Thread: I put the feather in the drawer

How much are blades for these Feathers and can they be honed and stropped? Thinking about it though I suppose that they can be honed Lynn has said that he could hone a bayonnet so that it could shave. LOL LOL I seriously doubt that that is what they were bought for but was just curious.

You know curious minds bla bla bla

The cost is roughly 50 cents per blade. They cannot be stropped. The angle of the spine in relation to the edge doesn't lend itself to stropping. The blades give about 10 great shaves. Since I alternate between 5 other str8's, they last me forever.


-Rob

Like the other guys said... they aren't cheaply made. The feather is a quality instrument and I got about 2 weeks off each blade. The first shave or two on a new blade is... interesting... and until it dulls just a little bit it is indeed scary sharp. Shaving with one sort of requires a zen level of concentration and if your mind wanders you're liable to lose an interesting part of your face.

I won't be trading it off until I've convinced myself I can keep a str8 properly shave ready, though.

-- Gary F.

Originally Posted by Joe Chandler

So you ready to swap that Feather, Gary?

Ok Joe, I think I might be ready. I have the Feather Artist Club RG Special (the wood handled one): http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...646/795329.htm

and about 17 or so of the feather blades (the professional, not the professional super or the guard ones). I'll throw in the plastic "blade safe" for good measure but I don't have the original feather box anymore

What have you got for trading stock? PM me or email me and we'll work something out to get this feather out of my drawer and into yours.

After the shave I had this morning, I don't think I'm going back to the feather... I was going to wait and see if I could keep my blades shave-ready first but I changed my mind. I'll get honing down if it kills me or I'll just send the damn things out every six months until I *do* get it down.

-- Gary F.

I don't want to rain on Joe's parade, but you might want to give the Super Pro blades a chance before you trade the razor away. I've only used the Super Pro's, but all the advice I've seen says that this is a very different razor when you use these blades.

Scott, I've only used the pro blades. My rationale is that the super pros are probably much less forgiving than the already dangerously unforgiving pros. Do the super pros perform that much differently?

-Rob

Too late, I dropped the feather in the mail yesterday.

I was under the impression that the super pro blades were even sharper than the pro blades? If that's the case it's no longer a razor, it's a scalpel!

-- Gary F.

Originally Posted by robertlampo

Scott, I've only used the pro blades. My rationale is that the super pros are probably much less forgiving than the already dangerously unforgiving pros. Do the super pros perform that much differently?

-Rob

I've never used anything but the super pros, so I can only tell you what I've read. Most opinions I've seen are similar to This Post

I don't know about relative sharpness, but people say you get more feedback with the thicker blade-- the Pro Super. I find the Super Pro blade very sharp for the first shave or two (two passes each), and then it mellows nicely for the next ten shaves or so. Reports on the life of the pro blade say they don't last nearly so long.

I haven't used a traditional straight, but I think the feather might be easier to migrate to from a DE, where you need to be very concerned about blade pressure, than from a traditional straight.

Terms like "better" or "worse" are all relative, but I know I can get a very close and comfortable shave out of the feather AC with Pro Super blades, without having to worry about blade maintenance or my skill with strop and hone. If I screw up a blade on the sink tap or something, It takes seconds to change, no harm done. Can I get the same shave with a traditional straight?? Well, maybe I can get an even better shave-- if I buy one shave ready and learn to use it. Then I'd probably have some worse shaves until my honing skill came up to snuff, and I'd be stropping every shave. If the shave ceremony at this level is personally gratifying, then a traditional straight is probably the only thing that will fulfill you.