Thread: Feathers are weird

I find nothing weird about Feather blades.

Many razor blades come with a protective coating that wears off after the first shave and some brands only reach their best performance with the second or third shave.

This is most noticeable on Feather AC blades for the Feather replaceable blade straight razor, but safety razor blades behave similarly but maybe less noticeably so.

I get a week’s worth of excellent shaves from Feather blades, but found that they reward a light touch and respond well to some basic pre-shave routine to moisten and soften the skin before the shave.


B

Originally Posted by beluga

I find nothing weird about Feather blades.

Many razor blades come with a protective coating that wears off after the first shave and some brands only reach their best performance with the second or third shave.

This is most noticeable on Feather AC blades for the Feather replaceable blade straight razor, but safety razor blades behave similarly but maybe less noticeably so.

I get a week’s worth of excellent shaves from Feather blades, but found that they reward a light touch and respond well to some basic pre-shave routine to moisten and soften the skin before the shave.


B

I agree with you that most DE blades have a coating that wear off such that the blade becomes sharper after the first shave, providing their best performance on the 2-3 shaves. In my experience, the Personna Lab Blues are the "poster child" for this aspect. I find these Personna blades to be rather dull with my tough beard on the first shave, but the 2nd and 3rd shaves are great.

I do not see this with the Feather Hi-Stainless blades. Even though they are platinum coated, for my beard and face, the 1st shave is the best. The 2nd shave is not quite as sharp and I cannot even make it through the 3rd shave before the blades have deteriorated to the point they no longer work for me. I realize that my beard is tougher than most and my skin is more sensitive than most, but Feather blades are the only ones that give me a great 1st shave, but cannot last through the 3rd shave. Thus, I agree with the OP that Feather blades are "weird" unlike most other blades.

There are blades that

Modern DE blades no matter the manufacturer are cheaply made thin blades without an real finishing to them. The coatings are what makes the blade do their job. Once the coating starts to wear off you have a junk edge basically.

Look at the old Gillette blue blades. They were far better quality then what is made these days and they had no coatings on them. They relied on quality workmanship to do their job. Of course they rusted and were designed for very limited use.

Just throwing my limited experience opinion in here...

I just started using a DE (40s era Gillette Super Speed) after using a straight for about a year and bought a 7 blade sample pack. I was using the DE for touch ups for some areas I'm not great at with my straights. I started with a Kai 5 blade and used one for about 6 touch ups and decided to do a full shave with it...not the best, felt like it was already dull. I recently put a feather yellow in and have four touch ups and 5 full shaves on it. I had read they could be harsh for the first few shaves so I used as little pressure as I could and was quite pleased. I have officially dumped all of my cart razor stuff and haven't touched my electric since. I've still got five blades to try, but so far I'm really pleased with these feathers and will be continuing with the DE for my daily workday shaves (still going to enjoy the straight on the weekend).

Wait...you're not this guy are you?



Aaaahhhh... sometimes I just crack myself up.