Feather Artist Club SS, the redheaded stepchild of razors

I shaved for the second time with my Feather AC SS straight handle today. The first time was last week and I got in a hurry and had quite the bloodletting. This week I took my time and had an excellent shave. I only did a WTG pass today and cleaned up a little with my Leresche #51. I will keep practicing and think this razor has earned a permanent place in my rotation. Who knows, I might graduate to a real straight someday

Congrats! Stay with it. You'll quickly get the hang of it and learn to love it. WTG passes are perfect. Don't rush. As you get more comfortable you can start to expand. One tip that helped me at the start--when you are applying the blade to your face, put the razor flush against the skin, then gently find the angle. It's easy to use too much pressure when touching the blade to the skin and that causes nicks. I actually feel like I graduated from straights, which are far easier, to the Feather. 

Which blade did you use?

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Thanks guys! Now that I've read this thread, I am interested in finding out whether the Kai version of the shavette (I forget what they call it) is as good as the Feather seems to be. (I haven't yet tried it as of now.)  I do love the Mongoose, and now I've got to try to locate a pack of the Kamisori blades for it.

I have a Kai Captain Standard as well as the Feather SS and DX. The Kai Captain equivalent of the DX was just too pricey, and I wasn't wild about the handle design. I find the Kai to shave very much like the Feather DX. Of the three my favorite is the Feather SS. It's the easiest to handle, though the others are excellent. Kai is discontinuing the Excelia, the Kai answer to the DX, but I think they will continue to make the Standard. You really can't go wrong with any of them. But yes, the Kai is every bit as good as the Feather. Amazon sells the Feathers at a steep discount, by the way.

I shaved for the second time with my Feather AC SS straight handle today. The first time was last week and I got in a hurry and had quite the bloodletting. This week I took my time and had an excellent shave. I only did a WTG pass today and cleaned up a little with my Leresche #51. I will keep practicing and think this razor has earned a permanent place in my rotation. Who knows, I might graduate to a real straight someday

Congrats! Stay with it. You'll quickly get the hang of it and learn to love it. WTG passes are perfect. Don't rush. As you get more comfortable you can start to expand. One tip that helped me at the start--when you are applying the blade to your face, put the razor flush against the skin, then gently find the angle. It's easy to use too much pressure when touching the blade to the skin and that causes nicks. I actually feel like I graduated from straights, which are far easier, to the Feather. 

Which blade did you use?

Thanks for the great advice! I am using the Feather Pro blade.

I'm one of the guys for whom the Feather AC razors didn't work well. I loved the sharpness of the blades, and I liked the construction of the AC DX folding and non-folding razors. I tried the SS and also the Kai razors. They were all pretty nice shavers, but I just couldn't get as comfortable a shave from them as I could with my regular straights.

I kept them around in my den for a while until I figured out that the blades were not cost-effective (the way I used them), so now I sometimes consider getting them again, but always change my mind.

I know that some guys love them, and I'm glad they're available, but they didn't work out for me.

I'm one of the guys for whom the Feather AC razors didn't work well. I loved the sharpness of the blades, and I liked the construction of the AC DX folding and non-folding razors. I tried the SS and also the Kai razors. They were all pretty nice shavers, but I just couldn't get as comfortable a shave from them as I could with my regular straights.

I kept them around in my den for a while until I figured out that the blades were not cost-effective (the way I used them), so now I sometimes consider getting them again, but always change my mind.

I know that some guys love them, and I'm glad they're available, but they didn't work out for me.

I do find that straights are very comfortable, often more comfortable than the Feather and the Kai, and they require a lot less concentration. I'm a Feather devotee but I do admire straights.

I'm one of the guys for whom the Feather AC razors didn't work well. I loved the sharpness of the blades, and I liked the construction of the AC DX folding and non-folding razors. I tried the SS and also the Kai razors. They were all pretty nice shavers, but I just couldn't get as comfortable a shave from them as I could with my regular straights.

I kept them around in my den for a while until I figured out that the blades were not cost-effective (the way I used them), so now I sometimes consider getting them again, but always change my mind.

I know that some guys love them, and I'm glad they're available, but they didn't work out for me.

  A shame it didn't work for you, they can be really handy travelling, and the "look cool" value can't be beat.  Now that I say that, so is a well maintained straight (above a 6/8 of course!).

I'm one of the guys for whom the Feather AC razors didn't work well. I loved the sharpness of the blades, and I liked the construction of the AC DX folding and non-folding razors. I tried the SS and also the Kai razors. They were all pretty nice shavers, but I just couldn't get as comfortable a shave from them as I could with my regular straights.

I kept them around in my den for a while until I figured out that the blades were not cost-effective (the way I used them), so now I sometimes consider getting them again, but always change my mind.

I know that some guys love them, and I'm glad they're available, but they didn't work out for me.

  A shame it didn't work for you, they can be really handy travelling, and the "look cool" value can't be beat.  Now that I say that, so is a well maintained straight (above a 6/8 of course!).

Actually, I like traveling with a regular straight. It's not a big deal to pack a roo strop and I sometimes just survive with palm-stropping the blade. 

Nothing is going to work for everyone. The Feather AC-type razors work for lots of people. I just don't happen to be one of them.

I ordered one of the CJB non-folding replaceable blade razors from Maggard, and some Kamisori blades from TryABlade. He sells them individually, so you can try before buying a whole 24 blade pack. Received the razor today, and already loaded a new Feather Pro blade for tomorrow morning's shave. It was smaller than I had anticipated, and I like the look and feel of it. I have a feeling it'll be a piece of cake as long as I'm careful.  I know it'll be a different technique and feel than my straight razors.  Looking forward to something new to experience.  I should receive the Kamisori blades in a couple more days, and will use them first in the Mongoose to see how they compare to the Kai and Pro blades.  I'm always hoping for the best.

I ordered one of the CJB non-folding replaceable blade razors from Maggard, and some Kamisori blades from TryABlade. He sells them individually, so you can try before buying a whole 24 blade pack. Received the razor today, and already loaded a new Feather Pro blade for tomorrow morning's shave. It was smaller than I had anticipated, and I like the look and feel of it. I have a feeling it'll be a piece of cake as long as I'm careful.  I know it'll be a different technique and feel than my straight razors.  Looking forward to something new to experience.  I should receive the Kamisori blades in a couple more days, and will use them first in the Mongoose to see how they compare to the Kai and Pro blades.  I'm always hoping for the best.

Waiting to see how it goes. I wanted to buy one but I bought a Universal Shavette instead.

Hi all. I've tried the Feather AC non folding SS recently (after watching probably every YouTube video available, and reading whatever I can about the right technique), but it was horrible. I've prepped, tried both using oil and/or shaving cream/soap, but again, it was horrible. I've tried placing it flat against my skin, then look for the right angle, but no matter what, it was tugging and scraping, whether I stretched my skin or not (some claim that the round edge stretches the skin sufficiently by itself - I think GeoF from shavenation uploaded a video about it). I've used no pressure at all, and the blade was a feather light. Any tips? Could it be the blades? I'll try it a few more times, but I'm not optimistic about the result.

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They are indeed, as you have clearly stated, "horrible". Same also goes for the other brands, not just Feather. This is nothing at all like a straight razor,, either.

Regarding the Kamasori blade, I got 4 of them from TryABlade just to try out, and I really like the way they perform in the Mongoose. I'm still on the first blade, around a dozen excellent shaves already, and no complaints whatsoever. I can easily recommend this brand.