Okay I loaded my Gillette Red tip with a brand new Bluebird blade to shave with today. I have been using a Feather in a Fatboy. I shaved half my face with the Red tip/bluebird combo and felt a difference from the get go. Tug'n some pull'n some just not performing as I expected. I pulled out the Fatboy with a blade that had already had 6 shaves on it and shave the other half of my face and head. Still smooth and no tugging. WTG, ATG and XTG no tug no burn. So during the clean up I decided to hand strop both blades and put the Feather in the Red Tip and the Bluebird in the Fatboy for tomorrows trial. I will report my findings. Is it the Feather blade I like so well? Does the Fatboy make any blade smooth for me? I will trial and repost my findings. As an aside I also tried Aqua Velva for the first time today instead of my cheap but trusty Gillette cooling gel after shave. I liked the Aqua very much. Going to continue with it for awhile.
Update Okay, today's shave is in with the Feather blade with 7 shaves in the Red tip and the Bluebird with 1 day shave. I started with the Red Tip and was surprised to find it was as smooth as the shave with the Fatboy yesterday. No pulling or tugging on a blade with 7 days of shaves. So I used the Fatboy with the Bluebird blade on the other side. Setting was on 7 and it felt like the Red Tip did yesterday. Pulling, tugging not smooth as I would like. I ended up turning the Fatboy up to 9 and found that was better but still not as smooth as that Feather with 7 days on it. I do have a full thick course hair. I surmise that I may get one more day if I just shave my head with the Bluebird. I have no idea how many more shaves I have with the Feather in the Red Tip before it pulls and tugs, but I am going to find out. That is the conclusion of this test. I will advise as to how many shaves I get from that Feather. Thanks for indulging me and please give to me some feedback. Mike
I have had mixed results with the Bluebird blades. IMO, if the results are mixed, they are not worth my time. Feather's are very nice blades, but IMO they are not worth the current price point. Voskhod, 7OC Black and Perma-Sharp offer the same performance as Feather without the price premium.
I am nearly out of them, as I only have a couple thousand left, so my supply comfort is sort of low until my other couple thousand show up from the group buy. However, if you send me a PM with your address in it I can break out a few Voskhods for you to try.
7 o'clock Russian Today I tried a new 7 o'clock Russian blade, green wrapper, in the Fatboy. Started on 6 which wasn't aweful but clicked to a 7 and was surprised that it was not half bad! Not as smooth as the Feather, and not as rough as the Bluebird. Did the head and face using all the strokes and a buff on 5. Nice job I should think. I hand stropped and replaced it in the Fatboy to see how many "comfortable" shaves I can get. I have 10 on the Feather so far.
2 shaves I was able to squeeze out 2 shaves on the green wrapped 7 O'Clock blade. I had to end up turning the Fatboy up to 9 to get close and go over it a couple of times. The first shave was good though, just wished I could have gotten a couple more off of it though. I did hand strop it after the first shave. Tomorrow I'm going back to the Red Tip with the Feather to see how shave number 11 works out on it.
I am interested in your stropping technique for DE blades. Do you use a regular strop, or do you have one of those old mechanical stroppers (sp?)?
Hand I use the hand stropping technique that I saw a link to here. 5 to 10 swipes on each side on the palm of the hand. It may do nothing more than remore any residual soap but like I said, I have gotten 10 good shaves off the Feather blade and will see what 11 is like in the morning.
Shave 11 Well after shave 11 with the Feather in the Red Tip, I sadly retired the Feather. While it was smoother than the green 7 O'clock on day 2, it just took too many passes to get the head all nice and smooth as I like it. I may have got another day if I used it in the Fatboy turned up to 9, but why do it. I think it has done a great job and if I can get 10 to 11 shaves out of one blade then that is good for me. Thanks for listening and post or ask any questions you may have.
