Thread: Is it normal to have difficulties with Shavettes?

Yeah being that straight razors, especially shavettes, are more cheap than the gillettes and whatnot was the first reason why I started thinking along those lines in the first place. That and the possibility of waiting a week between the shaves and being able to shave right away with longer whiskers. It feels like the feather could run you up in costs quite quick, but I might be wrong?

I started off with a cheap as chips shavette that came with two packs of Supermax blades, the first two shaves were an exercise in bloodletting, but I developed the knack of shaving with it, when you consider that the 'razor' is comprised of bits of chrome plated tin, and the blades are of dubious quality it's amazing that the combination shaves at all, but it does, comfort however is another issue which is why I quickly moved on to 'proper' straight razors.

Yes, I see my shavette as an entry model just to see if this whole thing is something for me. If this is taking to my liking my plan is to move over to a classic razor and even look forward to it hearing about the problems people are mentioning about the shavette.

Yes, it's completely different. One is a straight razor and one is NOT. Shaving yourself with a Shavette is hard. You would be better served with a Parker disposable. They are rarely discussed but are hands, arms, and feet way better than shavettes, and more closely aligned to a traditional REAL straight razor.

Your only hope now is to try a duller DE blade in the Shavette and deal with the poor balance and design.

The only thing on the planet that is dramatically worse than a Shavette is a Feather. They are the only two options WORSE than glass shards. Not that I feel very opinionated on the subject or anything.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The only thing on the planet that is dramatically worse than a Shavette is a Feather. They are the only two options WORSE than glass shards. Not that I feel very opinionated on the subject or anything.

Do I understand you correctly when you say that a feather is WORSE than a shavette? This would stand against what all others here in the thread says? I am not second judging you, I just want to make sure I don't missunderstand anything in your language that I havn't picked up since I'm a swede and all

I think AFDavis11's bias against the Feather is in part because of the extreme sharpness of their blades. Their DE blades have a scary reputation among the safety razor crowd. I do agree with him about the Parker disposables. Although I haven't used a Dovo shavette, the Parkers are much less expensive and have a more secure blade holder. I started my journey to straights with a Parker, and it's my backup when my noob honing/stropping skills haven't produced a good edge on my "real" straight-which is fairly often so far!

Originally Posted by MotoX

Do I understand you correctly when you say that a feather is WORSE than a shavette? This would stand against what all others here in the thread says? I am not second judging you, I just want to make sure I don't missunderstand anything in your language that I havn't picked up since I'm a swede and all

You are correct. I do not like Feathers. They use proprietary blades instead of DE blades and produce too many nicks. I'm sure if I had more fortitude I could have learned how to use one. I developed a phenomenon referred to as skin thinning. This is where the Feather starts to remove part of your face due to using it a few days in a row. I can't imagine a more disturbing outcome from shaving.

I use the Feather and Kai exclusivvaly and they will give you a BBS shave if you take the TIME TO LEARN HOW TO USE THEM PROPERLY. Since the Kai or feather blades are inherintly sharper than you can get any straight edge,of course they will shave you closer

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

You are correct. I do not like Feathers. They use proprietary blades instead of DE blades and produce too many nicks. I'm sure if I had more fortitude I could have learned how to use one. I developed a phenomenon referred to as skin thinning. This is where the Feather starts to remove part of your face due to using it a few days in a row. I can't imagine a more disturbing outcome from shaving.

Hi,I am a new member here as well and started with a vintage straight when I was about 19(many years ago).I sharpened it on 1200 grit wet and dry and proceeded to butcher my face and gave up untill recently.

I purchased a shavette for $10 that came with 2 DSBlades and have never had a problem with fresh new blades-they glide like silk compared to my traditional straights.
Most of my problems with the traditional straights are due to my lack of honing ability but I am working on that and am getting a reasonable result now.
I just need to find someone who will tutor me.
Cheers John

You will cut yourself with a Dovo shavette only if you use slicing type motions. If you use too much pressure, you will get irritation. Note that the Dovo shavette blade holder has a nub at the tip which prevents the tip from digging in. I get the best results from the shavette when moving the blade perpendicular to its edge, and with ultralight pressure - esp around the contours of the face and ATG.