Artist Club meaning

Buongiorno a tutti,
Non mi stanchero' mai di ripeterlo: dalla mia parte ho tanto entusiasmo per il wet shaving quanto lo e' la mia ignoranza in questo settore scoperto non per caso, ma quasi....
Ringrazio ancora il mio mentore ,adesso veramente un carissimo amico per quanto mi ha insegnato anche e soprattutto sulla storia dei nostri amatissimi rasoi....Grazie infinitamente Blue Notes...
Tornando alla mia domanda, sarei felicissimo ed oltremodo grato a chi mi sapesse dare la definizione di " Artist Club" riferita , a quanto mi risulta, ai rasoi SD....Per quanto abbia potuto vedere, c'e' stato un inflazionamento di questo termine almeno negli ultimi mesi e vorrei sapere a cosa veramente e specificatamente ci si riferisce quando si usa.
un buon e sereno Sabato ( e Domenica) a tutti Voi.
Gianguido.

Good question!

Pampachaykuway, manan italiano simita rimanichu

I'll answer the question Google Translate thinks you asked

Artist Club refers to a type of single edge blade. The AC blade is longer and more rigid than a Double Edge blade. Razors such as the Blackland Vector, Above The Tie S1, S2, X1 slant, and Alpha Claymore Evolution are razors that use the AC type blade. Shavettes like the Feather AC series are also designed to hold an AC blade.

The AC blade should not be confused with the injector style blade, which is shorter and designed for razors such as Schick, Parker, and Asylum injector razors.

I think the question is, "What does the term 'Artist Club' actually mean?". Artist club seems to imply an affiliation of some sort, why not just give it a name?

It makes me feel like a member of an exclusive club. You know, facial hair artists.

It’s a good question, and not easy to find out the answer. Maybe to the Japanese, in the original language, the ‘Artist Club’ name might mean something that is more easily connected to the professional barber industry that the Artist Club products are aimed at. The same format razors and blades sold under the Kai brand are called ‘Captain’, so ‘Artist Club’ is just the name for the products sold under the Feather brand. I’m not sure there is any basis for people like us on forums to use ‘Artist Club’ as the generic name for a blade format - I think these are just product names, and who knows why ‘Artist Club’ or ‘Captain’ were chosen. The point is that Kai/Feather has been making and selling long, replaceable blades for shaving for a long time.

Note that Feather and Kai were and, as far as I can tell, still are the same business and under common ownership. The businesses are owned by the Endo family and have been selling long-format replaceable shaving blades since the 1950s (and shaving blades since the 1930s). Feather was the original razor company name for the new long blades in the 1950s (started by Shigeru Kanematsu, who became Saijiro II Endo when he was adopted into the Endo family), then the name was changed from Feather to Kai (which means ‘shell’, since seashells were the earliest traditional shaving tool in Japan). Later the Kai group opened a subsidiary again called Feather Co. Japan, and for a period the Feather brand produced only cartridge razors and the Kai brand made replaceable blades. Subsequent restructurings changed how these brand names and divisions were used within the business, and now these blades and razors are made and sold under both the Feather and Kai brands, but it’s all one family business.

That’s about all I can figure out from the research I’ve managed, all of it from Kai’s websites.

Moriarty that is a wonderful bit of history. I did not realize that Feather and Kai were under the same ownership! Thanks for the information!

Terrific explanation - thanks Moriarty !

Has anyone made a two or three piece razor that uses hair shaper blades?