Thread: Feather Razor blades and Weber

After three years of using a DE, I finally bought some Feather razor blades. I put one in my Weber Razor (Bulldog handle, polished head) and am glad I did. I'm not sure but Feather razor blades may be thicker than other blades I've tried (Derby, Astra). I say this because I've always gotten a lot of noise from previous blades in this razor, now that I'm using a Feather in it, I hear almost nothing, the blade seems more rigid (less movement in the head). I'm not getting the noise I was from the other blades. At any rate this has been an improvement to the Weber's preformance in my book. Can't wait to try these blades in other DE's I have.

I do not think Feathers are thicker. The reason is I use them in my Merkur Progress and loaded in that they tighten down to the same place as most other blades. The way Progress works is if the blade is thicker the fully tightened head would indicate a slightly different setting on the adjustment knob. It's hard to describe, but easy to understand once seen. Anyway, I think the lack on noise is more due to the fact that the Feather is so much sharper than most other blades, especially Derby and to a lesser degree Astra. There is simply less vibration because the hair gets cut more efficiently. That's my take on it, anyway. Feather blades are the sharpest DE blades out there. Derby are some of the least sharp. Astras are good middle road blades.

The Feathers seem thicker and more secure in the holder because the whiskers are having less of an affect on them. Because the Feathers are so much thicker, the impact of the blade striking the whisker is minimized because the blade goes right through the whisker and thus less shock is transmitted into the holder.

You could be right, can't argue that. The three blades mentioned I would agree with you on that too, from experience. I'm going to mic the blades to see if there is a difference in thickness. Not that I don't believe you, but I also would think a thicker blade would add some rigidity to the blade, on top of being sharp, would perform better , then just being sharp alone.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

You could be right, can't argue that. The three blades mentioned I would agree with you on that too, from experience. I'm going to mic the blades to see if there is a difference in thickness. Not that I don't believe you, but I also would think a thicker blade would add some rigidity to the blade, on top of being sharp, would perform better , then just being sharp alone.

Great, I would be very interested in the measurement. If you can, measure several Feathers stacked together vs. the same number of other blades stacked together. If there is a very small difference stacking the blades should make it easier to measure. what I said about loading Feathers in the Progress also applies. The way adjustments work on the Progress is by clamping the blade between the top plate and the spring loaded bottom plate and turning the knob that threads into the top plate. This in effect is a caliper. If you have no blade between the top plate and the bottom plate and tighten down the razor fully you would get slightly more movement on the knob, which is indexed. With the blade the index moves a bit. It is not terribly precise, so miccing is certainly better. Let us know. If there is a difference in thickness I don't expect it to be big, but in DE shaving little goes a long way. Different razor heads also make different sounds, so it's not just thickness, but also head geometry, which in your case is constant. I am still betting it's mostly the sharpness, but could be thickness also. Waiting to hear your results...

Reporting back on my finding's. I measured 2 Derby's,2 Astra's, and 4 Feathers.
Derby: .004"
Astra: .0045"
Feather: .004"
all measured the same basically, I measured more Feathers due to my first reading of .006", then .005" and .004" for the last two. We have to factor error on my part.

So I'm going to go with they're all the same, except for sharpness.

I would have stacked them like you said but, I would have had to unwrap them all, making it "pita".
I will try to remember to save my used blades and measure a stack of 5 each to compare again.
Of course the results were not what I expected, so superior sharpness with the Feather cuts instead of push/pull then cut like the others. Good enough for me!

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

Reporting back on my finding's. I measured 2 Derby's,2 Astra's, and 4 Feathers.
Derby: .004"
Astra: .0045"
Feather: .004"
all measured the same basically, I measured more Feathers due to my first reading of .006", then .005" and .004" for the last two. We have to factor error on my part.

So I'm going to go with they're all the same, except for sharpness.

I would have stacked them like you said but, I would have had to unwrap them all, making it "pita".
I will try to remember to save my used blades and measure a stack of 5 each to compare again.
Of course the results were not what I expected, so superior sharpness with the Feather cuts instead of push/pull then cut like the others. Good enough for me!

Useful info! Thanks for doing it. Yes, if you stack more than 1 then the variance is less of a factor. However, I reckon that with today's precision tooling there isn't much variance there. Amazingly thin, that steel!

Agreed! I watched a show last year about DE razor blades being made and it's an amazingly high speed process, probably seen it on "How it's made". Just found it on Youtube...........How Its Made - Double Edge Razor Blades - YouTube