Quote Originally Posted by Double0757 View Post
Like you, 6 month into my straight razor shaving I got a feather for my son and shortly after, one for myself. At the time I was getting into honing and when I had frustration on a razor, I would go to the feather to remind me how good it can be and calm my face a bit. I had always kept pro hones blade with me and it was a razor honed on an Escher that made me want to pursue that sharp and smooth shave I had with it.

Now, I do get better shaves out of a good number of my blades than I do with the feather. When a razor hits (sharpness and smoothness come together) it is better than any feather or KAI captain blade I've tried. Yes, I have to go beyond the 8k to achieve this! Now, after I finish a razor on the 8k, I go to the 16k Shapton glass for eassy sharpness, and then, to an Escher, Gokumyö 20k or Zulu with Escher slury to achieve better sharpness and smoothness than the Feather blade. IMHO, the Feather blade is a contender for a two pass razor (that's how I define the sharpest razors I have). My shaves with straight are closer than the feather for the most part,some are about the same, while others could be less sharp and smooth than the feather (those are the blades I'm trying to tweak).

My travel razor is now the feather razor. I enjoy using it but honing is where my heart is at, at this time. I've been getting some amazing shaves with the Gokumyö follow by some CBN pasted strop progression ( .25 and .1). It's silly money on hones and paste, but that's what I enjoy, the experimenting!

I'm going to say, that you can achieve a BBS shave out of the 8k with little to no irritation, but it's going to require good honing and then, more passes and advance shaving technics, like scything motion and perfect angle, to get it (for me at least). I don't stop on the 8k and shave any more, like I used too (to see if the edge was shave ready). I now have markers that I use ( TPT, leg/arm hair test) to know if its ready to move to the finer polishers.

I started my son and a co-worker on straight razor shaving with a feather. No stropping, good edge and easy maintenance. Now they have moved to full straight, and they have their feather to fall back, when the edge is not there. Double O
Sorry, for the long winded post, I was writing about the Feather artist club straight razor. I have shaved with DE feather and they are sharp, but not as smooth as the feather artist club family blade. I prefer the smoothness of a straight than DE feather shave any day! Double O