Learning to shave with the Feather Artist Club

UKRob

UKRob

Forum GOD!
The Gentleman said:
Day 5 - Feather Artist Club SS with Feather ProGuard

As yesterday I decided to use the Feather only, and a DE for cleaning up. The result today was satisfying. Much better than yesterday, especially my cheeks that now feels like a decent shave with a DE. The moustache area is good today as well, and I find it quite easy to shave that area both WTG and ATG. The neck is feeling okay, but there is a few spots there that I don't know how to attack ATG (I need ATG to get a good result. XTG is not enough) and the some parts on the chin is also a bit difficult. But the whiskers on my chin is like barb wire and maybe a sharper blade is better for that area. I've been working from home a few days and gives me a bit more time in the morning. Tomorrow I'll be back at work, so maybe I'll use the Feather only on my first pass and finish the shave with a DE. Only 5 days in to this journey, but I'm very pleased so far.
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Regarding ATG on your neck - how do you shave these areas with a DE to get a good result? If possible, use the same method with your Feather razor and you should soon achieve the same end result. Regarding ‘toughness’ of your whiskers - even the softest of metals are much, much tougher than human hair. Any reasonable blade will easily cut through thick stubble when technique and angle are correct.
 
The Gentleman

The Gentleman

Forum GOD!
UKRob said:
Regarding ATG on your neck - how do you shave these areas with a DE to get a good result? If possible, use the same method with your Feather razor and you should soon achieve the same end result. Regarding ‘toughness’ of your whiskers - even the softest of metals are much, much tougher than human hair. Any reasonable blade will easily cut through thick stubble when technique and angle are correct.
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Some parts of my neck the beard grows from left to right, so ATG on those parts means that I shave from right to left and I haven't find an easy way to hold the Feather without anything, like the scales, is in the way. I'll figure it eventually :) Of course you're right about the sharpness of blades, but with DE-blades some blades works better than others, even though my technique is very good. I thought it would be the same with different blades in my Feather.
 
wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
Cheesepiece said:
Having never had the pleasure of the DX I think that your jump from acceptable but ultimately disappointing shaves to a suddenly impressive result is profound. Maybe, if you have the luxury of both razors right now, the SS is where you should do the 'learning' and the DX can be revisited to try achieve the equivalent results.
Very interesting that you find there is a difference in how they shave, I never thought there could be a difference as i thought it was all down to the presentation of the same blade and the user controls the angle, etc, no safety bar.
I am now very much looking forward to delivery of my Kai Captain as it may offer something different to my Feather RGs of the past and the Univinlions kamisori.
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I feel I should clarify myself a little. I'm not sure the result is yet impressive. I think perhaps you're referring to this:

wintoid said:
Probably the best shave I've had from a Feather razor.
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I have had far better shaves from an SE using Feather blades. This is just my best attempt with a shavette.

Also, the difference in shave is partly to do with me making a conscious decision to apply pressure, and just to be very very careful that it was lateral pressure, not direct pressure. I'm not sure that would even be possible with the DX, but it certainly felt like a completely different shave.

It's quite likely that I'll stick with the SS for a while, because there's definitely some exploring to be done now :) Not sure what's next, perhaps an unguarded blade in the SS.
 
UKRob

UKRob

Forum GOD!
The Gentleman said:
Some parts of my neck the beard grows from left to right, so ATG on those parts means that I shave from right to left and I haven't find an easy way to hold the Feather without anything, like the scales, is in the way. I'll figure it eventually :) Of course you're right about the sharpness of blades, but with DE-blades some blades works better than others, even though my technique is very good. I thought it would be the same with different blades in my Feather.
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Even with a DE it’s difficult to shave directly ATG on parts of the neck - but it’s possible with a straight razor to replicate pretty much what you do with a DE. I think we can all make ATG passes from south to north directly under the chin area but the difficulty starts when you move to the sides beneath the jaw. My method, using just my right hand, is to hold the razor with scales fully open (180 degrees) on the right jaw and then point the razor the other way round with scales slightly more open for the left jaw. Combined with skin stretching with my left hand, I find that this achieves the necessary ATG/XTG which with a bit of buffing gets as close as my SE razors.
 
The Gentleman

The Gentleman

Forum GOD!
UKRob said:
Even with a DE it’s difficult to shave directly ATG on parts of the neck - but it’s possible with a straight razor to replicate pretty much what you do with a DE. I think we can all make ATG passes from south to north directly under the chin area but the difficulty starts when you move to the sides beneath the jaw. My method, using just my right hand, is to hold the razor with scales fully open (180 degrees) on the right jaw and then point the razor the other way round with scales slightly more open for the left jaw. Combined with skin stretching with my left hand, I find that this achieves the necessary ATG/XTG which with a bit of buffing gets as close as my SE razors.
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I'll get there :)
 
The Gentleman

The Gentleman

Forum GOD!
Day 6 - Feather Artist Club SS with Feather ProGuard

Going back to work today, so just the first pass (WTG) with the Feather and used a DE for the rest of the shave. This was the best first pass so far. It almost felt as good as it use to do when using a DE. More efficient on the cheeks than Before and no problem "handling" the Feather on a WTG pass. I'll do the same tomorrow and then on saturday and sunday I'll skip the DE, when I have more time.
 
wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
Day 46 - Feather Artist Club SS with Schick Proline

It appears that I felt like I wanted to use other razors, but evidently I'm still overly intrigued by the Feather razors. I wonder if it's going to be like that with lockdown. Perhaps I will just want to stay at home, and indoors :)

I wanted to see what happened if I applied the lateral pressure from yesterday but using an unguarded blade. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. In fact it was relatively drama free.

I did three passes, WTG/XTG/WTG. By the way, in case anyone is interested, I have literally adopted my 1:3 hand position from almost the beginning, and every shave so far has been done with my fingers in that configuration (index finger, handle, three other fingers). It does occur to me that the lateral pressure might be easier to produce with a 2:2 finger configuration, but that's for another day.

I used a reasonable amount of pressure, all lateral, and got a very similar shave to yesterday. It really doesn't feel like you're shaving with a sharp implement when you press the side of the SS against your face. There are some patches that need attention, but the question is whether I should start learning the techniques for dealing with those patches using the SS, or go back to the DX and try to adopt some of what I've learned (very carefully).

Enjoyment. I'm shaving for enjoyment. The thing is, that lateral pressure thing somehow spoils the enjoyment of the shave. I'm going to contradict myself now by saying that the SS+pressure method also give a feeling of "digging in" to deal with the stubble, which is quite satisfying. I don't think I prefer it over the DX though at this point.

The other thing about enjoyment is that I really really enjoy the WTG pass. I almost never enjoy the XTG pass. When I go XTG, I do my neck first, which is OK, but as I reach the jawline and cheeks, I always have this feeling of slight dread. If that doesn't go, at some point reasonably soon, I will probably stop using this system eventually. I suppose my big hope was that the SS+pressure method might mean I could go WTG/WTG/WTG. So far I don't think that's the case.
 
wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
In case anyone is interested, the cut I received on day 5 is still faintly visible on my face. I'm 52 years old. I'm wondering whether it's going to be a permanent scar.
 
NeilJ

NeilJ

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I'm having a few days off from the Artist Club, I'm waiting for my wounds to heal, nearly there now. Used my Feather AS-D2 today and found that since using the AC my technique has also improved my DE shaves. I'm using a Feather- like touch, which although I know you should always use anyway I think with my DE I sometimes lapse. Also since using the AC I have found that I seem to know exactly which direction every part of my face's beard direction grows. The Schick Proline's came today so will restart my AC shaves on Monday.
 
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