Post by spidey9 on Feb 7, 2015 15:22:49 GMT -6
It started with a box of miscellaneous junk I had purchased on eBay that happened to include a Rolls blade. I was sending some Kampfe wedge blades off to Marcus to be honed, so I included the Rolls Blade.
Thus do adventures start.
With a good blade on the way I needed a razor to put it in. I purchased two Rolls Razor sets on eBay with the hope of getting one good one. Through a bit of good fortune I ended up with two very nice specimens, an Imperial No. 2 and a Viscount, both in excellent condition. Both hones and strops were in good shape.
Following Marcus' directions I reconditioned the strops by coating them with Lubriderm overnight and then painting them with a mixture of mineral oil and FeOx.
I waited until this morning (Saturday) because I didn't want to be rushed. I had prepared the previous evening by reading Brian's (Shadowsdad) detailed thread on the Rolls.
I prepped as usual (shower, face wash) and lathered up with Valobra Cologne hard soap. I've used this soap since I started wet shaving and it is as slick as anything out there.
I had stropped the blade about 60 laps in the case, flipped it over and did another 60 laps before attaching it to the handle. I was using the Viscount, which has a two piece handle.
I've never used a straight, and to be honest I was a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. I already had a couple of little nicks on my fingers, attesting to the fact that these blades are really, really sharp.
As a result my first two passes were really tentative, using no pressure at all.
This is not the correct way to shave with a Rolls. As I shaved and realized that I was not going to slice my face to bloody ribbons, I gained confidence and started experimenting with using a little pressure. Eventually I found a combination of angle (almost flat against my face) and pressure that seemed to work well.
The Rolls is a quiet shaver. In fact, if I could hear it scraping whiskers it meant that my angle was wrong.
I ended up doing about a six pass shave, since the first two passes didn't do much. Besides, once my anxiety passed, I was having fun.
Despite all these passes and my lack of experience, the alum block only had a slight bite. I finished off with Fine American blend. I then removed the blade and wiped it off, stropped it a few more laps, coated it with mineral oil and put it away.
I then noticed something that Brian and Marcus had described. Immediately after the shave I would have called it a CCS, perhaps approaching DFS, but half an hour later it felt much closer to BBS. At any rate, I was more that happy with the results of my first Rolls shave.
This was a really interesting shaving experience, even more so that using a Kampfe with a wedge blade (last weekend's project). Despite my early apprehension, the Rolls proved easy to handle - no nicks or weepers and almost no irritation.
All the stropping, blade prep, etc. mean that the Rolls will not become my daily shaver, at least not before I retire. However, I definitely will return to it on the weekends.
--Bob
Thus do adventures start.
With a good blade on the way I needed a razor to put it in. I purchased two Rolls Razor sets on eBay with the hope of getting one good one. Through a bit of good fortune I ended up with two very nice specimens, an Imperial No. 2 and a Viscount, both in excellent condition. Both hones and strops were in good shape.
Following Marcus' directions I reconditioned the strops by coating them with Lubriderm overnight and then painting them with a mixture of mineral oil and FeOx.
I waited until this morning (Saturday) because I didn't want to be rushed. I had prepared the previous evening by reading Brian's (Shadowsdad) detailed thread on the Rolls.
I prepped as usual (shower, face wash) and lathered up with Valobra Cologne hard soap. I've used this soap since I started wet shaving and it is as slick as anything out there.
I had stropped the blade about 60 laps in the case, flipped it over and did another 60 laps before attaching it to the handle. I was using the Viscount, which has a two piece handle.
I've never used a straight, and to be honest I was a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. I already had a couple of little nicks on my fingers, attesting to the fact that these blades are really, really sharp.
As a result my first two passes were really tentative, using no pressure at all.
This is not the correct way to shave with a Rolls. As I shaved and realized that I was not going to slice my face to bloody ribbons, I gained confidence and started experimenting with using a little pressure. Eventually I found a combination of angle (almost flat against my face) and pressure that seemed to work well.
The Rolls is a quiet shaver. In fact, if I could hear it scraping whiskers it meant that my angle was wrong.
I ended up doing about a six pass shave, since the first two passes didn't do much. Besides, once my anxiety passed, I was having fun.
Despite all these passes and my lack of experience, the alum block only had a slight bite. I finished off with Fine American blend. I then removed the blade and wiped it off, stropped it a few more laps, coated it with mineral oil and put it away.
I then noticed something that Brian and Marcus had described. Immediately after the shave I would have called it a CCS, perhaps approaching DFS, but half an hour later it felt much closer to BBS. At any rate, I was more that happy with the results of my first Rolls shave.
This was a really interesting shaving experience, even more so that using a Kampfe with a wedge blade (last weekend's project). Despite my early apprehension, the Rolls proved easy to handle - no nicks or weepers and almost no irritation.
All the stropping, blade prep, etc. mean that the Rolls will not become my daily shaver, at least not before I retire. However, I definitely will return to it on the weekends.
--Bob