I have well over 100 shaves with my slant under my belt all with feather blades which I have come to love, however they are not cheap! I have a beard which is best described as tensile wire strong growing in random and swirly directions on my neck, under which sits some sensitive skin. I liked the idea of using the feathers because they were reputed to be the sharpest currently available. As a newb my ego out raced my brain in choosing theses blades and as is to be expected I paid a heavy price raw neck and severe ingrown hairs. It is not the blades fault they are what they are extremely sharp and unforgiving to poor form. I chalk it up to be comparable to learning to drive a car with a 60's 427 Corvette Stingray. However my form is considerably better and the feathers do a amazing job at mowing down my beard and giving me almost BBS on a 3 pass shave However recently I saw the Russian blades price drop to irresitable prices so I ordered myself 100 Rapira Platinum Lux which arrived today. So with two days of beard growth I put a fresh blade in my slant and kept the rest of my shaving routine the same and took the Rapira's out for a run keeping with the car metaphor. My initial impressions after my first shave was that if the Feathers are a 10/10 for sharpness the Rapira's would come in at a 9/10. The huge difference for me is in the smoothness of the shave again if I would subjectively rate the feathers a 6/10 for smoothness the Rapira's come in at a solid 9/10, meaning a marked and noticeable difference. Booth blades got me to a close to BBS shave, the Rapira's performing better in my trouble area my neck resulting in a much more enjoyable shave. So to finish with car metaphor shaving with the feathers is like running a 427 60's Corvette balls to the wall the Rapira's are like running a Bently Mulsanne Speed all out both amazing but very different experiences. Gary
Thanks for the info. On a whim I just grabbed a sample pack of Rapira Platinum Lux to hit the free shipping mark at Maggard. I'll have to try them next.
I use the feather DE blades almost exclusively and was recently doing some research on the Rapira Platinum blades. Impressed enough to order a few after some very good reviews.
I really like feathers, but I am also enjoying using the new Russian blades. After this review I am really looking forward to trying the Rapira.
I mainly use Feather blades, though I have tried Rapira & Voskhod. Both are a touch smoother, though the shave is slightly less close. My preference remains with Feather, because I prefer the closer shave & do not find it irritating (but then, leg hair is much finer than facial hair and I imagine that makes a difference.)
I don't think these are quite the same as your Platinums, but I recently tried one in my Fatip Grande, and I could not feel the blade at all. My regular 2 pass shave was nearly BBS and I had no irritation whatsoever. Maybe all of the Rapira's are good?
