Roller Guard Razor

[Snowbeard]

Greetings all!

Here's an American razor, from Chicago, the "Roller Guard".

I had it re-plated by David Glynn of the Auckland Razor Company. I dealt with Dave ("onotoman") years ago when he was still in England and I think it's fair to say he's still doing some fine work.

Internet research reveals that the patent for this razor was applied for August 8, 1927 and received May 7, 1929 (as shown on the bottom of the plate). Must have been some good times rolling along at that point in 1929, little did they know what was coming...

The plate and cap were apparently marketed separately from the handle (an intended Frankenrazor). These were advertised as a "Roller Guard Attachment", "designed to be combined with Gillette razors" and promised to eliminate "pulling, tearing and scratching".

Roller Guard also sold a "Razor Complete" set that included a handle. I'm pretty sure that the razor below is a "Razor Complete" as I happened to see this same plate/cap/handle combination on the German shaving website "forum der rasur".

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

razors.page - US1712086

razors.page

 

[Jayaruh]

That is a very interesting razor. I have a single edge razor made by Tom White that has a roller bar.

 

[Snowbeard]

I had a shave with this Roller Guard. Before I did this I read some other reviews, to get others impressions. Most people seemed to suggest it was quite mild.

I'd have to agree. The first pass was interesting. The rollers made the razor feel like it was almost floating over the face, while it still cut hair effectively (I had several days growth on).

However, after one pass the razor wouldn't cut any more hair at all, unless I applied some pressure.

Instead of doing that I added in a Petard shim. The razor then worked really well for the rest of the shave.

It turned out to be a close, comfortable shave, free of any nicks, cuts or irritation. The rollers no longer seemed to have much of a noticeable effect. I ended up treating the razor just like any other (nicely functioning) razor, forgetting about any roller effect.

So, a nice piece of shaving history, that still works quite well (once you shim)!

 

[efsk]

Head was sold separately, as mentioned above. Head was also silver plated, as the patina on this, original-plated, baseplate shows: