Thread: Feather artisan versus dovo 5/8 straight

Hi all,

I learned straight razor shaving with a feather artisan. You can get close but the blade can be fairly unforgiving with one wrong move. I also found the shave slightly irritating to my skin.

I recently purchased a nice dovo steel unit from classic shaving. The blade is much lighter than the feather which gives better control. It is a lot less lethal than the feather. I am getting better with it every use.

Have others found the same experience?

Glenn

By feather artisan do you mean a feather razor with replaceable blades like the RG, SS, DX? Or is it a DE?

As much as I love my straights the Feather gives the best shaves of all my razors, it just requires that you use NO pressure whatsoever when shaving. Since you had some skin irritation I think you might have used some.

I have a Feather Artist Club RG and use it with the Feather ProGuard blades. Straights tend to be my daily razors (DE if I'm short on time). I agree with you that the Feather can be somewhat unforgiving, but I think Snuff nailed the difference. At least in my experience, the Feather requires the lightest of touch to avoid nicks and irritation. My belief is that the Feather actually improved my technique with straights, teaching me to use a lighter touch there, too. Others may disagree, but I think the Feather is a great razor and can provide a great shave. Its just a different shaving experience than a straight for me. Enjoy both and give the Feather a try with super-light pressure and see if your irritation problem doesn't improve. Or, you might try a different blade. I love the Feather blades and they are my "go to" DE blade, too.

I am thinking of investing in the Artist Club Feather straights. Has anyone compared the light, professional, and super blades? The advice I received was the pro blades would do eighty percent of beards. Then the lights and supers were for beards on either end of the spectrum respectively. I will be using these professionally and I try not to experiment too much on others, well mostly anyway. I use the Feather DE blades and the quality is obvious.

Thanks,

Clay

I think a lot of people would agree that the straight razor is definitely more forgiving than the feather disposable. This has been my experience as well. For the life of me I can never shave with my Feather and not get a nick on a scar under my chin and that never happens with a regular straight razor. They are fun though and the Pro blades actually feel more like my straight razor's blades than the others.

Originally Posted by Lynn

I think a lot of people would agree that the straight razor is definitely more forgiving than the feather disposable. This has been my experience as well. For the life of me I can never shave with my Feather and not get a nick on a scar under my chin and that never happens with a regular straight razor. They are fun though and the Pro blades actually feel more like my straight razor's blades than the others.

Good point, Lynn. Though I've never used a shavette/Feather/disposable straight, I have a scar under my chin as well, and have yet to nick it or cut it in any way with any of my straight razors. I can't explain it - how a sharp blade effortlessly slices off whiskers yet glides over a decades old scar is beyond me....

I have found fewer nicks with the dovo straight compared to a DE razor/feather blade combination. I am getting better with the feather, though most sessions have at least a small nick.


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I purchased the Feather DX SS and find it wonderful to shave with. It does require using no pressure, but no pressure is required anyway. It may not be as much fun as a regular straight, but it is definitely a very functional razor used properly.

Originally Posted by Lynn

I think a lot of people would agree that the straight razor is definitely more forgiving than the feather disposable. This has been my experience as well. For the life of me I can never shave with my Feather and not get a nick on a scar under my chin and that never happens with a regular straight razor. They are fun though and the Pro blades actually feel more like my straight razor's blades than the others.

A straight is more forgiving but I think that it all comes down to practice, if you shave only once in a while with a feather it's easy to get a nick. I have some scars on my head and can shave over them with a feather without a problem just like I would with a straight. But as good as the feather razor is it just doesn't have the magic of a straight shave.

My favorite part of the day: a good cup of coffee, a pinch of Fribourg & Tryer tobacco snuff, great smelling lather, a good straight and some time for myself. Have a great shave everyone!

I use both the feather SS folding and the Kai non-folding--They are capable of extremely close shaves but NO PRESSURE can be used at all