blade suspicion

Use a straight. You know it makes sense.
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Henry_L
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blade suspicion

Post by Henry_L »

Have been wet shaving for years, straight razor practice with a Boker and Thiers Issard.

Recently I branched out with a Feather Artist Club SS. I found the shave to be closer than my European razor experience. Is the correct conclusion that a straight razor can never be honed/stropped to match a Feather blade?
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by brothers »

Hello Henry. Welcome to SMF! The answer to your question will be subjective, depending on the individual's experience. Some have reported excellent sharpness and longevity of the self-maintained edge with nominal effort. Others not so much. The AC blades and razors from several manufacturers are different in many ways as compared to a genuine straight razor, as you know.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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Brutus
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by Brutus »

Henry_L wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:38 pm Have been wet shaving for years, straight razor practice with a Boker and Thiers Issard.

Recently I branched out with a Feather Artist Club SS. I found the shave to be closer than my European razor experience. Is the correct conclusion that a straight razor can never be honed/stropped to match a Feather blade?
As I fully agree with Gary’s above statement regarding the subjectivity of any statement, I go out on a limb to say this:

To my way of thinking the honing process always includes a stropping element; the former to give the edge the desired sharpness, the latter to tame the harshness of the freshly honed edge (albeit at the expense of some of the sharpness) and give the edge the desired smoothness.

If you follow this logic you can think of the Feather Artist Club blade as a very sharp blade that has undergone no “taming”, which explains why these Feather blades are hellish sharp in the beginning but also quite harsh.
This harshness wears off after two to three shaves and IMO Feather Artist Club blades reach their peak only after the third or so shave.
(Alternatively, you can achieve the same before the first shave with some palm-stropping, which is quite harmless but admittedly nor everybody’s cup of tea.)
Incidentally, to me it also matters little whether I have a Professional or Pro Super blade in the razor. They may differ slightly in blade thickness and blade exposure, but to me the overall shaving experience is the same. (I have never bothered with the Pro Light blade and don’t see much sense in placing a wire in front of the edge like on the Guard blades.)

Hence I believe that it is possible to achieve a level of sharpness on a straight razor that comes close to a new Feather DX blade, but most shavers rather trade a small amount of this sharpness in favour of a smoother and overall more satisfying shave.

It may be a somewhat simplistic explanation that not everyone agrees with, but for me it works. 8)


B
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
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Henry_L
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by Henry_L »

Yep Brutus. I think there's also an aesthetic dimension in shaving with a straight razor; elegant is perhaps the word. And it's greener.
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drmoss_ca
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by drmoss_ca »

Welcome to SMF, Henry.
When the AC first came out I had to try it. The blades are so sharp you have to be very careful during the shave and remember not to let your attention wander. I managed OK with it, being reasonably proficient at straight shaves, but I found that my skin got progressively more tender after a few weeks and I got to the point I had to quit using it. We lost a lot of our older posts in a forum crash, but there was discussion on this around 2006. It's very rare to get a standard straight razor as sharp as a Feather AC blade, but you can, now and then, get one so close it's as near as makes no difference. This is more likely to happen with a softer steel (say, Rockwell ~62), and evidently a softer steel honed extremely sharp isn't going to last long.

And talking of which, I did some experimenting with stropping an AC blade to see if could have an extended life, but it didn't work out at all.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
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Brutus
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by Brutus »

I tried stropping a Feather Artist Club blade several years ago and my results were disappointing too.

Due to the geometry of this razor you either risk polishing the bottom edge of the Artist Club blade holder - rather than the edge of the blade - or you risk stropping the blade at a sub-optimal angle. If you take the blade out and start stropping with some kind of an implement, like pliers or tweezers, results tend to be inconsistent.
Be that as it may, given hat I can get around 10-12 shaves from a blade without even trying too hard and that blades ordered directly from Japan (e.g. through ebay) are not overly expensive, I do not see much incentive to try to strop these blades.

The longest I used Feather Artist Club blades exclusively without a break so far was about a month.
I may be about to break that personal record, as we are stuck in a hotel apartment in Dubai since mid-March and may not be able to leave from here till the end of May.

I worked for an airline down here and retired from active flying in 2017 when I was about to turn 65, the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots, but stayed on as a desk-bound management pilot till then end of March 2020.

We had our household packed and moved out of our Dubai home in mid-March with the expectation that we would stay in this hotel apartment for a maximum of two weeks till the end of March, when we would leave for two weeks in Vancouver before finally relocating to our new (1870’s vintage) home in Coimbra, Portugal.
Then airlines started trimming their schedules in response to COVID-19, countries sealed their borders, and within days the whole international airline industry came to a standstill (except for cargo flights).

Among the household goods awaiting shipment in a warehouse are my straight razors, and the closest thing to a straight razor available to me right now are three Artist Clubs (one DX with resin handle, one DX with wood handle, and one SS with Scotchwood handle) plus one cartridge each with Professional and Super Pro blades.

So it seems that I may be able to report back to you towards the end of May how I fare after two months of Feather Artist Club shaving.
One thing that has been obvious to me for years is that with a new blade I need to be very careful during the first two to three shaves, but after a while it becomes second nature and then the Feather Artist Club is capable of providing extremely close yet comfortable shaves.



B.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by brothers »

drmoss_ca wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:51 am Welcome to SMF, Henry.
When the AC first came out I had to try it. The blades are so sharp you have to be very careful during the shave and remember not to let your attention wander. I managed OK with it, being reasonably proficient at straight shaves, but I found that my skin got progressively more tender after a few weeks and I got to the point I had to quit using it. We lost a lot of our older posts in a forum crash, but there was discussion on this around 2006. It's very rare to get a standard straight razor as sharp as a Feather AC blade, but you can, now and then, get one so close it's as near as makes no difference. This is more likely to happen with a softer steel (say, Rockwell ~62), and evidently a softer steel honed extremely sharp isn't going to last long.

And talking of which, I did some experimenting with stropping an AC blade to see if could have an extended life, but it didn't work out at all.
My experiences with the AC were the same. (I like the blades, just not the AC-type razors. However, I have perfect results with the blades in certain single-edge safety razors.) Furthermore, I've received great results with certain self-maintained straight razors, but due to the convenience of the safety razors, I seldom take up my beloved straight razors, some of which provide smooth and close shaves on occasion.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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Henry_L
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by Henry_L »

Gary, I've found that my slant safety razor (with good blade) produces closer results than my Boker and Thiers Issard straight razors. (As do feather artisan blades, whatever the mount.)

I suppose straight razor use is more about homage to history and a certain elegance, as I noted before.
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by fallingwickets »

we are stuck in a hotel apartment in Dubai since mid-March

sorry to read about your status....hopefully you get back to coimbra quickly and in good health

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Re: blade suspicion

Post by drmoss_ca »

One thing people used to do to tone down the aggressiveness of a new Feather blade was to lightly draw the edge across a cork or some matchwood, just to blunt it a little. Presumably you will be able to find a cork in the hotel, or is Dubai still awkward about those things?
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by drmoss_ca »

Henry_L wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 12:44 pm Gary, I've found that my slant safety razor (with good blade) produces closer results than my Boker and Thiers Issard straight razors. (As do feather artisan blades, whatever the mount.)

I suppose straight razor use is more about homage to history and a certain elegance, as I noted before.
There's that, and I think we'd all agree that a disposable blade produces a smoother shave when judged straight after shaving. But, most straight shavers report they seems to stay smooth longer, or at least that the returning stubble is less prickly than after a DE or AC shave. Some have theorized that the blunter straight razor leaves the cut hair frayed rather than sliced, making it less prickly. It certainly seems that the sharper the blade, the more spiky the stubble that grows back.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
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Brutus
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by Brutus »

drmoss_ca wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:03 pm One thing people used to do to tone down the aggressiveness of a new Feather blade was to lightly draw the edge across a cork or some matchwood, just to blunt it a little. Presumably you will be able to find a cork in the hotel, or is Dubai still awkward about those things?
No, for new Feather Artist Club blades I resorted to palm-stropping for a while, but nowadays I just be careful with a new blade and persevere.
The first three shaves may not be quite as comfortable as I would like, but they are not too bad either and after that I have no complaints.

Regarding bottle shops, there are no issues here and the biggest deterrent probably is price with a case of beer selling from $30 upwards and what I would consider an acceptable bottle of wine selling for a similar price.



B.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
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Re: blade suspicion

Post by brothers »

I was slightly brainwashed - get the Feather so you can be accepted by the "in" crowd. Then I encountered the Kai Captain and Schick P30. Came to my senses, got rid of all the Feathers and now I've got the ideal shave I want with one blade of each every other month.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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