Until about a month ago I did not believe that the velvet squeegee existed. The Mythical razor that effortlessly slides through the hair with no tugging and no harsh skin feel, an almost effortless BBS. I had tried shaving with a true straight multiple times and each time I went back to my Japanese style Feather as every straight I tried tugged and pulled was not adequately sharp and did not give me as good a shave as the feather. I tried some nice razors, some expensive razors, that were professionally honed and still the shave was inadequate. I had come to the conclusion that NO STRAIGHT could match the sharpness of the feather and would always have some painful pull. Then I decided to try ONE LAST TIME. On a whim I bought a Filarmonica 13 Barbas Duras and everything changed. Completely effortless glide through the whiskers even ATG. BBS every time and absolutely NO irritation. Just as sharp as the feather and infinitely smoother. The Velvet squeegee does exist. So, my question is: How common is this level of performance? Was I just unlucky with my prior razors (which included some very nice custom razors (un named), Hearts, WBs etc. honed by "masters"). Is every quality razor capable of achieving this level of performance and it just depends on the level of honing? Those of you with large collections, how many velvets do you have? Is it the construction and hollow grind of the filly that allows this. Are fillys just "that much better". Are velvets more common in hollow grinds? Anyone have a Wedge Velvet? How rare is this bird and what are your recipes for finding them? In fact show us your velvets!