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Here is why (I think) shavette is ill-suited for the job

Look at the pics, in particular the edge of the blade holder and the blade itself form a weird shape.

The edge of the blade holder is tick rectangular piece of metal that will always get stuck in stubble and produce a significant drag.

IMHO, shaving with a shavette, especially the ones that use the thin small DE blades snapped in half are incomparable to a real SR, that simply glides over ones face effortlessly.

Any pro / contra opinions are welcomed! 😀

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EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I use a variety of razors including DE, SE, AC, and straight. My Feather Artist Club DX with Feather Professional blades, gives the closest, and without due care the most unforgiving shave of any, by far. It is not even close, it is an incredible razor. There is even a potentially closer shave to be had with the Super Professional blades. I understand your theory but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I cannot believe that any other razor, of any type including straights, could shave closer. I have not tried half DE blade shavettes so on those you may have a point. YMMV 👍
 
Look at the pics, in particular the edge of the blade holder and the blade itself form a weird shape.

The edge of the blade holder is tick rectangular piece of metal that will always get stuck in stubble and produce a significant drag.

IMHO, shaving with a shavette, especially the ones that use the thin small DE blades snapped in half are incomparable to a real SR, that simply glides over ones face effortlessly.

Any pro / contra opinions are welcomed! 😀

There is no reason to argue with you bad experience. If you say you stubble get stuck and you feel significant drag so this is that. Shavette is not for you. At least bad qualtiy shvette is not for you.

I own several shavettes and don't expierience getting suck stubble nor significant drag. Only drag I have experienced is when my lather is not wet enough. This happens I believe with "real" straight also.
 
There are shavettes with a more streamlined shape and prettier to look at. That said I think most are more like a hydrofoil than a boat, in that regardless of the shape of the boat hull it is the wing down in the water that makes most of the difference. With a sharp blade there will not be enough stubble to catch on anything except a second pass shave of the blade.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
While I use a straight occasionally, I get my best shaves from double edge blades. Using half the blade in a different holder, doesn't reduce the blade's ability to cut hair, it just might need using slightly steeper than a traditional straight. For shavettes I have Dovo and Razorine.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I get a nice shave frorm nearly any shavette I have tried. As good as a straight razor that I have honed. Better than a straight razor anyone else has honed. Once you are quite used to the increased level of sharpness and increased flex in the blade, and you adapt with a lower shave angle, you will find that a half DE blade in a shavette performs nicely. I find the swing-back or Parker style shavette holds the blade more rigidly and securely than the slide-in styles. I also find that the Feather DE blade tops them all.

Not only that, but the convenience factor and the initial startup cost, as well as the expendable nature of a $3 shavette lend itself well to travel purposes.

I still prefer a straight razor over a shavette. It is more enjoyable. Nothing gets discarded. It has a more old school vibe. There is a pride in ownership. It's just better. But it doesn't necessarily shave better than a shavette. Depends on your skill level, blade and holder used, and the razor you are comparing it to.
 
Sounds like your favourite shavette would be a Weck, they have a thicker blade rather than clamp it that near to where you shave and the end result is like a thin frameback.
 
I get a nice shave frorm nearly any shavette I have tried. As good as a straight razor that I have honed. Better than a straight razor anyone else has honed. Once you are quite used to the increased level of sharpness and increased flex in the blade, and you adapt with a lower shave angle, you will find that a half DE blade in a shavette performs nicely. I find the swing-back or Parker style shavette holds the blade more rigidly and securely than the slide-in styles. I also find that the Feather DE blade tops them all.

Not only that, but the convenience factor and the initial startup cost, as well as the expendable nature of a $3 shavette lend itself well to travel purposes.

I still prefer a straight razor over a shavette. It is more enjoyable. Nothing gets discarded. It has a more old school vibe. There is a pride in ownership. It's just better. But it doesn't necessarily shave better than a shavette. Depends on your skill level, blade and holder used, and the razor you are comparing it to.
The pics above are my Parker SRX loaded with Feather blades... nothing to write home about. As always YMMV.
 
Sounds like your favourite shavette would be a Weck, they have a thicker blade rather than clamp it that near to where you shave and the end result is like a thin frameback.
No, I would not have a "favorite shavette" at all. My favorite SR is near wedge heavy-duty Koraat. I bought a shavette some time ago just for the sake of trying it out. Money wasted, I wish I hadn't bought it.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I used my precision Chinese generic SS shavette ($2.50 including shipping and a puck of Ming Shi blades) for my vesperum shave today. I keep this razor in my carry-on dop bag so it hasn't been used for a few months. I wanted to see if I had lost my shavette touch.

Fitted a new half Ming Shi blade, prepped up as usual and shaved. The shave was as smooth as silk, almost as smooth as my best traditional SR. No irritation and no skin damage.

I haven't lost my shavette touch.
 
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I've been shaving almost exclusively with shavettes for 4 years now, never experienced that problem. There are also shavettes without rectangular holder if it somehow interferes with your stubbles. I prefer the shavette because the blades are sharper and more comfortable (because of the coating?) for me than my straights, but that's of course a matter of personal honing/stropping skills. I'm also much quicker, a 2-pass shave takes me less than 10 minutes from lathering to cleaning everything up afterwards.
 
I have no idea why, but unless I cork a Feather, it just feels....scratchy. After a couple of shaves it settles down and works perfectly in a shavette for me, but fresh-out-of-the-box they bite and scratch.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I have no idea why, but unless I cork a Feather, it just feels....scratchy. After a couple of shaves it settles down and works perfectly in a shavette for me, but fresh-out-of-the-box they bite and scratch.
Nothing wrong with that. Corking a Feather blade is fairly common. But try lowering the shave angle instead.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
For optimum performance, some cheap shavettes benefit from freehand "honing" the empty shavette with the spine just up off the hone, ALMOST to an edge, and rounding the corners a bit.
 
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