My First with a feather

[2hot 2trot]

Feather blade UPDATE:

I have had shave #3 with the feather blade.
In all honesty it went really well, nice and clean but I must say I am starting to feel a little "drag" with the blade.
As promised I will persevere with #4 tomorrow and see how I get on.
Wish me luck!

 

[2hot 2trot]

UPDATE:

Shave #4

Good evening all.
No more shaves with this blade. It is as simple as that.
I had a three pass shave this morning and despite the fact that It gave my a decent clean shave my neck feels like someone has set fire to it.
Both the left and right side of my neck are still burning and I shaved many hours ago.
I cannot believe how quickly a blade can deteriorate between shaves.
We are talking, three really enjoyable shaves. Numerically,

#1 10/10
#2 10/10
#3 9/10
#4 4/10

A low score indeed considering I just described how good my last shave was in terms of a clean shaven face but the underlying factor is that the deterioration between shave #3 and 4 is that dramatic it has changed my entire opinion on giving it the number one spot of choice.

I will never commit myself to a blade longevity test again. (The pain is not worth it! )

To conclude "Feather" blades gave me a shave I have never experienced in my short introduction to DE shaving.
It was great while it lasted but a compromise must be taken into consideration.
The rapid deterioration and the expense of this blade is, in my opinion, not one to consider to use on a daily basis but certainly one to use for those special occasions.
You will be definitely guaranteed an extremely close shave.
Astra SP,s are now the leading contender. (again.)

I apologise in advance for my newbie review but I have given what I hope to be an honest one as far as my experience so far is concerned.

Happy shaving everyone!

EDIT: P.S. Has anyone got a spare neck cause mine is still on fire.....

 

[PLANofMAN]

UPDATE:

Shave #4

Good evening all.
No more shaves with this blade. It is as simple as that.
I had a three pass shave this morning and despite the fact that It gave my a decent clean shave my neck feels like someone has set fire to it.
Both the left and right side of my neck are still burning and I shaved many hours ago.
I cannot believe how quickly a blade can deteriorate between shaves.
We are talking, three really enjoyable shaves. Numerically,

#1 10/10
#2 10/10
#3 9/10
#4 4/10

A low score indeed considering I just described how good my last shave was in terms of a clean shaven face but the underlying factor is that the deterioration between shave #3 and 4 is that dramatic it has changed my entire opinion on giving it the number one spot of choice.

I will never commit myself to a blade longevity test again. (The pain is not worth it! )

To conclude "Feather" blades gave me a shave I have never experienced in my short introduction to DE shaving.
It was great while it lasted but a compromise must be taken into consideration.
The rapid deterioration and the expense of this blade is, in my opinion, not one to consider to use on a daily basis but certainly one to use for those special occasions.
You will be definitely guaranteed an extremely close shave.
Astra SP,s are now the leading contender. (again.)

I apologise in advance for my newbie review but I have given what I hope to be an honest one as far as my experience so far is concerned.

Happy shaving everyone!

EDIT: P.S. Has anyone got a spare neck cause mine is still on fire.....

Most people get 2-3 shaves from a feather. I've gotten 7-10 two pass shaves with Feather's, but only in open comb razors that use a very shallow cutting angle, where the blade edge is almost perpendicular to the face. Say 15°, rather than the 30° (+ or - 3°) standard used by Gillette and Gillette inspired razors.

 

[chrisbd]

I held off using Feather DE blades for ages thanks to their fearsome reputation. When I eventually tried them I was frankly underwhelmed and never made a blade last beyond two shaves. Astra SP are my benchmark blade, although I also find Nacet and Perma-sharp very good.

Glad you're experience is better though.

Regards,
Chris

 

[2hot 2trot]

Most people get 2-3 shaves from a feather. I've gotten 7-10 two pass shaves with Feather's, but only in open comb razors that use a very shallow cutting angle, where the blade edge is almost perpendicular to the face. Say 15°, rather than the 30° (+ or - 3°) standard used by Gillette and Gillette inspired razors.

Are all Gillette razors developed with this angle, including todays designs?

 

[PLANofMAN]

Are all Gillette razors developed with this angle, including todays designs?

For the most part, all Gillette safety razors use a similar angle. It wasn't until the 1950's that Gillette really got serious about perfecting that angle and blade gap, which resulted in the light, medium, and heavy razors (what we now call blue tip and red tip razors). This in turn led to the adjustable razors.

As you can see from the picture, the angle changes as the razor (Gillette Slim Adjustable) is adjusted. The German instructions are the only ones that show this.

I would say that all non-adjustable Gillette razors from the 1960's onward all use the same angle. Since these were mass produced items, there will be slight variations from razor to razor, but not significantly so.

As for modern cartridges, I have no idea what angle they use. I know it's very close to 30°, but different. Maybe 28.5° or something like that. I used to know what it was, and I tried looking it up, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

 

[halvor]

very close to 30°, but different. Maybe 28.5° or something like that.

OneBlade folks claim the perfect angle to be 31.3. (But there are certainly additional factors at play in getting the most efficient AND smooth shave.)

 

[R181]

Generally I get 5-7 4 pass shaves from a Feather blade in either my Gillette Fat Boy @ 9 or my Wolfman OC with a 0.74 blade gap. I am thinking the shaving angle may have a lot to do with blade longevity. If your handle is lower than need be while shaving it is harder on the blade because you are scraping rather than cutting the whiskers off. It is also hard to maintain a constant angle on the blade while following your facial contours. The head on a DE does not pivot like a cart razor's head.

Combine that with too much pressure and you have a recipe for short blade life and good amounts of razor burn. That really seems to show up on the neck especially going ATG.

Learning to shave with a straight razor really underlined how important using and maintaining the proper angle combined with little to no weight on the blade was. That in turn greatly improved the shaves I got with a DE/SE.

Bob

 

[2hot 2trot]

For the most part, all Gillette safety razors use a similar angle. It wasn't until the 1950's that Gillette really got serious about perfecting that angle and blade gap, which resulted in the light, medium, and heavy razors (what we now call blue tip and red tip razors). This in turn led to the adjustable razors.

As you can see from the picture, the angle changes as the razor (Gillette Slim Adjustable) is adjusted. The German instructions are the only ones that show this.

I would say that all non-adjustable Gillette razors from the 1960's onward all use the same angle. Since these were mass produced items, there will be slight variations from razor to razor, but not significantly so.

As for modern cartridges, I have no idea what angle they use. I know it's very close to 30°, but different. Maybe 28.5° or something like that. I used to know what it was, and I tried looking it up, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

Thank you @PLANofMAN for taking the time on such an informative post.

 

[Slant_Fan]

I toss most blades after shave # 3. I could probably get one or two more, but why bother when there are so many great blades, and I order by the 100. I must have a thousand various blades all told in the closet.

 

[R181]

I use the same criteria for tossing a DE/SE blade as I do for when I need to touch up a straight razor blade on a finishing home. That is when a blade starts tugging I toss it in the case of a DE/SE blade or touch it up on a finishing hone if it is a straight razor. OTH you can toss a DE/SE blade after a single use if you want.

Bob

 

[Dr Watson]

Generally I get 5-7 4 pass shaves from a Feather blade in either my Gillette Fat Boy @ 9 or my Wolfman OC with a 0.74 blade gap. I am thinking the shaving angle may have a lot to do with blade longevity. If your handle is lower than need be while shaving it is harder on the blade because you are scraping rather than cutting the whiskers off. It is also hard to maintain a constant angle on the blade while following your facial contours. The head on a DE does not pivot like a cart razor's head.

Combine that with too much pressure and you have a recipe for short blade life and good amounts of razor burn. That really seems to show up on the neck especially going ATG.

Learning to shave with a straight razor really underlined how important using and maintaining the proper angle combined with little to no weight on the blade was. That in turn greatly improved the shaves I got with a DE/SE.

Bob

Couldn't agree more Bob. I first tried feather blades early in my shaving career using an R89, each blade would be blunt half way through its second shave and the irritation I suffered on my neck was hideous! That put me off the brand for a long time, now I've got a Feather AS-D2 which requires a very different angle there is zero irritation, 5 shaves on the same feather blade and its still sharp... Happy days.

 

[R181]

Couldn't agree more Bob. I first tried feather blades early in my shaving career using an R89, each blade would be blunt half way through its second shave and the irritation I suffered on my neck was hideous! That put me off the brand for a long time, now I've got a Feather AS-D2 which requires a very different angle there is zero irritation, 5 shaves on the same feather blade and its still sharp... Happy days.

I think too that if you start off on a relatively mild DE that has minimal blade exposure and blade gap making it forgiving/less critical of the angle used you get lulled into a sense of false security. I mean into thinking all DEs work the same way while some only work well in a very narrow range of angles.

Bob

 

[Macanbhaird]

Couldn't agree more Bob. I first tried feather blades early in my shaving career using an R89, each blade would be blunt half way through its second shave and the irritation I suffered on my neck was hideous! That put me off the brand for a long time, now I've got a Feather AS-D2 which requires a very different angle there is zero irritation, 5 shaves on the same feather blade and its still sharp... Happy days.

I would second this. Can't quite get up to 5 shaves but that razor/blade combination seems to be a match made in heaven for my face.

 

[Macanbhaird]

Another thought about the Feather blade. The rare times that I do cut my face with one, the cuts are like paper cuts - very fine, do not bleed but they sting like hell with Alum or application of any balm or cologne. It might be that the overall blade thickness is the same as other blades but the edge (the sharp bit) they get on it is a tad finer. And could explain why they blunt more quickly.