Thread: Rolls Razor Fans

They have their place in the evolution of shaving.

Originally Posted by 32t

They have their place in the evolution of shaving.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. They were introduced in 1927 and made until 1958. The DE razor was introduced in 1904.

For that matter, the Darwin Universal and the Wilkinson Sword Empire were both introduced in the 1930's.

King Camp Gillette was said to have hated the things, as they cut deep into his sales in the poorer parts of America.

They are short bladed, more maneuverable and controllable straight razors. The edge can be tailored to fit the end user, just like any hollow ground straight razor.

In the past, I got lucky and found 2-3 replacement hones and strops for them on eBay. You just have to keep looking. That or looks for a real cheap one that might be parts with a good hone but most of the time, the hone is cracked or just gone from being broke.

Honestly, I think every Rolls Razor ever made is still floating around. Every antiques store and goodwill has a few. Prices range from five bucks to 35. It looks wonderfully made, so nobody ever tossed one out. Goodwills website has them constantly.

I bought several someone had for real cheap, like 10 of them for less than $50. I also got extra blades with the little blade containers they go in. Most every one of them was new but there was one that someone must have just sat there flipping the blade back and forth on the hone. I took it and flipped it against my hand because the adhesive is so old on them, they will come out. The opposite side of the hone was new (of course) and says Made In England on it. This razor set is in nice shape except for what someone did to the hone. Unbelievably the blade looks good but I do have a couple new blades and a couple have been honed down so far, I wouldn't use them.
If you ever have one that looks like this one did, flip the hone over using a little dab of glue (not CA). I used my digital vernier caliper and used the other end to measure depth and got .013" on one side of the one someone played with.

No good.


Opposite side of hone.


No expanation needed.

I am not as extreme as many here but one of the things with the rolls that I wonder about is if I do 100 laps on my hanging strop. How many would that take on the short rolls strop? Just thinking out loud again. I am not going to go down in my basement and measure these exact things.....
Of course the same with the hone.