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Post by PJGH on Sept 13, 2014 16:54:24 GMT -6
Ha! You tried a Super! When I was "young" and quite mad, I had a Feather Artist Club kamisori-style and tried all the Feathers. For me, the regular was enough, but the Super was something else - what a lethal, no surgical weapon!
I was thinking about this razor the other day and reminded that we get a range of blade choices from Feather (and Kai), different presentations for a mild, regular or insane shave. I never got along with injectors and don't really think the Cobra would be something I'd enjoy ... the heavy head on this, though, quite a different razor I'm sure.
I think I'll be in for one shortly ...
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RocketMan
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Post by RocketMan on Sept 14, 2014 23:50:15 GMT -6
This has been a great read following your experiences with this new razor. Your description of your first try with the Feather Supers gave me Mon-goosepimples!
This looks like a well made razor as the fit and finish on it looks solid. It may come in too hefty for what I like, but I am biased against the trend towards lots of metal in a razor frame and handle. As an example, I really enjoy an early 1900s lather catcher with hollow tube handle precisely because of the lightness. For me this is what brings agility to therazor.
That said, I would certainly give one a shot. And, Feather makes great blades. Although, the Supers would cost me more than a dollar a piece by the time they got to my door, and their steel and edge prep is not prone to getting many shaves from a blade. This setup is not for the light of pocket crowd.
Thanks for sharing your experience on the forums. It certainly has piqued my interest. And congrats to everyone involved with getting the razor so far. Great stuff!
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 15, 2014 16:57:36 GMT -6
This has been a great read following your experiences with this new razor. Your description of your first try with the Feather Supers gave me Mon-goosepimples! This looks like a well made razor as the fit and finish on it looks solid. It may come in too hefty for what I like, but I am biased against the trend towards lots of metal in a razor frame and handle. As an example, I really enjoy an early 1900s lather catcher with hollow tube handle precisely because of the lightness. For me this is what brings agility to therazor. That said, I would certainly give one a shot. And, Feather makes great blades. Although, the Supers would cost me more than a dollar a piece by the time they got to my door, and their steel and edge prep is not prone to getting many shaves from a blade. This setup is not for the light of pocket crowd. Thanks for sharing your experience on the forums. It certainly has piqued my interest. And congrats to everyone involved with getting the razor so far. Great stuff! Rocketman, do not equate these Feather AC blades to their DE blades when it comes to longevity. On the Feather Pros I easily averaged 12-15 shaves per blade. I even had one give me 19 great shaves while another gave me 18. I never got less than 10 from a single blade. So while the cost is close to $1/blade, you are getting down to a dime per shave or less. Regarding the weight, this razor head will be available as a head only option soon allowing you to pair whatever handle you want with it. This is one of the greatest assets for this razor.
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 15, 2014 16:58:01 GMT -6
Day #8 of my Mongoose Journal -- Progress I took yesterday off from shaving as I wasn't going to church and was instead sitting in some very boring CEU classes. This also gave me the opportunity to run the Feather Super blade up against 2 days of my stubbly forest. It's not like it was any contest, however, as the Super sliced through the whisker without any effort. Another amazing performance from this razor and I'm pleased with the progress I'm seeing with getting to know this wickedly awesome blade. Today's Mongoose Shave: 15/09/2014 -- Progress • Mongoose Dub Legend • • Feather Super (2) • • Plisson Pearly Gray Synthetic • • Martin de Candre Fougère (68) • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue • I used more caution in my approach to my jawline but there still was some blood, but much less than my first go with the Super. So I'm happily calling this progress. I stretched the skin here a little different by using my opposite hand to stretch rather than facial contortions. My thinking was that if I could keep the muscles underneath relaxed while stretching the skin that I might be protected from the blade better. This worked to some degree as I had zero weepers on the right side jawline. However, the left side didn't fare as well. Looks like I need to keep figuring out my plan of attack there. After the shave I did give the blade a good palm stropping like I did for my first two blades. As a general practice I palm strop my GEM blades from the get go and it helps prevent bloody shaves. It most likely will become my regular practice with these blades as well since I noticed improvements afterwards in both the Kai Mild and Feather Pro. I did also give myself a nice little slice just under my ear. It was not a shaving stroke, but rather a slight miscue in how far away I pulled the razor off of my face before moving it laterally. Let's just say that lateral movements combined with these blades will leave a mark. Otherwise, my 2-day stubble was removed in 2 passes effortlessly and my face feels great; smooth and refreshed. Shave On & God Bless!!! Until next shave...
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 16, 2014 18:46:36 GMT -6
Day #9 of my Mongoose Journal After this shave I will be breaking my pattern. I will have 3 shaves on each of the 3 blades that I possess; Kai Mild, Feather Pro, & Feather Super. The Supers have the highest potential of the 3 blades for me so I plan on using this blade until it's done now. Today's Mongoose Shave: * Mongoose Dub Legend * * Feather Super (3) Hand Stropped * * GroCo Brazuca Synth * * Soap Commander Respect (13) * * Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue * Once again I find that the stropping of this style blade makes a huge difference in how the shave feels on my skin. This shave was completely free of blood; not even the slightest drop from the jawline or anywhere else. I understand that many people may not feel like hand stropping a blade does anything but for me a hand stropped Feather Super blade be like... As I continue to get comfortable with both the rigidity and exposure of this blade I will also test its longevity. Many people equate the name Feather with a blade that is only good for 2 shaves. I guarantee you that these blades are not like their DE cousins. A Feather Pro blade in my Cobra once lasted 19 shaves while another lasted 18. I never got less than 10 stellar shaves with a single Feather Pro. I am curious to see if the extra thickness of the Supers has any impact, positively or negatively, on their lifespan. Until next shave...
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 17, 2014 17:07:41 GMT -6
Day #10 of my Mongoose Journal The Feather Super blade is following the pattern that I remember with the Pro blades; it just keeps getting better. I'm really looking forward to how great my next one will perform from shave #1 when I palm strop it right away. Today's Mongoose Shave: 17/09/2014 -- Super Blue! • Mongoose : Dub Legend • • Feather Super Pro (4) • • Grooming Co Synthetic • • Soap Commander Vision • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue • During this shave I noticed a couple things which I have been pondering thanks to some great discussions lately. First off, the shave felt more like my vintage SE shaves using the GEM blades. What I mean by that was that the over the top sharpness has dulled down enough to where there is more feedback as the blade cuts the hair. Initially, these blades are so sharp that you don't feel a thing as the blade slices the whiskers off. This is what I think those who are used to DEs expect from a SE blade. However, if you throw one of these blades away at this point then I think you are missing out on some of the best shaves that you can get with a single edge razor. Even though the feedback is more noticeable, the rigidity of the blade still allows it to perform at a high level. This is what will allow it to deliver amazing shave results long after the wicked sharpness dies down a touch. It is now that you can start shaving with less focus and still be rewarded with a BBS shave. Secondly, I needed to shorten my strokes due to the increased feedback. Longer strokes as the blade dulls can lead to what many people consider tugging. However, the blade is still sharp enough to cut, and even cut very smoothly, but the blade is being overwhelmed by either the speed or the length of the stroke. I prefer to go for shorter and quicker strokes, almost like blade buffing. I can do this in any direction; WTG, XTG, and ATG. Again, thanks to the rigidity of the blade one can still easily get the whiskers off despite the feeling of more resistance. By no means is the blade pulling the hair out. I'm not sure if I'm describing this very well. I guess that's one of the benefits to this being an interactive journal. It may work best to try like I have to describe it and then just answer any questions that you may have developed while reading through it. The bottom line is that SE blades with their rigidity perform very differently compared to their DE cousins. While it may not make much sense and many people may not want to experience the increased feedback during each stroke, this is the reasoning behind why I can get so many shaves from a single blade. It seems that many people dispose of these blades somewhere between 5 and 7 shaves. I push close to 20. I don't bin a blade based on the extra feedback indicating a drop in the blade's sharpness. Rather, I wait until I notice that my shaves are not as close and smooth after my typical 2 pass + jawline touchup. This is when my blades get refreshed. The drop off in sharpness is what I feel most people are using to determine when their blade is done. While that's fine I am certainly glad that I learned long ago using the GEM blades in my vintage SEs that I could get much more from these special blades. If you are coming straight from DEs to the Mongoose or Cobra, then please just be aware that the blades are quite different from what you are used to. Give them a chance to do more than you think, as long as your shave and face don't suffer of course. Even those shavers who aren't new to SEs but may only get 5 shaves or so from a blade, go ahead and push these to see what you get. You'll never know until you try. I learned that I could do this by simply experimenting to see just how many shaves I could get from a single blade. I wasn't concerned with the sensation that the blade wasn't as sharp as it was initially. I just wanted my shaves to be comfortable, close, and blood free. Please don't think that I'm recommending that you push through an uncomfortable shave. Just change your technique a little and see what might happen. It is now about 12 hours since my shave this morning and I'm still very smooth in the ATG direction; probably DFS level now instead of the BBS it started out as. I can't wait to see just how many more shaves I will get from this blade. Shave On & God Bless!!! Until next shave...
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 18, 2014 17:03:52 GMT -6
Day #11 of my Mongoose Journal -- Yep, still musing! I've got a big weekend coming up in which I want to have some really close shaves both on Friday and Saturday. So today was a simple one pass shave for work. I was very pleased with how good of a shave it was; DFS and more than presentable enough for what is my Friday of the work week. Today's Mongoose Shave: 18/09/2014 -- Single Pass • Mongoose : Dub Legend • • Feather Super (5) • • Plisson Synthetic • • Martin de Candre (17) • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue • Not much to report with this shave. A single pass WTG with some slight XTG thrown in is a non-issue with the user-friendly Mongoose. It does still amaze at just how much stubble can be removed during the first pass with this style of blades. The Super did not disappoint at all in this regard leaving me DFS+ along the cheeks, upper lip, & neck; DFS- along the jawline and under the chin. Shave On & God Bless!!! Until next shave...
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 25, 2014 17:09:26 GMT -6
Shave #16 of my Mongoose Journey It's been 5 shaves since I've been able to sit down and muse a bit. As I'm not really changing variables at this point there hasn't been much to report until today as the Feather Super blade hits its 10th shave. Shaves 12-14 were smooth as can be and super close. I've shaved both daily and on 2-days of growth with no irritation or weepers. On to today's Mongoose Shave: 25/09/2014 Mongoose in the mist. • Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Super (10) • • L'Occitane Cade Plisson Synthetic • • Catie's Bubbles Le Piment de la Vie (22) • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue • This was another shave that was starting out just like the last 5 shaves. Things took a little turn, however, as I went for my ATG pass on my upper lip. After a couple strokes a felt a little 'zing'. Then on the other side in about the same spot I got another 'zing'. Finally, as I was getting those last little pesky whiskers just under my nose I get one more 'zing'. Each 'zing' developed a short-lived weeper. I'm not sure what this was from as I don't normally feel the blade bite me unless it's something serious from a mistake that I made. The blade certainly didn't feel dull and there was no tugging. My only thought was that I haven't stropped the blade at all for the last 3 or 4 shaves so perhaps it was loosing the edge a touch. I finished the shave, cleaned up, and disassembled the razor. I palm stropped the blade thoroughly, probably 15x on each side. So my shave tomorrow should really answer some questions, at least in my mind, on the effect of palm stropping on the blade. I've read that some people feel that stropping the blade leads to it dulling prematurely. However, from what I've read on honing and stropping straight razors I thought that proper stropping would lengthen the amount of time between honings. So to me I thought that stropping helped to maintain the edge of the blade which the honing puts onto the blade. With how much I stropped this blade today I should know right away tomorrow if I have dulled the blade. If it starts out well, then I'll continue on and see how it performs again on my upper lip during the ATG pass. I'm know I'm looking forward to getting a little better understanding on just why I seem to get such good results from this method. I hope it will give others some insight too and possibly help someone else out there. Until next shave... Shave On & God Bless!!!
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 27, 2014 6:32:38 GMT -6
Shave #17 of my Mongoose Journey After stropping the fool out of the Super blade following the last shave I definitely didn't feel any 'zings' this time around. Here was my Mongoose shave: 26/09/2014• Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Super (11) • • Plisson Synthetic • • Martin de Candre Fougère (69) • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue •Despite a great lather this blade had just reached its end. I was still able to get a close and smoother shave, however, it took me a good bit more work in my touchups to get there. The stropping did smooth the edge out enough so that I didn't have any blood from this shave. I did get some mild irritation in the few spots that I needed extra work to get as smooth as I like. So while my stropping didn't completely save this blade it did allow me to have another blood-free shave before moving on to the next blade. Anything over 10 shaves from these blades is just a bonus for me so I'm quite pleased with 11 shaves here. I'll be curious to see how my next Super blade performs. For now though I'll be going back to a Feather Pro starting on shave #18. Until next shave... Shave On & God Bless!!!
Shave #18 of my Mongoose Journey Back to the Feather Professional blade after getting 11 shaves from the Super. Here is today's Mongoose shave: 27/09/2014• Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Pro (4) • • Cade Plisson • • RazoRock XXX • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue •Back to an extremely smooth and easy shave. Nothing to complain about at all. In fact, after using the stiffer and wider (more exposure) Super blade, it didn't even feel like I had a blade loaded. At one time I used to fear the keenness of the Feather Pro blades. Now that this blade is loaded in the Mongoose's stable platform and I have some practice with the Super blade, this feels so mild that I doubt I could hurt myself even if I tried. Until next shave... Shave On & God Bless!!!
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Sept 29, 2014 10:29:46 GMT -6
Shave #s 19 & 20 of my Mongoose Journey 3 days in a row with the thrice used Feather Professional blade makes a total of 6 shaves on it now and everything about it still feels like new. Here is yesterday's Mongoose shave: 28/09/2014• Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Professional (5) • • L'Occitane Cade Plisson • • Vito's Extra Super • • Krampert's Finest Acadian Spice Bay Rum •
Here is today's Mongoose shave: 29/09/2014• Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Professional (6) • • Plisson Acetate Synthetic • • WSP Rustic -- Barbershop (6) • • Vintage Aqua Velva Ice Blue •20 shaves completed with the Mongoose now. I have not used any other razor since I first started shaving with it on September 6th. That's 20 great shaves in 24 days. Yes, I've had some ups and downs while learning this razor and some different blades. However, the end result has always been a great shave and more importantly the shaving experience is sublime. The corners of my lip subconsciously turn upward whenever I see the Mongoose with its gorgeous mirrored finish; an outright smile breaks free each time I pick it up. I'm so excited to see many more people getting to experience this razor in the next few weeks. Even though I have one already all of the Batch #2 excitement is hitting me as well. Until next shave... Shave On & God Bless!!!
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Oct 7, 2014 11:20:45 GMT -6
Mongoose Journey: Shave #27 Not too much to report over the last 7 shaves until yesterday and today. Today was shave #13 on this Feather Professional blade. I recently saw that someone ordered 200 of these blades. If I keep the math simple and conservatively average 10 shaves per blade, then that would be 2,000 shaves worth of blades right there. If I were to shave daily, then it would take almost 5 1/2 years to go through all of them. Considering that I realistically average about 5 shaves per week the time would jump up to almost 7 3/4 years. Yeah, these blades may cost a bit more per blade but man do they average out over time to be a bargain. Here is today's Mongoose shave: 07/10/2014• Mongoose + Dub Legend • • Feather Professional (13) • • L'Occitane Cade Plisson • • Cella Extra Extra Purissima • • Myrsol Agua Balsamica •As I mentioned in the introduction there was not much to report on my recent shaves until yesterday and today. Yesterday I noticed just a couple weepers and that I was feeling the edge of the blade more. After the shave I decided to strop the blade for the first time since putting it back in the razor 8 shaves prior. Today's shave was definitely back to being smooth and there was no more blood. However, it took a good bit more effort to get as close of a shave as I like in my problem spots; around the jawline and chin. Because of this decrease in performance I went ahead and binned the blade after it's 13th use. Tomorrow I will load up a fresh Feather Super and hang on for the ride. It sounds like Batch 2 is getting close to being rolled out. I certainly hope that my journal has helped bring some more information to light regarding the spectacular SE razor and the blades that it was made for. If you get your email notice and you have a lingering question before placing your order, then please post it here and I'll do what I can to answer it. It appears that they will start to roll out the inventory as it is available rather than wait for all to be ready. Those who were on the list the earliest will get notified first. That simple. Despite the increase in production cost, Team Mongoose is honoring the announced price for all on the Batch 2 list of $149 CONUS for the entire razor and $119 CONUS for the head only. There will most assuredly be a higher price once this razor becomes a regular stock item at BullGoose Shaving. So if you want to get in on the best price possible for this razor, then you need to get in on the list before 12pm EST on Wednesday October 8th as this is when the list will close. Email your request to be on the list to mongooseorders@gmail.com. Be sure to read the post here on the Nook or in the pinned post of the Mongoose Razors Facebook page to understand the options that will be available. It also sounds like there will be more information to come. I can't wait to see the Mongoose in more SOTDs and to hear what even more people think about this razor. Godspeed to all of you who have been waiting; some patiently and others not so much. :winky: All I can say is that you wait will be well worth it. Until next shave... Shave On & God Bless!!!
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Post by wchnu on Oct 13, 2014 23:25:58 GMT -6
I am in the no interest in this razor crowd,but thanks for the excellent writeup's.
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Oct 14, 2014 8:30:02 GMT -6
I am curious now. For those that announce that you have no interest in this razor, may I ask why? What about it makes it a no-go for you?
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Post by PJGH on Oct 14, 2014 8:44:18 GMT -6
For me, it's price, the fact that I love vintage and then there's my experiences with the Feather Artist Club and those blades ... that, and I simply don't like injectors, so buying what appears to be ostensibly a wide injector is unlikely to be my sort of thing. Same reasons as with the Cobra, I guess.
I'd love to have a go with one nevertheless ...
How's that?
It is a lovely piece of engineering and your enthusiasm for it has been a joy to read.
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SharpSpine
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Post by SharpSpine on Oct 14, 2014 8:52:44 GMT -6
All valid reasons Paul. I really am simply curious and I hope no one thinks I feel offended by y'all saying that you aren't interested. Did you have a bad experience with the Artist Club blades?
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