just wondering what a feather is.

i've heard them referred to, but never seen a picture of one.
and, yes, bill, gary, and co., i've tried using the search function. :) no luck there. are they like shavettes? if so, what is the difference? people talk about the shavette liike it's a red-headed stepchild and the feather is prince william. some people even use a different font and text color when writing the word. what can i say? i'm intrigued, but if people start to genuflect when the word feather is spoken i'm quitting this forum. :shrug:

A Feather is properly known as the Feather Artists Club razor. It's one of these. It is usually fed with some of these, though it can be fed with these, depending on your courage level.

The blades are *extremely* sharp. If you've ever experienced a wire edge, Feathers are that level of sharp, only they aren't a wire edge. The super-pro blades are good for about two weeks of shaving, after about a week they're still about as sharp as a honemeister blade, the second week they're about like a straight razor level of sharp. They do not need stropping, nor can they be usefully stropped (the razor holder thingy doesn't have the geometry for it).

Some people swear by them, some swear at them. Some experienced SRP'ers around here actually use them in preference to traditional straights. I've got one and gave it the old college try but never mastered that level of sharp. I still shave with it occasionally, but mostly I keep it around for touch-ups if I find I missed a spot, and because it's just a seriously impressive razor.

awesome. i was very confused. thanks for the info. i've been all over the classicshaving site but i guess i missed those links, so Bill's probably going to yell at me again.
:ziplip:

:fim: .............

how would you go about shaving with these?

are they sharper than de's?

are these the sharpest shaving tools out there?

and why are they so expensive?

Kind of like a straight, only more carefully

No (Feather also makes DE blades if you want this kind of sharpness in your DE)

AFAIK

Lack of economy of scale - Feather doesn't make many of them, and Japanese quality isn't cheap. The blades aren't expensive at all.

I might just pick one up. The razor isn't as appealing to me ever since I watched lynns video on how to shave with a straight. It just seems better to shave that way.

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Originally Posted by randomtw

how would you go about shaving with these?

are they sharper than de's?

are these the sharpest shaving tools out there?

and why are they so expensive?

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Feathers are really just the blades. The company makes various types of str8 blades and DE blades. The most popular str8 is the Artist Club.

Until you get some experience I wouldn't shave with any of them. But once you've learned, try it. There is nothing sharper, if you like sharpness. And both types are that sharp, so you can get super close shaves with a DE.

I shave mostly with str8s, but I have an AC and several DEs with Feather blades in my regular rotation, and I find that Feather blades give the closest shave. But you have to learn how to use the sharpness. It requires an extra light touch`

Yeah, that is great advice. Sharpest thing I have ever experienced, I have had a few from Lynn that would shave like a Feather, but I can't come close to either so that's why I use it. lol!

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Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

Until you get some experience I wouldn't shave with any of them. But once you've learned, try it. There is nothing sharper, if you like sharpness. And both types are that sharp, so you can get super close shaves with a DE.

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I went from a DE right to a Feather AC, without ever trying the traditional straight approach. I'v read posts from at least two people who have a long experience with straights that said if they had started with the Feather AC, they might never have went the traditional route.

Other with long experience with straights just hate the Feather.

I think that before somebody tries a Feather, it might pay to get some experience with a DE first. The no-pressure technique is more similar to a DE, I think. I learned this the hard way. Over the life span of a Feather blade, I tended to use more pressure as the blade got duller. If you're not careful when you change blades to adjust your technique back to super-sharp mode, you're in for a surprise. I think this might be why so many with years of straight experience hate the Feather.

It does have certain advantages, though. The other day, I nicked a 2-shave old blade on my tap, popped in a brand-spanking new 50 cent blade, and finished my shave.

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Originally Posted by ScottS

I went from a DE right to a Feather AC, without ever trying the traditional straight approach. I'v read posts from at least two people who have a long experience with straights that said if they had started with the Feather AC, they might never have went the traditional route.

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THat's probably what would have happened to me, because I was a long time DE shaver. I would have missed a lot.

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Other with long experience with straights just hate the Feather.

I think that before somebody tries a Feather, it might pay to get some experience with a DE first. The no-pressure technique is more similar to a DE, I think. I learned this the hard way. Over the life span of a Feather blade, I tended to use more pressure as the blade got duller. If you're not careful when you change blades to adjust your technique back to super-sharp mode, you're in for a surprise. I think this might be why so many with years of straight experience hate the Feather.

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I think you hit the nail on the head. They tend to have the same problem going from a str8 to a DE, because they nick themselves. This is the reason. In fact, when I go to a Feather after using regular str8s for a while, I'm likely to nick myself at the beginnig of the shave if I don't pay close attention to adjusting my technique.

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It does have certain advantages, though. The other day, I nicked a 2-shave old blade on my tap, popped in a brand-spanking new 50 cent blade, and finished my shave.

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Not everyone wants or needs that sharpness. They have learned to shave effectively without. Straight shavers did it for centuries.