Need help honing Rolls

Guys:

This one's got me stumped. I've tried progressions with Nortons, Naniwas, Unicot on my best coti, even a progression on my Kiita (with natural naguras -- Jim's method). I'm getting nowhere.

Spent two hours last night. Went with a very gradual progression with the Nortons. Just to make sure, went through the standard Unicot after that.

Nothing. Didn't cut a hair. A major problem seems to be that the guard bar prevents me from doing many of the sharpness tests (TPT, HTH). But I've got it shaving arm hair, then go carefully through the progressions, and I end up with... nothing.

I love the Rolls. Love the connection with straights, the whole British vibe, the beauty of the kit. (BTW, I am using Sharpies, got a good stroke,etc.)
Suggestions?

If you feel that the guard is impeding your progress, it can be removed.

Look closely at both sides of the guard. You'll see that one side has a small post that fits into a hole on the side of the blade, and the other side of the guard has a small ball that rolls against a ball on that side of the blade. If you take a small screwdriver and carefully lift up on the side of the guard with the ball, it will lift and slide off the blade and you can then remove the side with the post. Replacement is the reverse--put the side with the post in first.

If you're not cutting hair, you must not have gotten the bevel set, and finer hones will help that. Sounds like once you get the guard off you should be able to set the bevel properly and take it from there.

What's getting to me is that the blade does shave arm hair (even with the guard on) after being worked on the Norton 1K, but following meticulous sharpening and polishing on a variety of progressions on naturals and man-mades after that, it's still not shaving sharp.

Anyway, the guard is now off, which will let me check it with conventional methods as I do the progressions. Should be able to identify the step(s) where things break down. I'll update.

Thanks

Oh, I see. Is there any mechanisim to ensure that you are maintaining the exact same angle all the time? (I'm not too familiar with what the blades look like)

The blade is shaped exactly like a straight, about 1/4 hollow, 7/8" wide, about 1&1/2" long, about roughly the footprint of a Gem, I'd say. Just imagine you cut the toe and heel ends off a Sheffield 7/8 1/4 hollow. The middle 1&1/2" piece that is left would be a Rolls blade. It attaches to a handle slid along the spine and clamped to secure it.

I'm taping the spine of the blade and sliding it across the hones with just enough finger pressure to move the blade along.

The Rolls kit comes with a hone -- sort of a barber's hone. Simple to use, but not capable of setting the bevel, etc.

I'm happy to report a very pleasant end to this little adventure. The blade was not the problem; the blade guard, combined with my technique, was the whole issue.

When shaving with the guard in place, it kept flipping up on me. I realized it was because my angle of attack was above the 10-15 degrees recommended by Rolls. I regularly go above 30 degrees with a straight. I've never gotten a decent shave with the "blade against the face" strategy.

So I removed the guard (thanks, DaveC) and, with no further honing, got a superb shave. The sharpness of a well-honed straight, the maneuverability of an SE! I don't believe my neck ever felt this smooth.

Thanks for bringing this up.I have a Rolls sitting on a shelf because I didn't have a bevel setter at the time.I never thought about shaving without the guard even though I knew it comes off (tricky little thing too!).It's a neat little kit. I'm going to have another go at it.It would make a great travel razor.I have the little leather case with a little pocket for spare blades attached to the front of the case.It has a spare blade with the wrapper still on.