My First Ever Shave With a Feather...!

Rico

Rico

Messages
23
Location
Kent, England.
Well I've been DE shaving for years, but always with a Merkur blade and with the
amount of new blades available to the UK in recent years I thought I'd finally try
something new. So I bought the popular sample pack from Connaughts and out of
the ten packs I decided I would try the Marmite of Blades, the Feather, first.

Well, my first ever shave with a Feather was completely and utterly... Uneventful.
After reading for years on how sharp this blade was I was really surprised on just
how ordinary it was. It wasn't very smooth, but did a great job. I did my usual three
passes and a touch up. A tiny sting with the Alum, no cuts, nicks or weepers and no
irritation at all. Just a great BBS shave. Lovely. So far I like it, I will try it for another
shave in a couple of days.

Actually one weird thing did happen.... the razor felt a bit tuggy on one side and not
on the other. The blade was perfectly installed, I did check. This is the first time I have
felt this with my Merkur 34c HD after hundreds and hundreds of shaves with it over
the years. It didn't affect the quality of the shave at all, so I don't know what that was
about, but weird none the less. Anyway thats it for now....

Cheers.
 
I do find that feathers are sharp, but they're not as scary as they're often accused of being.
They seem smooth enough to me, but they're really expensive comparitively speaking and that's the main reason I've never bough stacks.

As Ian says it'll be interesting to see what you think after a few shaves, I used to get a bit of irritation on the neck but it seems to have gone away now and I'm happy to use them.
 
Second shave with the same Feather last night and it was pretty much
the same as with the first. Although after my three passes, my touch up
pass was more like a fourth. I felt a little more stinging than usual using
the Alum, but still no irritation. My early thoughts are that this blade is
sharp but goes off very quickly, I will try the same blade again tomorrow
night and see how it does.

I also still had the slightly tuggy sensation from one side of the razor but
not the other, and after the first shave I did flip the blade to see if that
would help... very weird. :dodgy:

Lastly, just a public thank you to Chris Bell who very kindly sent me a
couple of green 7 o'clocks, Polsilver's and a Perma Sharp to try. I'm
looking forward to trying them. Cheers.
 
I use Feathers most days and although probably the sharpest , also find that two shaves is all I get before they become a bit dull and tuggy. With Lord, 7 O'clock and Wilkies Platinum, although not as sharp as the Feathers, I can get three shaves before they go off.
 
Just an update.... Shave three went really well. It was actually the best shave of them
all. I did take the blade out and reinstall it, making sure it was dead centred. The
blade gap on my Merkur is even on both sides, but I did notice after extreme
examination that the Feather blade can stick out more on one side. It's only probably
by a tenth of a mm, but enough to feel different from one side of the razor to the
other. Anyway, after my careful reinstall the blade felt the same both sides and was
really good. It's weird that this is the only blade I've used that needed such a
careful install for it to feel the same on both sides.

Shave four.... It went ok, got me nice and smooth but it didn't feel that nice. It was just
a bit rough. I'm guessing it was going blunt so the blade has definitely had it's day.
So all in all 3 great shaves and one ok one, but the uneven feeling from one side of
the razor to the other unless you use a surgical amount of attention to install it, has
put me off just a little bit. I still have 9 Feathers left so I'll get to try them again.
Maybe it was just this blade.

So, out of the rest of the Connaughts popular pack and the blades that two very
kindly members sent me, I'm going to try the Astra next.... Seems to be always
on peoples top 3 so I'm looking forward to this one... Watch this space.. :icon_wink:
 
The reason that I made the 3-5 shaves comment is that, in the past, I have judged and commented on blades after 1 shave, but found that after 3-5 consecutive shaves things were not so good!

Ian
 
IanM said:
The reason that I made the 3-5 shaves comment is that, in the past, I have judged and
commented on blades after 1 shave, but found that after 3-5 consecutive shaves things were not so good!
Click to expand...

That makes allot of sense. I'm happy to report that after 4 consecutive shaves my
impression of the Feather is the same as after the first one. No fuss, no drama, just
an excellent and comfortable shave. If I had to nit pick one thing I would say it
didn't feel as smooth as I would have hoped, but the results were great so I would
be happy to use it again.

Cheers.
 
Greetings

I am in the same camp as Fido with these blades they are just too sharp for me and as a result leave my face feeling tender.

I have never had a problem with nicks or weepers simply tenderness. I have tried them in every DE Razor I own, including a couple of Techs which are known for their gentle shave characteristics but the result is always the same, a tender if not sore face that lasts several hours. I have now given up with them as simply just not for me, isn't it so strange but interesting how hugely different we find the same blade.

The next blade on your sample list (Astra) I find one of the smoothest and kindest and one of my favourites ,you may not find it quite sharp enough after the Feather!

Regards
Dick
 
Norfolkdick said:
The next blade on your sample list (Astra) I find one of the smoothest and kindest and one of my favourites ,you may not find it quite sharp enough after the Feather!

Regards
Dick
Click to expand...

To be honest with you Dick, the best shave I ever had was with a Derby blade and
they seem to be on allot of peoples bottom three. I don't know if I just had a weird
Feather blade or not as it's only the first one I used, but it didn't feel massively sharp,
or smooth, However the results were great so I don't know what to make of it really.
I would be happy to use them again though as I can't argue with the result.

The alum block, for me, gives me a very good and clear indication on how well a
shave went, and the Feather was just a teeny bit more stingy than the Derby. But as
I have only used a couple of Derby's and just one Feather so far in my blade
experiment, it will be quite a while before I can make any definite conclusions. I am,
however, really looking forward to the Astra.

It would seem that nearly 10 years of using the Merkur blades has set the bar
pretty low on what I can expect with all these new ones... :cool:
 
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