Thread: Rolls Razor Hone Restore (picture heavy)

Great recovery!

I have a couple Rolls and have never got a good shave.
My Dad had one which is why I picked mine up.

I would guess that if I wanted to shave with one
it might pay to tinker with contact adhesive film on
something like glass or steel of the correct thickness
and not use the old school Rolls hones at all. Rolls hones
are quite coarse and I think the paste on the strop
side is what made them shave at all.

Since all faces are not equal other opinions apply.

I think I need to dust mine off and give them another try.

You could have something there. The variables are abundant with the design. The contact adhesive sounds interesting. It seems they sold millions of them when new. I had one shaving perfectly and stupidly sold it. The one I have now is so so. I have a NOS one I am going to break out. The one I sold was awesome!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

You could have something there. The variables are abundant with the design. The contact adhesive sounds interesting. It seems they sold millions of them when new. I had one shaving perfectly and stupidly sold it. The one I have now is so so. I have a NOS one I am going to break out. The one I sold was awesome!

Not all razors are the same... when you have a good one
keep it until you get a better one (or two).

For the price at Woodcraft the pressure sensitive abrasive film
might be well worth the bother. Their 15 micron, 5 micron, 0.3 micron
sequence works and the 5 micron is finer than my Rolls Razor hones.
The film will work wet or dry and my eyeball tells me that hobby plywood
has the correct thickness to replace a busted Rolls Razor hone.
It might work to replace the strop too. Now to find one that
has a good blade and wrecked strop and hone for $5 to my door.

They are quite the contraption... I need to lubricate mine so it
is not so tight. I bet that is the root of all my bad experiences
with it. Once I learned a light touch on hones my open razor shave
improved. The correct lubrication could bring my Rolls back too.

I have some WS2 (Tungsten Disulfide Dry Lube) that could
do the trick.

Nifty, As with ANY razor, setting the bevel is the start of all good shaves. Can you set a bevel on a 15 micron?

If you read my post again, you will make note of the measurements of the hone depth. This measurement was taken from a fine condition Rolls set, but was repeated on 2 other models. Without fail, the hone (and strop too for that matter) was closer to the blade at the hinge location and grew larger as you approached the latch pin. A small deviation is probably insignificant, but if you add in hone height, wear at the pin (allowing the door to move further from the frame) or a gear track that varies from perfectly parallel, It could all combine to cause the experience enough deviation that it could be the equivalent of lifting the spine off the hone at the end of the stroke.

As for lubrication.... Cleaning the old oil and grease off the tracks is a great first step. It turns to mud and will certainly benefit. Be careful removing the actual roll pin, and clean it, to remove any deposits, but I dont believe this was supposed to be lubricated, and the old rolls maintenance I have seen says not to add any oil here. It DOES need a certain amount of friction to work properly, I made the mistake of using a silicone spray on mine, and it had so little friction that if I moved the lever slowly, the guard bail on the razor would not click into place, and the blade never made contact with the strop!
You guys are going to make me post a whole series of Rolls maintenance posts, aren't you?

I see what you are saying. I have noticed that the spine does not contact all the way through the stroke. If a blade was honed flat on a hone, then surely the rolls hone is creating it's own little bevel as the blade is "rolled" on it.
In other words, not an exactly precision thing. Still, they work great when they work!

And I forgot to mention, if you are shopping around for a Rolls, pay close attention to the strop. Yes, its easy enough to replace a damaged one, you need to ask WHY is it damaged? if there are cuts at either end where it stops and flips over, then the mechanism is worn out, and if you watch closely, you will see the blade starts to move forward BEFORE it begins to lift up! So the next strop is going to get cut up too. I suppose I should compile all this info into some sort of guide. Not sure where that would go though. Workshop? Razor board?

Originally Posted by Magpie

Nifty, As with ANY razor, setting the bevel is the start of all good shaves. Can you set a bevel on a 15 micron?
.... snip....

15 micron is darn close to 1K equivalent grit so yes.

Checking the micron numbers on Shapton Glass hones.
Shapton 1000 Grit (14.7 Micron) (HR) GlassStone® Waterstone

And BTW, the 5 micron film....
Shapton 3000 Grit (5.52 Micron) (HR) GlassStone® Waterstone

And the 0.3 micron film
Shapton 30000 Grit (.48 Micron) (HR) GlassStone® Waterstone

One deal with abrasives on film is that they are fast but
do not last too long. The precision of the flat base is
important but takes an edge a lot further into the land of
harsh if ultra sharp and harsh are what you want.

My opinion is that the Rolls Razor hone is coarser than 5 micron.
So it is possibly an improvement. Shave testing will tell.

Hmmm, I feel a plan coming together!

I was thinking of modding an old rolls frame to sit on top of my stones, but simply putting lapping film on a cover plate might be a cool idea too! I myself have never enjoyed my trips to the land of harsh.
Is there a film equivalent to a Nani 12k? I think that I get the best feel from these blades at the 12k mark.

Originally Posted by Magpie

Nifty,
....snip....
As for lubrication.... Cleaning the old oil and grease off the tracks is a great first step. It turns to mud and will certainly benefit. Be careful removing the actual roll pin, and clean it, to remove any deposits, but I dont believe this was supposed to be lubricated, and the old rolls maintenance I have seen says not to add any oil here. It DOES need a certain amount of friction to work properly, I made the mistake of using a silicone spray on mine, and it had so little friction that if I moved the lever slowly, the guard bail on the razor would not click into place, and the blade never made contact with the strop!
You guys are going to make me post a whole series of Rolls maintenance posts, aren't you?

We will get the bits from you one at a time..

I think you are right... I will move with caution cleaning the old oil and cruft from the friction
roll. I know I can slick it up to the point that it will not work.... Watching the guard bail
is a good hint. I know to not let the razor "slap" the hone or strop.

I plan to take one blade and hand hone it a lot like a razor
to about 3k then put it back in the Rolls and let the machine
put the shaving bevel on it.

I bet I could wipe it up and down a pile of Shaptons and see
how good an edge the steel can take. I might pull out
my 14" glass plates and abrasive film for grins too.

If nothing else they are COOL.

I have removed the guard bars from all my Rolls blades, stropping without the bar attached is a much quieter experience I leave them off while shaving as well, I'm used to using a straight anyway.

Using lapping film might well be the way forward, I agree the Rolls hone is way too coarse more of a bevel setter IMHO.