Counterfeit Feather Blades?

[Gafer]

So I’ve been buying Feather blades from a local shop and decided to save some money and bought some from Cotton Blossom Crafts. I discovered this week that the ones from Cotton Blossom are completely different. They don’t seem nearly as sharp, don’t last as long and generally give me a poor shave – they even look different. In the photo below, the top blades are the ones I was buying locally and the bottom is one from Cotton Blossom. Notice the bottom blade is stamped very differently and doesn’t even have the Feather Trademark.

I’m really wondering if these really are genuine Feather blades. Like I said they don’t shave anything like the ones I was buying locally. Has Feather recently changed their blade markings and their manufacturing? Has anyone else had similar experience?


http://badgerandblade.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=7694&stc=1&d=1178406881
Feather.jpg

 

[xmemnochx]

They are just the new style, you have just been using the old ones. Should shave the same.

 

[Gafer]

They are just the new style, you have just been using the old ones. Should shave the same.

Ok, so perhaps I panicked. However, I did have to go to the third blade in the pack before I got a good shave. Perhaps I was just hallucinating on the first tow. I'm breathing a sigh of relief today - same old Feather shave I've come to know and love.

 

[JimmyHAD]

I too got some from Cotton Blossom and so far so good.

Jimmy

 

[kalle]

This is a bit confusing:
On the Japanese site of Feather, only razor blade packages in red, silver and black are shown, marked "Hi-Stainless" (in Japanese)

http://www.feather.co.jp/jGeneral_Mens.htm (scroll down)
while in all western stores the Feather Blades are marked "New Hi-Stainless" (in English), and have yellow packagings.

No Japanese shopping site have any "New Hi-Stainless" blades, only "Hi-Stainless" in the red packaging.
http://www.kenko.com/product/br/br_72100240606.html
http://www.soukai.com/P8003863/p.html
http://www.couponsan.com/search/beauties--9-136------g26DQ4NYg2WDk4OMg1g~.htm

I got two blades with Japanese text and a red/silver-packaging with my Feather Portable Razor, which look like the upper blade in the image of Gafer, while my blades in packaging with English text look like the lower blade. Perhaps it's just different packagings, for the Japanese and for the foreign market?

 

[DustBow]

That would be my guess - all marketing

 

[norman931]

I got two blades with Japanese text and a red/silver-packaging with my Feather Portable Razor, which look like the upper blade in the image of Gafer, while my blades in packaging with English text look like the lower blade. Perhaps it's just different packagings, for the Japanese and for the foreign market?

I got two of those blades with my Feather Portable Razor also, and I could tell no difference in the quality between those and the ones from Cotton Blossom Crafts. All excellent quality.

Norm

 

[Groundhog]

I use the ones from Cotton Blossom and they very sharp. Can't imagine anything sharper unless it's a surgical scalpel.....

 

[Notsooldman]

I purchased a bunch of the new ones recently and they have been consistently good shavers. I also bought a bunch of Swedish Gillettes last month while in London and one of those was terrible. I guess you find bad examples in even the best of blades.

 

[Gafer]

Well gentlemen here's the latest.

I PM'd the legendary LetterK on this forum about the "new" Feather's and he said he had heard they're the same blade, just different labeling and that Derby just went through a similar thing.

That said, once I got past the first two blades in the first pack I was back to the Ninja sharp blades I'd been use to. I've heard of "bad blades" but is it possible the first two in a pack were poor? I suppose so. So it appears to me that while the labeling on the blades may have changed, the performance has not. Long live Feather!

 

[ericmoritz]

I think I experienced bum blades from a pack that LetterK sent me. The first two were lousy, the rest were super sharp.

 

[galpman]

That would be my guess - all marketing

+1 Could not agree more

 

[Smedley]

My first Feather from the sampler pack was TOO sharp, cut me up something fierce. The rest were smooth as silk. Manufacturing, and all that.