Jan 18th
SR Saturday
Rasor: Dovo Inox & Feather DX
Blade: Dovo & Feather Super Professional
Brush: Razorock Plisoft Barber 24
PS: Proraso Red
SS: Chiseled Face Bay Rum
AS: Proraso Red
I decided to do a side-by-side between the Dovo and the Feather. The Dovo has about 5 shaves since arriving and being refreshed with .3 micron lapping film. I strop with 25 strokes on canvas and 50 strokes on leather. The Dovo's performance in the hanging hair test was indistinguishable from the Feather with the new Super Professional blade. Both blades are extremely sharp.
I shaved one side of my face with each which isn't completely fair. Perhaps I will reverse it next week. The final result was a very close BBS shave with a couple small nicks.
I have to say both tools performed well. The feel in hand is very similar. In my opinion there are several plusses and minuses to both. I found I liked the Feather's shorter cutting surface for shaving the curves of my neck. It felt very natural in my hand, not requiring any conscious adjustment from my Dovo trained muscle memory. However, the less visible edge and lack of audible feedback had me shaving on faith in a few areas. I nicked myself twice with the Feather in places I never have issues with my Dovo.
Initially the Dovo's full hollow audible feedback made me think the Dovo wasn't doing as well, but inspection between passes suggested the Dovo was shaving just as close or even a little closer. I found myself buffing certain areas with the Dovo and just plowing through areas with the Feather due to differences in the feedback I was getting from each blade. The unbuffed areas were not as close and required some touchup.
In the end I like the Feather DX well enough to use it more often. It's performance is close enough to almost scratch the SR itch, but there is just a slight performance gap. Yes, I acknowledge that coolness is a factor and it's fine to do thinks I think are cool.
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