I got a big kick out of seeing this Rolls post...

I FIRST got into all this when, about 7 years ago, saw a Rolls on eBay. For some reason, I started collecting them and have about 25 or so of them! All models and some are brand new too. Then I spread out to the OLD Remingtons [Auto-Strops/7 day Auto-Strops] and have a huge collection. Again, some are even brand new and date back to the turn of the century. The Remington ones are works of mechanical art!! Then it was a natural jump to straight razors.

I would be excited to see what your luck is using a stone/hone that is NOT the one it is shipped with [in the lid]. The action of the blade "whip-lashing" around at the end of each stroke always made me nervous since it is possible to "knock-off" a good edge with a sharp blow anyway. I always wondered about sharpening them by hand! How's your luck so far?

For those who have NO idea what we are talking about...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.li...scount_all.jpg

A Rolls was nothing more than a crude marriage or the natural migration of a straight razor to a safety razor. It was a short straight razor mounted on a handle with a "bar" going around the blade offset, to incorporate a "safety" feature. Very interesting to see the migration of the straight razor to the safety razors. It was the first sign that razor manufacturers were beginning to have "too much time" on their hands. You would sharpen them by putting the "head" inside the box which was "geared" on the edges. You would "whip" the head back-and-forth. One lid had a whet stone in it, and the other lid was lined with leather for the final pass.

Crude, but a wonderful and fascinating piece of razor progression history!!!