Shave angle is the usual culprit. The spine should be practically dragging on the skin. Keep the pressure light. Short strokes. Begin the motion with the razor above the face and swoop in as if you were making a touch and go landing. Scoop up some lather and fly off again. Make another stab at it. Scoop up some more lather. Shave the lather, not the whiskers, and the whiskers will come. Don't try to get a close shave. Try only to survive unscathed. Closeness will come, in time.

You are trying to shave with an extremely sharp edge. It is not often that you will encounter an actual straight razor as sharp as your shavette. Maybe never. It is a cruel teacher and your failed lessons are punished by making your face look like that of a professional wildcat sorter. Nevertheless, you can learn to shave with it. The worst part is probably over. And when you have mastered the Feather, a proper straight razor will be as tame as a puppy. So stick with it. Lower your shave angle. Touch and go strokes. Watch out for the ends of the blade. Those corners can be vicious if you are not used to them being there.

When I lived on my boat, I had no mirror at all for a couple of years. I shaved mostly with straights but also sometimes with a shavette or a DE or a wedge blade hoe handle or Schick injector or whatever. Being able to see your face is not an absolute necessity. You know where your face is, after all. And the razor is in your hand, so you know where that is. Bring them together and bobs yer uncle.

You can turn down the sharpness a bit by corking the blade. Simply slice into a wine cork with it, one slice, the full length of the blade. Well, that horse has bolted. After several shaves already, the blade should have lost much of its sharpness. Next time...

Figure out what part of the blade is cutting you. If it is the corners, that is easily remedied by dulling jsut the corners on a coarse hone or even a brick or fine sandpaper. Never use a slicing stroke with a shavette until you are quite competent in its use.

There are other brands and styles of blade that fit your shavette, that are not as sharp, if you wish to continue with a milder blade. You could also switch to a half DE type shavette, and load it with Derby or similar blades. I prefer the Feather DE blades, myself.

With a regular straight razor I generally suggest not using any sort of training wheels such as finishing up with a DE razor, but in this case, maybe you should just do the easy parts of your face for a week or two and then finish with your DE or cart or whatever. Gradually work more of your face into your shavette shave.

You could of course ditch the shavette and upgrade to a straight razor, but you are already part of the way to shavette success. May as well see it through, and become competent with it, before the almost inevitable upgrade.

The Feather DX is a very good system and has a lot of fans. Nothing wrong with the design. Be sure you are mounting the blade correctly, though I think it is pretty hard to do it wrong. Hang in there. You have paid your entry fee in blood. Stick around and get your moneys worth.