Feather blades: Love/Hate ?

Feathers are becoming my reliable, sharp-makes-smooth, go-to blades. They're a big yay from me.

We have a mutual understanding to leave each other alone.

Feather is my go to blade. I like the sharpness and usually get about five shaves with them.

Feathers are my go to blade.

I like a Feather in my mild razors, like the Merkur 33c. I find it helps increase the efficiency of that razor. With other blades, I need 4 passes or more plus touchups, but with thw Feathers or similarly sharp blades, like Gillette silver Blue, I can get BBS in 3 passes, the way I like...

I do find that the Feathers "go bad" on me quicker. I can get 2 good shaves, but the third is usually quite uncomfortable. I can get 4 or 5 out of a 7:00 green or a Derby...

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I haven't tried them again recently, but man the last time I did it looked like a horror movie. That was the most bleeding I've ever done since I started DE shaving.

I still have 19 of them left, so I guess I could try again now that my technique is better. We'll see...

The only razor that I've used which does well with the Feather (and does not tear up my face) is the ATT S1. For some reason, the S1 design seems to mute the more aggressive aspects of the Feather while retaining its cutting efficiency.

My thinking is that the Feather prioritizes sharpness above all else, so no extra coating, slight dullness, or whatever other approaches other blades may take to smooth things out. So the Feather is unforgiving of anything you might not have dialed in just right: lather, angle, pressure, technique. There are no "training wheels" or lane-bumpers on the Feather, if you will. But when you've got your lather and technique down, these beasts give a friendly purr, and the sharpness becomes a virtue, reducing resistance and tugging, reducing the need for extra passes, and thus leading (contrary to initial impression) to LESS irritation and fewer weepers.

Neither love nor hate. Just meh.

So, I had tried Feather before and never had a good experience with them, too sharp for me. However, I have one blade sitting around that I have been avoiding using since the fall. This morning's shave I used a vintage Gillette travel razor and thought, why not? I was thinking the razor would be very mild, and it is, so the sharpness of the Feather was offset by how mild the razor itself it. The result was a very impressive shave with no irritation! (but I did nick my chin )