What's better than a feather?

I appreciate the quick responses I received last Friday and thank everyone for their help. I went home, contacted classicshaving.com one last time then took the plunge. I must admit it was much easier than I'd expected. Didn't do too much damage to myself! But the weight does feel a little off. The shave was pretty nice but I saw a couple replies about the feather being a waste of money. Is there something better? I like not having to sharpen it.

I've got one myself and I wouldn't call it a waste of money. If it gives you good shaves then enjoy it.

Never used a Feather but I hear it's harsh on skin. This is enough for me to not even want to try.

So - better for me would be a normal high quality straight razor - exactly because sharpness and smoothness can be adjusted / fine-tuned to one's individual taste.

If you don't want to hone - you can get it honed by honemeisters. You will like their edges but will not have the flexibility to use this or that hone, various approaches, etc. to fine-tune the edge to your personal liking.

Good luck!
Ivo

The Feather is a good buy. You'll probably want to move into a "real" straight at some point, but the disposable lets you focus on learning technique without worrying about honing and stropping. It eliminates a variable: You KNOW the blade is sharp, so if it's not working, there's something else wrong.

It is a bit harsh; you have to really pay attention or you'll end up with razor burn.

It'll make a good travel razor, if you fall prey to razor lust, which is inevitable :)

Josh

When I pick up my Feather and get a smooth, close shave with no honing or sharpening, I swear I'll never use anything else. Another time, after shaving with a traditional straight I've nursed to appropriate sharpness and loving the results, I swear the Feather has got to go. If I never solve the dilemma of which is better, that's fine with me.

I don't think one is better than the other. Its a matter of what you personally like. There is a tradeoff of convenience vs the straight experience.

Aw shucks, Josh got here first. I was going to post his hame to see how fast he got here again...;)
I don't think that the feather is a waste of money at all. It mearly a matter of preference. I was planning on getting a feather to learn on the pro gaurd blades at one tiime.
Ignore the comments about the feather being a waste of money. There is NO better razor with disposible blades. Some people find a proper staight to be a gentler, more forgiving shave, but once again, it's all preference.

FWIW, the complaints I have seen about the feather are the "aggressiveness" andsome can be alieviated with the pro-guard blades. Schick alsomakes a Pro razor (search my posts or the razor forum) which is very similar looking to the feather. There has been no positive confirmation about the blades interchanging or the possibility of them being a little "tamer", but it's worth some investigation.

I read not too long a suggestion from one of the members here that it helps to run a new blade over a wine cork a few times to take the bite out of the blade.

I have doing that the last couple of months and it really helps tremendously. No more unexplained nicks.

You can get a Persona hair shaper at many beauty supply places. It takes a Persona style disposable blade (the single edge ones that are longer and thinner than the old Gem style). There is a little metal comb/guard thingy that slides right off so that you can shave your face with it. Ive been thinking about buying one of these for traveling with, or loaning to friends as an intro to str8 shaving.

Here's one here. They certainly aren't expensive.

They shave as well as the blade that you put in 'em. I've never used a shavette or a feather, but I did pick up one of those disposable ones that takes half of a DE. It shaved OK, a bit harsh, though. Sounds like you're feeling the same thing with the feather? The cork suggestion sounds like it may help, or maybe even stropping it might give some relief.

Edit: The nice folks at Classicshaving.com have something identical from Fromm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Justme-

Schick also makes a Pro razor (search my posts or the razor forum) which is very similar looking to the feather. There has been no positive confirmation about the blades interchanging or the possibility of them being a little "tamer", but it's worth some investigation.

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I've used the Schick Proline blades in my Feather. They fit just fine. Are they tamer? Well, maybe a little.

If you already have a Feather OR a DE blade razor don't bother with the Fromm, Personna, Weck, ..... If you thought the DE was harsh... Well, let's just say you won't like it.
I have only shaved straight with my Weck. It works.... and a brandy new blade works pretty smooth, after useing a blade with one or two shaves on it, but it's harsh. I had toughened my face to handle a WTG pass from it, but there is pulling. I questioned it and was replied to that the shaper blades were in fact not as sharp as a DE as they really didn't need to be- they're not for shaving.

Stick with the DE Straight or the Feather. I just received my strop before I left last week and got to play a little- stropping the weck had little improvement, but stropping an Ebay Straight I had been playing with on the hone got it passing the HHT (which the Weck would not) and shaved much smoother on my arm.

As they say, I'm not an expert (actually I only have 8 or 10 Straight shaves under my belt), that's only my Newbie experiances...