Thread: Rolls Razor Sharpness Issues, Plz Help

Originally Posted by gugi

This is wrong, if the device operates properly the angle is exactly the same. I have verified it on mine.

oh my if i had only known that sooner i would of saved myself a few blisters. 1500 laps is just a guess thou it went on for days untill i got it where it would give me a good shave.looking at it now if the bevel is the same wouldnt there be some hone wear on the spine? my bevel is nice and shiny but my spine looks untouched

Originally Posted by cutalot

oh my if i had only known that sooner i would of saved myself a few blisters. 1500 laps is just a guess thou it went on for days untill i got it where it would give me a good shave.looking at it now if the bevel is the same wouldnt there be some hone wear on the spine? my bevel is nice and shiny but my spine looks untouched

The "machine" does all the work. It sets the pressure,
it sets the angle. If you open one side then the
handle will hone with a pushing motion, replace that lid
and open the other side it will strop/ polish with a
pulling motion. The spine never touches the hone
or strop.

The secret is to not slap the razor on the hone or strop
but like any razor flip it gently and push or pull it smoothly.

The hone when new is a little coarse perhaps 5K but polishes
itself.

The friction clutch that provides pressure on the hone and
strop should not need lubrication unless it has gotten gummy
from a previous bad lube job.

I once picked up a spare blade that had rust on it near the
cutting edge. I did lay the blade on a hone and grind the
edge on both sides down a bit to clean it up.

Do oil the blade and other obvious bits to prevent rust.

It might be fun to build a honing jig/ holder so a full stack
of modern hones could be used but that is not the Rolls way.

Also use care when snapping the hone side lid back down, making sure that the razor is positioned properly.

If the razor head is towards center, and not at the correct outer position of the box, the handle will be raised a little. If the lid is shut, the hone will get cracked.

the spine on my blade has flattening and using a marker is easy to check that it matches the bevel. It's possible that in some cases the hone piece is a bit too far away from the razor so that the spine doesn't touch the hone. But even in this case it's still faster to clean the edge and set a bevel matching the spine on a coarse hone and then using the supplied hone will just do a double bevel, pretty much the equivalent of using a tape.

I've looked at the edge under magnification and it became clear to me why I didn't like the edge off the supplied hone and strop nearly as much as when I honed the razor on standard hones and stropped it on regular strop. In the later case it shaved like a nice sheffield wedge, after using the rolls hone and strop it was somewhat duller and quite a bit harsher.

It's a bit of a pain to hone it without a jig though, I almost made one.

I have 3 of them and love it! But if it is not setup properly and is not sharp you will hate it. There are some wikis around that show you how to clean and refurbish the mechanism. It is time well spent and any unit out there that has not been maintained NEEDS to be done. Find someone like gugi who is familiar with the Rolls to hone it first. Once it is honed and the Rolls mechanism, strop and hone is refurbished, it can be maintained shave ready just using the enclosed hone and strop. You will get a great shave out of it... very close to that of a straight.

Originally Posted by gugi

that hone is not very good. it is a touch up hone and isn't meant for sharpening the razor in the fist place. that needs to be done like on any straight razor with bad edge - clean the chips and oxidation on the edge, establish a good clean and sharp bevel and then refine the edge with progressively finer hones.

I just received a Rolls that I bought on ebay for about $10. In looking around for more info, I found this thread. I was wondering if anyone had tried sticking with the built in mechanism, but putting progressive 3m abrasive films on the hone to get it sharper (with less work than 1500 passes)?

I did a quick search and found one mention of that on B&B

Originally Posted by ckot

I just received a Rolls that I bought on ebay for about $10. In looking around for more info, I found this thread. I was wondering if anyone had tried sticking with the built in mechanism, but putting progressive 3m abrasive films on the hone to get it sharper (with less work than 1500 passes)?

I did a quick search and found one mention of that on B&B

That is a fine idea. To do it correctly you need a couple
of hone plates to make the progression easy.

Do inspect the edge and if necessary add "lots of tape"
and lap it on glass or some other flat base.

Give lots of attention to the strop. The factory strop paste
is rather coarse so do not reach too fine with film.

Originally Posted by ckot

I just received a Rolls that I bought on ebay for about $10. In looking around for more info, I found this thread. I was wondering if anyone had tried sticking with the built in mechanism, but putting progressive 3m abrasive films on the hone to get it sharper (with less work than 1500 passes)?

I did a quick search and found one mention of that on B&B

That would work, It's probably still faster to do the bulk of the work without the mechanism.
I've played mostly with stropping on various things.