well im gonna go for it tomorrow morning im going to put a fresh feather in my red tip,and take her for a ride on my face, excuse me, the red tip has given me very close shaves with a Sweed, and i have to tell you ive never tried the ledgendary Feathers, just gonna be one of those days where you want to push the envelope not too worked up about it, but the razor will have my full attention, saturday morning, hot hot shower whip up some lather and let'r rip, will i hope not!!!!! illl post after the ride of the legendary feather in a red tip, Grottolord
I will give you some good advice here. Before you use the blade, run the edge VERY LIGHTLY through a piece of foam, and then strop it. It will be sharper than any blade you have ever used and as smooth as the Swede you are used to. Strop it agian before every shave too.
foam? do the feathers have burrs? do you cut thru foam befor every new feather use? why the foam i would think that would dull the blade, and hand stropping is allways a good idea, thanks for the infomation Grottolord
If you do a search on the forums for the word Corking you will be able to read more on the foam thing. I use foam instead of cork simply because it is softer and does not dull the blade at all. You only want to cork it once, just before the first use. After that, follow my instructions below to properly strop the DE blade........... This is how I do it: Pinch the blade between your thumb and index fingers so that the edge runs horizontal to them. Now, make sure that you are holding the blade far enough back that it will flex against your skin. This will take just a second for you to make the adjustment. You are going to stick you other arm straight out in front of you, palm up!! Take you other hand, which has the blade in it, and gently press the blade as flat as you can get it across your forearm, close to your inner elbow. You will notice the blade flex ever so slightly to conform to the shape of your forearm. That is fine. Now, gently, with the blade FLAT against your skin, slide it to your wrist. Do that four times. You are now stropping your blade!! Now turn the blade over and repeat. After you do both sides, rotate the blade and do the same on the other edge. It may sound crazy, but after doing it a couple times, you will get use to it, and it will just become habit. I hope this helps. Let me know if you are not 100% clear on how to do this.
I need to clarify one thing. When sliding the blade down your arm, you still are pinching one side. I remember someone years ago just laid the blade on thier arm and slid it back and forth. That did not work out too well..................... Also, if you are not comfortable using you arm, newpaper works great too.
I still dont suggest corking. If a blade isnt right from you out of the package, use another. Feathers arent anything special IMHO. There are plenty of other blades just as sharp that are smoother.
I've never corked a Feather. That might be helpful for some, but I've never seen the need, personally. They do very nicely in my Techs and super speeds right out of the pack.
Hiya Grottolord, Well, I might as well give you my take on using a feather tomorrow. I think you should do fine, and more than likely enjoy that blade a good bit. Since you've been using a Swede recently, the jump will be not as noticeable as if you'd been using a Red Personna or Crystal. Swedes are darn sharp blades, although the feather is a little different animal. So don't worry about anything getting outta hand when you shave. Lemme mention this corking thing if I may. The topic comes up at times, and yes, it DOES work for many people. Even some veteran shavers have remarked on the difference corking can make for THEM, but it's not really for most people. I agree with Jay about finding a blade that corking isn't needed at all.......ever. You know, there's certain shaving tools that we get to know through experience.....actually it's trial and error.......heh. Over time, using the same prep, technique, razor, and blade all help in making each shave the best it can be. You get to know each tool intimately, and how it should perform. In other words..........the VARIABLES are eliminated. Hehe, the lather thing though........there's always room for error there.....it's not an exact part of the shaving tools I guess. I'm sure rollshaver was meaning well when giving you advice about prepping the feather, but it kinda adds another non scientific thing to the mix. The corking and stropping always have to be done the same way....with the same material being used........or else the shave may not be the same. The stropping part...........heh, another variable to toss into the mix. To me, I wanna know exactly what to expect from a blade I'm gonna be using, starting with the very first shave. Having used many feather blades, I know just what they should feel like. If I hadda screw around with corking and stropping, I'd find another blade that gave me a consistently good shave. There's just too much guesswork involved otherwise. Anyway, it's just how I see things........we all have our own take on what works for us. I seriously think you're gonna enjoy trying that blade in the morning. Those things whack whiskers like no other blade I've tried. Hehe, have a riot, Martin Oh, if anyone is interested in the corking thing, I'll include this old discussion from the SMF forum. http://www.shavemyface.com/forum/vi...s=0&postorder=asc&highlight=deburring&start=0
I just want to say that I have been using "Swedes" for a years, and normally around the fifth shave can tell a difference in smoothness. However, if I strop a Swede before every use, I can get weeks out of one before I can tell the same difference. I will agree that throwing different variable into your routine can get you mixed up. That is why when I do these experiments, I use the same prep, cream, brush, and razor for the duration of the experiment. I have been using the particular cream and brush for so many years, it is just second nature for me to get my lather perfect. But, as always in thios world, YMMV.
Red Tip/ Feather Heaven Its 9 degrees outside today Steamy hot shower C&E Sienna out of Silver Stag bowl onto Jager BBB Freshly Corked and Stropped Feather 1956 Red Tip 3 pass with touch up not a nick or weaper to be found BBB Geo Trumper Coral Skin Pinnauds BAy rum that was my first "Feather" Shave , great shave . dont know what all the talk about nicks and weapers is on the Feathers , just a nice smooth "close" shave, I like it, By the way if you look into the bowl, thats me looking back!!!! Grottolord
