Rolls Razor

I wonder how many of you are familiar with a Rolls Razor?  It was a product my father used to use every morning in the early fifties.  One forgets that shaving was always a problem for men before the days of throwaway razors like Bics and their followers.  The Rolls Razor worked with a hollow blade that could be stropped on either a leather or a stone surface.  The unique feature was that the stropping took place in its own container and not on a strap hanging up or a stone outside - my grandfather used a straight edge and honed it occasionally on the doorstep.

Here is a picture of a Rolls Razor open to show the looped handle and the blade.  The lid holds the stone whereas the underneath holds the leather.  I well remember waking up to the sound of the flip-flop of my father stropping his blade.  Once honed, the blade was twisted sideways and then fitted onto a separate handle, which I don't have.  I bought this many years ago in the UK at a junk shop - purely for the memories.

A giant replica of the distinctive case was used as the company's front door in Cricklewood, North London until it closed around 1959.  The factory was then bought by John Bloom, who brought the twin tub washing machine to the market sometime in the early sixties - do you remember him?  If you want to learn more this is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls_Razor_Ltd Purely one for the Brits, this one.