New Feather All Stainless Safety Razor

[OB1]

My Feather AS is my everyday razor.
I have a Feather "Popular" for travel, but no others. Right now, the yellow (Russian) Gillette 7 o'clock blades are my favorites. The black (Indian) Gillettes and the Feathers gave me a little burn, but the yellows are very smooth. I have 100 Perma-Sharp (Turk) blades on the way and I have high hopes for them. We'll see...

 

[Kentos]

BullGoose Shaving still has it for $155.

They must have sold out last night. Got one from italianbarber.com after looking all over tarnation for one at the old cost. Supposedly these things won't get restocked till late December or January so I jumped on it.

 

[Chuckaluck]

$150 for a stainless razor - there is no way the price is any way reflective of the costs to design or manufacture this product. There is absolutely nothing novel in terms of its design and stainless steel isn't overly hard to work with or particularly expensive.

Seriously, I don't get why a company thinks people will buy a razor for $150 when a $40 razor will shave just as well (and possibly better).

While the Pils razors sell for around $300, at least the company tried to come up with an innovative design, as opposed to ripping of a Tech.

+1. I am more than happy with my 35 dollar Merkur HD 34 c!

 

[moontroll]

I think as others around here have said: Something's worth whatever people are willing to pay. And I think sometimes people are just willing to pay for something to marvel at... which can actually be what the high price helps to inspire. We often give value to things partly just because of the price we paid (look at gold -- a mostly rather useless metal, but falsely valued enough worldwide to pay millions in order to rip it out of the earth and invest hugely in it!).

So I realize the illogical reasoning. (And this isn't to say I don't give value to the slim adjustable I bought at a flea market for $1 and cleaned up beautifully.) But for me, shaving is an indulgence and a moment to revel in ... a shared feeling that i believe has helped to build the community of B&B. So whatever contributes, whether it's the inheritance, the $1 discovery and clean-up, or a $150 overpriced piece of Japanse workmanship ... it's worth what we assign it.

All that said, I personally love the build and unique nature of the All-Stainless Feather razor -- enough that I'm every bit satisfied with my trade of $150 .

 

[AJMiami]

They must have sold out last night. Got one from italianbarber.com after looking all over tarnation for one at the old cost. Supposedly these things won't get restocked till late December or January so I jumped on it.

glad I pulled the trigger in time.

 

[global_dev]

the $1 discovery and clean-up, or a $150 overpriced piece of Japanse workmanship ... it's worth what we assign it.

I agree with you but wanted to add this point that I know someone has to have mentioned before... the one thing people often forget to consider is your own direct costs and indirect costs invested. buying a $150 razor is almost 0% outlay of my time and 100% to the cost of the razor itself. I don't know what you value your time as, but I would easily say that the time searching for that $1 razor, having the tools and products at hand to restore it, paying for the overhead,spending a couple hours and elbow grease effort to make that thing presentable is certainly worth more than $150 to me as someone who has no to little interest in cleaning and restoring D/E's. you may not mind spending time and resources, but by no means is that free.

Even considering that new merkurs, muhles, and EJ's, etc are available at 1/3 to 1/5 of the price, if you have held a FAS and not been considerably and ridiculously impressed with its salient physical characteristics, i would eat my hat. If you are a good shaver you can shave with almost anything.. and then it may become what do you want vs what do you need.

It really depends on what feature vs benefit ratio scheme you are working off of. That is why it's so nice to be at B&B where the holy grail is different for everyone.

 

[dirtdog]

Originally Posted by Suzuki View Post
$150 for a stainless razor - there is no way the price is any way reflective of the costs to design or manufacture this product. There is absolutely nothing novel in terms of its design and stainless steel isn't overly hard to work with or particularly expensive.

The price is why people will buy it.
To some it represents the pinnacle of success - I can afford it so I will .

To others it represents quality . It costs a fortune so it has to be better.

Some just have the money to spend, the same reason they make Lotus , Lamborghini, Ferrari .

Whatever it is one thing is for certain, it is your money and if it makes you happy it is worth the price .

I have a hard time spending over .20 cents each for razor blades so I don't expect I will be seeing one of these soon

 

[SirWhiskers]

The price is why people will buy it.

Not the case for me. I bought it because it performs best for me and I tried many many razors (I own other razors too vintage and current production). I had the opportunity through the generosity of a member to try this razor before I bought my own. Had it not performed really well I would not have spent that kind of money on one. But it did and it instantly became my favorite. For me it's the best razor when paired with a Feather blade. As they say, YMMV. There's no question about it, the price is high and not really justified from a production perspective. I'm not into packaging and boxes so if they have the "value" version just the razor in some cheap plastic wrap I would have bought that. I also had the opportunity to try a PILS and Cobra razor, I chose to pass on purchasing those because of the shave I got with them not because of the price. Some people pay a lot for vintage soaps, discontinued creams, aftershaves, etc. To me it's not worth spending too much on consumables, but on something that can last a long long time, I can justify it.

 

[greychamp]

Not the case for me. I bought it because it performs best for me and I tried many many razors (I own other razors too vintage and current production). For me it's the best razor when paired with a Feather blade. As they say, YMMV.

I agree that the Feather All-Stainless DE works best with a Feather blade. I've tried the razor with a Derby, Gillette 7 O'clock yellow and an Astra blade. I used each for six shaves. Because of the razor's mildness, none of them except for the Feather, gave me a BBS shave. Paired with a Feather blade, the Feather All-Stainless DE gives me the smoothest shaves I have ever gotten in over 50 years of wet shaving.

 

[dirtdog]

Not the case for me. I bought it because it performs best for me and I tried many many razors (I own other razors too vintage and current production). I had the opportunity through the generosity of a member to try this razor before I bought my own. Had it not performed really well I would not have spent that kind of money on one. But it did and it instantly became my favorite. For me it's the best razor when paired with a Feather blade. As they say, YMMV. There's no question about it, the price is high and not really justified from a production perspective. I'm not into packaging and boxes so if they have the "value" version just the razor in some cheap plastic wrap I would have bought that. I also had the opportunity to try a PILS and Cobra razor, I chose to pass on purchasing those because of the shave I got with them not because of the price. Some people pay a lot for vintage soaps, discontinued creams, aftershaves, etc. To me it's not worth spending too much on consumables, but on something that can last a long long time, I can justify it.

A razor is in fact just a razor blade holder .
What makes this different - the angle that it holds the blade ?

The amount of blade exposed ?
There are just so many variables that can occur with a razor blade holder .

After that it is just opinion based on emotion, not fact.

I have seen no - zero reviews on the angle of the blade in this razor

I have seen no reviews on the amount of blade exposed on this razor

All I ever hear is " Oh I love it, it was worth the money"

The fact remains it is just a razor blade holder -if it is special I would love to hear and see how it is special .

Pics of the blade angle
Pics of the blade exposure

anything that makes it special , look at slants they have been shown with blade exposure
blade angle

nothing on the Feather ....... I think I know why

 

[SirWhiskers]

None of the above matters to me. I just shaved with it, got another great comfortable shave, that's all I care about. I don't know what makes it so great, but to me it just is. And I'm not saying this to justify a high price, as I said before, I had the chance to try the razor for free before I bought one. And I agree, the price is high, too high for many to consider it, but I'm not bragging about the price here, but the way it shaves my face. There are many others who had less than ideal results with it and that's fine, I don't think there is one razor that works for everyone.

 

[dirtdog]

All I ever hear is " Oh I love it, it was worth the money"

 

[global_dev]

Pics of the blade angle
Pics of the blade exposure

anything that makes it special , look at slants they have been shown with blade exposure
blade angle

nothing on the Feather ....... I think I know why

i don't think that is true... i remember seeing exposure pictures prior to purchasing... if not I'd be happy to snap a pic of the profile this evening... i don't think anyone is with-holding this information. IIRC the measurements are in the wiki.

 

[SirWhiskers]

All I ever hear is " Oh I love it, it was worth the money"

Well, all I can say is try one. It may or may not be for you, but you have no way of knowing unless you hold one in your hand and use it against your face. I shave with the razor not with the numbers.

 

[SirWhiskers]

i don't think that is true... i remember seeing exposure pictures prior to purchasing... if not I'd be happy to snap a pic of the profile this evening... i don't think anyone is with-holding this information. IIRC the measurements are in the wiki.

texbilly did a great job posting photos, gap numbers, etc. they are on pages 4 & 5 of this very thread:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=145895&page=4

 

[AJMiami]

What about the RAD $$$ that Feather put into the design?

From the production perspective, yes 150 looks high, but this is a very good/ durable design that works extremely well.

I have used 1 x Muhle, 2 x EJs, 5 x Gillette SS, Gillette New Improved, Merkur Slant, Merkur Bakelite, Vintage Merkurs...and I prefer the Feather over everything I have tried before.

 

[global_dev]

All I ever hear is " Oh I love it, it was worth the money"

i definitely don't agree with that statement. the_metatron and some others have provided their impressions that they felt it was not the best "razor blade holder". For me, it's a razor in the rotation that works well and if I decide to pare down the den then it will get a thorough consideration. I happen to really like the results of shaving with a NEW OC, but the heft, for me, contributes and the results AND EXPERIENCE of the FAS are superior

 

[AJMiami]

All I ever hear is " Oh I love it, it was worth the money"

And that is the best testimonial one can get.

As with everything with shaving YMMV...There is no scientific test that can be done on anything shaving related.

Even if an experienced user test a feather against 100 other razor designs and blade combination, it would be impossible to replicate the results.

 

[SirWhiskers]

My current "collection" of razors consists of: Feather SS, Mühle R41 open comb, NEW long open comb (replated head by cooncatbob), Merkur Slant 37c, Gillette Sensor. The Feather is a daily shaver, very smooth, comfortable shaves with it. Is it the closest shaver for me? No. When I need that I will reach for one of the open combs. But my skin cannot take that level of closeness on every shave. That's just the way my face is and I learned to use the right tool for the right occasion.

 

[dirtdog]

texbilly did a great job posting photos, gap numbers, etc. they are on pages 4 & 5 of this very thread:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=145895&page=4

Thanks
I read that post