Feather Blades: Hype and Longevity

[miankapal]

In my opinion, more than the blade itself, the prep and technique are the single factors which can stretch the usability of a blade. I'm also using now a blade for several weeks and my experience is that if my prep and technique is good, I can still get daily BBS shaves out of that blade. But it requires a good amount of concentration from me.

Thus, I agree that the longevity of a blade is far much longer than a few days, but after those few days a good prep and technique become crucial.

 

[captaincaveman]

miankapal, what you've said about prep and technique is 100% true. However, when someone says one brand of blade lasts longer for them than another, we generally assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the person's prep and technique are consistent between blades, so we're still left wondering what's different about the one variable that did change, namely the blade.

 

[MMMM]

So, a little back story. I've never been a "blade guy". When I first started, I tried Derbys and Personnas. Loved the latter, hated the former. So I continued on with Personnas, and never saw the need to search for any other blade. Every now and then I would receive a blade sampler, so I tried a few, including Astras and Voskhod. I liked both, but really they were no different than Personnas (to me).


Personnas for me, regularly last at least two weeks, often longer. I don't really keep track. I just shave until I notice a degrade in shave quality, then I replace.


Now, as we all have, I've read lots of stories about how sharp and sometimes unforgiving Feather blades are. Honestly for that reason alone I was kinda afraid of them. They cost about 3 times what my Personnas cost. And I've read a bunch of posts about how they are incredibly sharp at first, but they degrade rather quickly. I've often read how folks use them for 2-3 shaves, and then they pitch them. All of this added up to me deciding that Feathers were not worth the trouble of trying, despite having received a few packs free in a couple PIFs.


Well, I have no idea why, but I finally decided to give them a try. I loaded one up in my Merkur HD and went to town. Surprisingly smooth, and not harshly sharp like I was expecting. Well, as normal, I just shaved with it every day (my norm is a 2 pass WTG and XTG), knowing I would replace it when the shaves went downhill. After shave #7, I noticed a slight drop in smoothness, but nothing to warrant a new blade. After a couple more shaves the smoothness seemed to return, or I just got used to it. Well, today I'm on shave number 19, as of this morning, and it is showing no sign of letting up. I'm almost to the end of my D20, that I'm using to track shaves.


So, my conclusions are:
1) Feathers don't warrant all the hype that makes them out to be evil, wicked sharp, face slashers.
2) Feathers have more longevity in them than most people give them credit for.
3) I think I'm a convert, although I'll never give up my Personnas. They still cost less per shave.

I used to be a Personna guy as well, and then switched to Feathers. After using Feathers for a while, I switched back to a Personna which only lasted for one shave. I bought a 200 pack of Feathers on-line and don't plan on switching back for the next couple of years.

Out of habit, I switch blades every 7 days, but could probably get a couple of more days if I wanted.

 

[mrb7]

What we're talking about here is the variables that affect the shave. My belief is that blade brand is close to the bottom in terms of its effect on the overall performance and experience. Blade angle, locked wrist or not, direction of cut, buffing, adequate lubrication etc.etc. have a far greater effect; yet they are far harder to observe reliably. Blade brand is the easy way out - it's the variable that's easiest to observe.

This precisely why I repeat the advice I got early on to use the same type of blade for several months first. I used the Israeli Personna Reds for months. Variability was mostly "me" things.