Feintechnik's Challenge razor

[Bookie]

I've decided to make a review about this razor.
It's a 3 blade cartridge razor with pivoting head.
Handle; handle is combination of plastic, metal strip which I believe it's zamak since it's a german razor, and rubber for a better grip.
Cartridge; cartridge is smaller than fusion's, it has a lubrication strip but it's not annoying since it's mostly an indicator when to change blades and helps with touch up if needed.
Angle of the blades seems much narrower than to gillette's or wilkinson's
About the shave; Shave is close and blades are very smooth and aggressive, good balance between smoothness and aggressiveness. Usual result is DFS.
About the price; price is cheap in terms of cartridge razors. Price is 40 HRK for a handle and 3 cartridges and a refill pack of 10 cartridges costs around 39 HRK; 5.58$; 5.25€
Longevity of a cartridge; Initially I was thinking I could at least get 10 shaves out of it but I could only get 6-7, which I think is not as good as I expected but shaves is very close so I can easily shave 3 times a week.
Good thing is that blades hold the same sharpness 90% of time and then on a last shave you can feel that you need to change cartridge.
What I like about this razor is closeness of the shave and price of the cartridges so number of shaves is understandable.
What I do not like about it is that handle feels cheap compared to other modern razors and that handle won't last as long and this is the problem since Feintechnik removed razor from their official site but still selling it in supermarkets.
There is an issue with this razor, if I use shaving brush w/ cream or soap it outperforms mach 3 but if I use canned foam it skips and misses places and clogs up easily so I have to rinse it often.

EDIT: one thing I've forgot to mention, I have said shave is closer than fusion or mach 3 which is true after fusion and mach 3 pass their initial sharpness, but both fusion and mach 3 are as good as this razor but last longer.

Like every product it has good and bad sides. If my fusion and feintechnik razors both disappeared in the same time I'd buy this because initial investment is cheaper and I tend to use DE so I do not need as many shaves out of one cartridge.

 

[Highspeedlane]

Great review, thank you for posting.

 

[Bookie]

Great review, thank you for posting.

Thank you, now on a second reading I can see terrible mistakes, "shaves is" instead of "shaves are"

I was trying to be more objective, for some price could be an issue, for others maybe a number of shaves ect.
This razor is not perfect but feintechnik's razor get some love on this forum.
I would put this razor in upper tier. I believe Tough Blade and this razor are very much alike, handle could be different.

 

[Highspeedlane]

Thank you, now on a second reading I can see terrible mistakes, "shaves is" instead of "shaves are"

I was trying to be more objective, for some price could be an issue, for others maybe a number of shaves ect.
This razor is not perfect but feintechnik's razor get some love on this forum.
I would put this razor in upper tier. I believe Tough Blade and this razor are very much alike, handle could be different.

Well so far I'm 7 shaves in on the Tough Blade and it still shaved just as closely as shave #1.

Granted it is still early. When I put 75 shaves on a Gillette Mach 3 blade I began stropping the blades on denim before each shave beginning around the high 20-something shaves. It seemed to help. When I put it down after the 75th shave I could have continued on had I wanted to (may return to it at some point).

The plan is to push the Tough Blade through the entire month of March to at least try to validate their claim of a "year's worth of shaves" from the package, then see if I can get the Mach 3 cart up to over 100 shaves. We'll see!

 

[Bookie]

Well so far I'm 7 shaves in on the Tough Blade and it still shaved just as closely as shave #1.

Granted it is still early. When I put 75 shaves on a Gillette Mach 3 blade I began stropping the blades on denim before each shave beginning around the high 20-something shaves. It seemed to help. When I put it down after the 75th shave I could have continued on had I wanted to (may return to it at some point).

The plan is to push the Tough Blade through the entire month of March to at least try to validate their claim of a "year's worth of shaves" from the package, then see if I can get the Mach 3 cart up to over 100 shaves. We'll see!

Sorry I did not mean by number of shaves but the cartridge shape and blade angle.
Is it strange that I do not consider Mach 3 an expensive shaving? I remember I had got around 40 shaves before I tossed it to the bin. I did not strop the catridge, I have to note that lubra strip was stil on
Around last September I decided to buy pack with 2 fusion proglide cartridges and give it a test. First cartridge is still in use, other is unused and I'm around 20 shaves with it, but I did not use that thing in a long time.