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Barber's Shop Tools (9) - Rolls Razor
Rolls Razor Limited was a British company known for its manufacture of a sophisticated safety-razor and an "affordable" twin-tub washing machine.
This was a sophisticated safety-razor which promoted with the slogan "The razor that is stropped and honed in its case".
The case was a rigid rectangular frame enclosed by two detachable lids, one lid carried a stone and the other a leather. The lids could not be interchanged. With a lid removed, oscillating a handle drove a shaft along the frame, In both directions pinions on the shaft engaged with racks on the case to rotate the shaft to either push the blade forward against the stone or drag it against the strop. It was easy to use, fast and safe, but noisy as each change of direction rotated the blade to slap against stone or leather.
The blade was about the size of a conventional disposable blade but was solid, hollow ground, it was not disposable, It incorporated a safety guard.
The company's principal market was a twenty-first birthday present for a young man. Sales declined with the rise of electric shaving.
First marketed in 1922 and patented in 1925, the razor was still manufactured and sold until 1958 when the company was purchased by entrepreneur/corporate raider John Bloom who decided to focus on washing machines rather than the razor.