razors, not because the Rolls didn't work.

I do recognize that YMMV. No doubt there are those who have tried Rolls honing and not gotten good results. If you fall into that category, I just urge you to be sure you gave the Rolls a fair shake by using the correct techniques and ensuring you have a properly functioning device. Here are some points for those with Rolls Razors to consider:
-I started with a well tuned Rolls. This is a factor that you can definitely control and eliminate from the equation so be sure your Rolls is in good working condition. Specifically,
--Hone: Vintage hones that haven't been lapped won't provide as good a result as a freshly lapped and flattened stone.

--Strop: The leather should be smooth, without cuts and properly dressed.

--FPA: This is a big one. The friction pad assembly (FPA) should be in proper condition. Old FPAs are often greasy or at least polished from use so they provide much less (if any) pressure to the blade during stropping and honing. If you haven't taken your FPA apart and brought it back to clean and grease-free condition, you're not going to get good results.

--A perhaps minor point, but clean and lubricate the device. Remove the ancient, probably thickened grease that many Rolls arrive with and lubricate the cleaned gears and rails with a bit of petroleum jelly. You'll be amazed at how much more smoothly the device operates.
-Although I have enough beard that I can easily justify shaving every day, I'm not a hairy beast, and my beard is not coarse. Maybe those with tougher, denser beards will have different results.
-Some folks just can't believe that the short distance the blade moves with each stroke in the device can be effective. With a straight, you may strop over a longer distance, but you use fewer strokes. With a Rolls, you're stropping over only about 2 inches, but are doing in the neighborhood of 60-80 double passes between shaves so the end result is still a well stropped (or honed) edge. So if you've only been assuming or guessing that the Rolls won't do the job, give it a chance and use it as it was intended to be used. I know, I know, it will be REALLY tough to refrain from picking up a hand lens or camera and start comparing what you see, but that's irrelevant. In the end, all that matters is how it shaves.

If you own a Rolls and are taking the pains to hand hone the blade, I encourage you to trust the Rolls and just let it do the work for you. Maybe it will work for you and maybe it won't, but give it a fair chance to succeed. Thousands of men bought and successfully used these devices "back in the day" with apparent success as measured by 30+ years of sales. Sure you can hone your Rolls blades better than the Rolls device, but if the Rolls produces a blade that's "good enough" to shave you just as well, exactly how sharp it is doesn’t really matter, does it?

However, you sharpen your Rolls, enjoy it!

Enjoyable write up . I'll have to try a Rolls someday .

I just got a Rolls, seems to be in decent shape. The stone is intact, but the strop is mangled. I'm getting a scrap piece of cordovan with a new strop I ordered, so I'm hoping that I can get this thing into working condition.

Just one thing, Do not get stroking too fast on the hone. They will chip out and leave a crater if the blade slaps them hard. That will ruin the edge that you get.
There are folks using a sheet of lapping film on the hone or strop and if the models are the same ( allows the plates to fit) some balsa hones are seen from time to time.
Figure out the honing angle in the case and tape the blade for hand honing. Then the strop works well.
YMMV I've tried some of these and made them work.
~Richard

If anyone is interested, I've put together a lot of info on Rolls Razors including their history and detailed instructions on how to refurbish them. None of it is original. I just pulled together scattered resources and posts. It's a 45 page bookmarked PDF that is just over 3MB. If you'd like a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy.

UPDATE
I just confirmed that for my face and my Rolls Razor system, honing in the Rolls works just fine.* I was noticing that my ATG pass on my chin was starting to encounter a bit more resistance so I figured my hand-honed blade needed a touch up honing.* Instead of redoing it by hand, I just honed it in the Rolls.* I had tried to create a bevel that I thought matched the one created in the Rolls, but to play it safe, I honed more than the 50 double pass recommended by Rolls for a touch up.* I went to 150, but just to make this shift from the hand to Rolls bevel, whatever that was.
I had done some tests that indicated 1 tape layer was about right for my systems.* I was wrong.* Looks like it should have been more like 2-3 (I recall seeing a post where someone else came to that number as well).* At any rate, the new bevel was steeper and so I could still see the base of the hand-honed bevel beyond the Rolls bevel.* According to the conventional honing wisdom, it was ugly :-0* However, the important point was that the edge itself was properly honed.* Was it as pretty and polished as my hand honing?* Of course not.* However, all I care about is a good shave.* I finished off the newly honed edge with a 30 second stropping in the Rolls and shaved with it this morning.* The result?* A fine shave with a definite improvement in the ATG shave on my chin.*
This result confirms for me that one should give the entire Rolls honing/stopping system a fair shake.* Measure your results only by the quality of your shave because practically speaking that is what matters, not aesthetics.
As always, YMMV, but for me the Rolls is a stand alone system that needs no other accessories to enable it to give me a great straight razor, BBS shave.

Had to keep testing, so I decided to get the edge to a fully Rolls honed bevel. Went back to the Rolls hone and stropped vigorously for 150 rapid (I had to try it) double strokes -whacka-whacka-whacka! Did a quick inspection at 20x and, --no chips! That's no guarantee but it shows honing can be safely done at speed. Closed out with 50 more double strokes but at the gentle "double click" rate. Result was a nice edge with a single bevel that is still shaving me every bit as good as my initial hand honed blade.