Feather Blades - Fakes or just a Bad Batch

[WilsonLaidlaw]

I recently bought a pack of 100 Yellow Feather DE blades in 10 blade dispensers from a Singapore Seller on eBay, who had pretty good feedback. I am wondering if they are fakes or just a bad batch. They all have the same batch number 231213D. The packaging, printing fonts and sizes, both internal and external appear identical to some blades bought from a very reputable UK dealer. The shave feels coarser than I am used to and the more aggressive the razor I use them in, the worse they are. They are pretty much unusable in my Merkur Futur at any setting but acceptable in my Feather AS-D1. I have used nothing but Feather blades for years, so am fairly accustomed to what they should feel like.

I don't think there is any history of these blades being faked (unlike some others). What do folks think - fakes or just a not a good batch? It's not a great tragedy in the wider scheme of things, I will give them to my son, who seems happy to shave with any blade in his razors and will then buy more from a UK supplier.

Wilson

 

[Revan]

How many have you tried so far?

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

How many have you tried so far?

Halfway though my third pack of 10, as they were all I took out to France with me when I came out here in mid July. I found an old unopened Feather yellow pack of 10 in my bathroom cabinet, left over from last year to compare the printing/packaging etc.

Wilson

 

[Useless shaver]

Mmmm... Seems strange.

My daily blade is a Feather (with some exceptions) and, unusual as it is, from time to time I find a bad blade (so to speak: not bad really, a bit coarser... perhaps), but a blade, not a pack!

I'd give them up. Although they are pricier than others I think your skin is infinitely more valuable. Not to speak about comfortable shaves...!

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

Here are photographs, marked Genuine and Suspicious as requested by VerbaVolant of Feather blades I am sure are genuine and the ones I have been suspicious about. I can see little to no difference between the two, which confirms that this is more likely to be a bad batch than fakes. Maybe Yashimoto forgot to dress the edge grinding wheels that day.

Wilson

 

[The Dean]

Here are photographs, marked Genuine and Suspicious as requested by VerbaVolant of Feather blades I am sure are genuine and the ones I have been suspicious about. I can see little to no difference between the two, which confirms that this is more likely to be a bad batch than fakes. Maybe Yashimoto forgot to dress the edge grinding wheels that day.

Wilson

There seems to be a small black dot on top left the genuine blade (to the left of the word "Trade"). Is that a legit marking, or some random particle on the blade? It is absent on the suspicious blade.

The "Hi-Stainless" on the suspicious blade is lighter than on the genuine blade, but I suppose that could just be normal blade variance. Still I'd check a few blades from different boxes of both and compare them.

Finally, I think I read somewhere here that you can spot the fakes from the three lines on the two ends of the blade (one line on top, two on the bottom). Now if I could also remember what those differences tell you, then this comment would be a LOT more meaningful. Still, those look to be pretty close but not exact. Again, could just be the printing variation.

BTW, what are the white globs on the blades? Soap scum?

 

[ArNav]

These two seem identical to me.

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

All Feather blades come with a grease coating, presumably an anti-corrosion measure - these were both new blades out of their wrapping. If you have ever watched the process of printing on a production line of metal items like razor blades, which involves dabbing the ink on with a semi porous template, it would not be surprising if the odd blob of ink arrived elsewhere, which is what I think the small dot on the top left is. It is not present on other genuine blades I have looked at. The printing of the Made in Japan on the bottom of the genuine blade is pretty blobby. The lines and their placement look absolutely identical but if they were photographically copied for fakes, they would be.

Wilson

 

[cb91710]

Why would anyone counterfeit razor blades?
It's like counterfeiting quarters, or even dollar bills. You have to pass too damned many to make any money.

And to set up production to manufacture razor blades with the intend of counterfeiting them? Feathers aren't cheap, but they don't sell for THAT much more so as to make them worth faking.
Likely a bad batch.

 

[ArNav]

Well, if you have a small operation it's probably not a very wise thing to counterfeit cheap merchandise, because your running expenses are high in comparison, but if you have a big operation, like a whole factory producing counterfeit cheap merchandise in great mass, it can be profitable.

 

[Msan]

Why would anyone counterfeit razor blades?
It's like counterfeiting quarters, or even dollar bills. You have to pass too damned many to make any money.

And to set up production to manufacture razor blades with the intend of counterfeiting them? Feathers aren't cheap, but they don't sell for THAT much more so as to make them worth faking.
Likely a bad batch.

+1

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

People fake other razor blades, so why not Feather?

Wilson

 

[The Dean]

Why would anyone counterfeit razor blades?
It's like counterfeiting quarters, or even dollar bills. You have to pass too damned many to make any money.

And to set up production to manufacture razor blades with the intend of counterfeiting them? Feathers aren't cheap, but they don't sell for THAT much more so as to make them worth faking.
Likely a bad batch.

More than likely because they don't pay for the manufacture of the blades. They either do an extra run or two (off book as it were) "after hours" or take a batch rejected by QC out the back door and sell them as legit. It isn't hard to make money on even very low cost things when you are paying next to nothing for them.

 

[cb91710]

People fake other razor blades, so why not Feather?

Has this ever been confirmed with any blade? Every time a manufacturer makes a change in packaging or there's a quality change, everyone jumps to the conclusion that the blades are counterfeit.

It has happened with both Feather and Derby just in the last 2 years, and none of those cases were valid.

 

[The Dean]

Has this ever been confirmed with any blade? Every time a manufacturer makes a change in packaging or there's a quality change, everyone jumps to the conclusion that the blades are counterfeit.

It has happened with both Feather and Derby just in the last 2 years, and none of those cases were valid.

Counterfeit carts:

http://www.woodtv.com/news/local/kent-county/man-sentenced-in-fake-razor-blades-case

People can, and probably do, counterfeit just about everything. Even if it is passing along seconds as fist quality. When virtually the entire price paid is pure profit, there is no downside to faking even the most inexpensive items.

You might want to consider this thread as well:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/199382-More-fake-blades-out-from-the-same-ebay-seller

And while we are not allowed to post other blogs here, Bruce on Shaving has pictures of fake SI blades, or so he thinks at least.

 

[VerbaVolant]

How to spot a fake Iridium Super Extra Stainless

Never had any in my possession so take it as it is.