Shavettes: The Truth About Disposable Straight Razors

Discussion in 'Articles' started by PLANofMAN, Aug 24, 2012.

  1. swarden43

    swarden43 "It's your shave. Enjoy it your way."©

    First, welcome to the Den.

    This thread is for straight razors, specifically shavettes.
    Make a post here ---> http://theshaveden.com/forums/forums/safety-razors.30/ (click on that) and more folks will see your request.

    Unless, of course, there are shavettes that use those blades :ashamed001:
     
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  2. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    Amazon.
     
  3. RyX

    RyX DoH!

    If I recall the Irving Barber Company shavette is built to hold many types of blades. Jared @PickledNorthern has some time in on one and may show up to comment.
     
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  4. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    The IBC is a super star shavette with AC style blades, and does use injector blades passably, but isn’t its strongest suit. Personna makes a shavette designed for injectors called a Charles Monsieur model, but it is cheaply made, and sort of poorly designed.

    My recommendation if you want to use the thicker SE style blades is to stick with models that use Feather AC style blades: Feather, Kia, Irving Barber Co..
     
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  5. JHBBlade

    JHBBlade New Member

    I second the above opinion.

    Also I've a monsieur Charles and it works well in the bladed area, but it has a piece nearer to the pivot that is not bladed but wipes off lather as if it was a blade. Very poorly thought through design.

    Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
     
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  6. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    I have to say that my experience with the Feather Artist has been the complete opposite of this thread. Its my first straight and I find it very easy to use, I get 2 pass BBS shaves and I almost never nick myself with it.
     
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  7. Keithmax

    Keithmax Breeds Pet Rocks

    Which Feather razor do you use. I hated the SS but I love the DX.
     
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  8. JHBBlade

    JHBBlade New Member

    Agree with badgerstate, Feather Artist is a top class experience.

    I use the DX with a pro blade. I find the thicker, bigger blade exposure of the Pro blade, compared to the normal blade, allows me to hold the blade closer to the skin when needed.

    On that note, with some shave soaps the skin can be quite sticky after the soap is shaved off and the flat of the artist sticks more easily than a hollow ground straight when shaving with the flat of the blade on the skin. The feather shaves similarly to a heavy near wedge Sheffield straight.

    Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
     
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  9. Enrico

    Enrico Popcorn

    I haven't jumped in to the shavettes, but if and when I do; I'll probably get a IBC. The look like great quality and all the parts are replaceable. :)
     
    PickledNorthern likes this.
  10. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    SS. I find it very easy to use with the rounded edge. I want to pick up a DX but $240 is a lot to spend on a razor. If I stick with it for a year, I'll probably pick on a Kamisori style DX though.
     
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  11. Keithmax

    Keithmax Breeds Pet Rocks

    :signs011:

    A cheaper alternative to the DX is the CJB/ Greagor.
     
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  12. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    That looks interesting. The quality of them sounds kind of meh though.
     
  13. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    I use the Feather Proguard blades. As a noob, I felt like they were a good starting point and I get great shaves with them, while still having a certain level of protection. After I use this 15 pack, I'll probably try the Feather Pros and the Kai Milds.
     
  14. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    Me too.
     
  15. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    The Kai Captain models, are priced almost identically to the Feather SS (scout them out on eBay), are shaped almost exactly as the DX.

    The build quality of the DX is night and day over the SS. My opinion of the SS was that it felt like a $70 dollar razor. The DX really does feel like a $170 razor.

    Again, I would look at some of the Japanese outlet sellers on eBay. I paid right around $170 for mine, brand new.
     
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  16. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    The maker of them is also a super standup dude. I have had a couple, and on one I had a minor complaint. Almost one of those feedbacky type questions. Two days later I had multiple replacement parts in my mailbox. I am an IBC fanboy.
     
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  17. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    +100. ^^^

    Mine went into the garbage can. Not worth selling, and too crappy to PIF. PIFfing it would be like giving someone the flu. Gee thanks.
     
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  18. Badgerstate

    Badgerstate Well-Known Member

    Good deal. I do want to pick up a DX eventually.
     
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  19. Nicked

    Nicked Well-Known Member

    First and foremost, great article/post. I recently picked up a relatively in expensive Tachi shavette off the bay just to try it. I have a pretty extensive collection of vintage and modern safety razors in DE, GEM, Injector and A/C formats, as well as one Straight that I've yet to bond with. Figured the shavette might help technique as well as just be a new tool to try. Wound up really liking the shavette experience and picked up the IBC shavette which is a winner in my book multiple blade options makes it an ideal travel shavette, also have the feather DX coming, but that's intended to be for home use.

    Thanks for all the information and the great article.
     
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  20. Mike-R41

    Mike-R41 Well-Known Member

    Great article. The classic samurai Shavette was the first item I bought while getting into the hobby. And I have to say, using that on and off for several years really made the transition a lot easier to Traditional Straight Razors. I’ve been using real straights for a little over a year now and yes there was still a learning curve but I feel that I got the hang of it a lot faster then someone just jumping straight into it. With me I don’t think the Shavettes have much of a feed back witch can be A little dangerous. It’s like the silent assassin lol

    I still have my Classic Samurai but I rarely use it, My CJB Kamasori (Shavette) on the other hand, gets regular use: for the longest time I was using the feather professional blades with it until I discovered the feather supers. The pro’s are okay but they pull and tug me a little bit. Not too bad to where I will never use them, but enough to notice. And the Kai Captains absolutely tore my face apart!

    That being said I would recommend using a Shavette if you want to wet your feet. A lot of people jump right into traditional straight razors and they know absolutely nothing about honing, The correct angle, or stroping. Me? I was the time to watch a Videos for a couple months And do a lot of research before I start any type of shaving. Witch is the smart thing to do.

    because what I’ve seen, The people jumping right into it without asking any questions, watching informative videos or doing any research mess up so bad on their first attempt, that they get discouraged and never come back. Most of it is from buying razors that are not prop Honed.
     
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