Feathers too sharp?

[innerlogic]

I've been using a feather in my fatboy, which i think is ideal, since you can just adjust the blade exposure. no nicks/cuts to speak up and i set it on a 5.

 

[SiBurning]

Comparing the Feather and Gillette 7 o'clock (black & red) under the microscope is interesting, if confusing. It's difficult to understand what I'm actually seeing at these small sizes. Beyond that, honers disagree about the relative importance of differences at these small sizes. Because of that, I'll leave the interpretation and speculation (mostly) to others, and confide my comments to raising questions.

Pictures are posted in my microscope thread

The actual metal edge of the Feather blade is ground flat beyond the ability of my microscope to resolve. The Gillette has clear striations, with the associated waviness of the edge. The Gillette also has larger deviations, implying that it's not ground true flat.

Both blades are coated throughout their surface, and then apparently buffed relatively flat. Clumping is apparent in both coatings, with pits appearing where clumps are thin. The coating on the Gillette appears to be inconsistent in covering the entire surface of metal. The feather has similar pitting to a lesser extent, and is only buffed along the bevels. The obvious buffing of the entire Gillette blade may account for the extra pitting.

The Feather coating continues to the edge of the blade. There appears to be an attempt to buff off an overhang of coating. In some places there are cracks in the coating near the blade edge, with the coating either missing entirely from the edge, or an overhang of coating beyond the edge of the blade. In other places, it appears as if the coating was either buffed smooth on and over the edge, or it was applied consistently and was not damaged or processed further.

The Gillette edge appears to be coated in a separate step, possibly with a separate material. This coating has a different pattern of clumps, with a significantly smaller clump size, and consistent coating. There are no apparent breaks or overhang of the coating at the edge.

The differences can be summed up simply. The Feather's metal is honed flat, but has a bulky coating that easily breaks. The Gillette is honed with obvious striations and relatively inconsistent, but adds an edge coating that the feather lacks.

• Do some people react more favorably to a flat blade, while others react more favorably to an inconsistent and striated edge?
• What effect does the smooth coating of the Gillette edge have on blade feel compared to the inconsistent coating on the Feather?
• How much does sharpness matter compared to the coating? The thickness of the coating of the Gillette edge necessarily implies a duller edge, while the feather is effectively exposing bare metal.
• Does the smooth consistency of the Gillette coating contribute to its longevity relative to the easily damaged coating of the Feather? That is, does a round edge last longer than a sharp one?
• Does the Gillette coating contribute to its longevity by protecting the edge from exposure to the environment? Does this even matter with stainless steel?
• Does the flat edge of the Feather cause more cuts because more metal is presented to the face or because of uncontrolled inconsistencies in the edge coating?

 

[djmike523]

These threads are pretty interesting to me because I seem to have taken to Feathers like a duck to water. I found that because the Feathers are so sharp, it's easier for me to maintain correct technique and therefore I cut myself far less often; in fact, I've probably only had three or four weepers and maybe one nick in about a hundred or so shaves with Feathers.

Ditto!

OP: perhaps you should consider a few different blades, get some more DE experience under your belt, and then re-evaluate products you were a bit iffy about, particularly the Feather blades. (man, I find those babies to be the best!0