Thread: Rolls Razor blade honing

I did one Rolls. Just kept thinking:

. . . This is just a short section of a straight razor.

One layer of tape, 8K Norton --> barber hone --> CrOxide.

The owner was happy.

charles

PS -- this assumes that you can hone a straight razor. If not, I wouldn't start with a Rolls.

I've honed several of them. Just take the guard off and do pretty much what you'd do with a straight.
They're actually pretty easy to hone. I've never seen one with bad geometry that needs to be compensated for.

I have got a couple of Rolls razors; one dating to 1952 and the other with two blades dating back to 1939. The steel is very good, I just hone the blades and use a Naniwa progression setting the bevel at 1K and taking it next to the 5k,8K and 10K. I also tape the spine, it does help. HOG

For you guys that are using tape - be sure to check the blade geometry... It's possible that after honing with tape, the built-in rolls hone won't actually be touching the edge when you use it.
I don't know how many laps it will take on that barber hone before it comes back, but it's something to watch out for...

I own a number of Rolls Razor's and they are great shavers for me any way.
The last blade I honed I use NO tape and did Norton 4k/8k, Crox and 50 laps both sides on new paper, which did make for a smoother shave IMHO!!


YMMV tinkersd

I have an Imperial Rolls but have never tried to use it. Maybe I should hone it up and try a shave with it.
I have always admired the workmanship and the general mechanics of the Rolls shave kit.
Thanks for bringing the subject up.

Thanks for all the interesting info. on honing the RR's! I've got one I honed up and (awkwardly) stropped. They shave great when you get them right!

I have quite few of them and have honed all of them in the case, it takes time but the results are BBS shavers. Thats what the hone is for and it will work just great if you take the time and use it.

While you CAN tape the spine for honing, it will change the angle so it may not strop and certainly will not hone in the actual Rolls mechanism.
I did a complete work up on the Rolls here...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ure-heavy.html

In the past, I tried honing in the case, but last week, I took in account someone's experience on the shave den and honed on the Rolls hone outside of the case.

I honed the blade on the dry hone with circles, clockwise and counter-clockwise and back and forth and then standard lapping. The blade took an edge much more quickly than in the case on the honing handle.