Feather Professional Blades -Wildly Inconsistent

After going through 5 of my Feather Professional blades, it seems as if they are wildly inconsistent. Three of the blades were great producing at least 10 close comfortable shaves. The other two blades though were very rough and unacceptable. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I've only used a total of four of them in my Cobra since I get so many shaves from one blade plus I alternate with other DE razors. So far those four blades have been consistent for me.

This is disturbing news considering the damage they are capable of inflicting and their cost.
Thank you Phil, I will keep a close watch...and try some of the Kai blades.

I have found the Feathers also inconsistent from blade to blade and yet they come out of the same cartridge. Also what I found is these blades are very delicate and loading into a Cobra sometimes can be tricky. The Kai blades seem to be uniformly better quality.

Too bad they don't load into the Cobra like the Schick injectors without touching the blade.

Yep, the Feathers are all over the place.

A while back, I was gettihng close to 20 shaves in a CC with each Feather blade. That's dropped off to about 7 shaves lately.

Maybe their QC is suffering as the demand goes up.

Dang, I was getting closer to finally ordering a CC but all the talk about blades has me concerned. Didn't I read another Feather blade is a bit better and of more consistent quality? It might have been Shawn (Sully) that mentioned this.

Bill,

That's one of the reasons I now prefer my E Type Schick injector to the CC.

The main thing going for the CC was that it used the Feather blades, which weren't cheap, but lasted a long time. The Kais are still good, but they also don't last past 10 shaves and they're much more expensive.

The Feathers still provide a better first and second shave than the Chinese Schicks (that I use in my injectors), but they pretty much are equal in quality after that. Of course, the Chinese Schicks are much more affordable.

I'm experimenting with Dorco Hair Shaper blades (exactly like the Feathers, but much cheaper) in my non-folding AC-type razor, and they seem to be pretty good. Much smoother than the Feathers (to start out with). However, I'm holding off on recommending them until I've used a few of them.

I have had a few blades that where really no good especially with the professionals, the super professionals seem to be ok, no problem with the kai's either (in the close to 100 blades so I used so far.)

Does the CC accept Super Pros now? I had one of the early CC's and it didn't. Since that time I've never had Super Pros to try.

For what it's worth, I much preferred the Super Pros to the Pros in my Feather AC. Still, I haven't used them in over a year.

I was under the impression that the CC didn't accept the Super Pros. I've been thinking that it's only the Feather Pro's the Kai Captain Mild's, the Feather Pro Guard's and the Dorco's which are difficult to find.

I'm sure that I am not anywhere close to being definitive!

The Dorco's fit in the CC? I didn't know that.

I was holding off on buy a CC, and instead getting a Joris(thanks TexBilly for the tour) because of the lack of consistent blades. I have used a CC, and liked the sharpness of the Pro's vs the Kai's. I must have gotten lucky with my blade, or it was my special loading technique; Drop the blade in an empty sink before loading the Cobra.

It's not limited to the ac blades, the DE blades have been inconsistent as well. I've noticed this a number of times. They're still my favorite blades, but like I said in another thread, so much for Japanese precision. Feather's QC is slacking.

We have to keep in mind that since the tsunami and the nuclear power issues that the Feather facilities may be suffering from power restrictions / higher electrical costs, transportation and logistics issues, using lesser quality materials to make up for other cost impacts, etc. We really don't know how it affects these businesses in full, since it would not be in their best interest to divulge that information (stock price, competitive edge, etc).

The Japanese workers may also be suffering from a form of fatigue due to these crises that may be appearing in the form of a lack of consistency in some of the products being produced.

Food for thought on the subject that is all this is meant to bring up.

You are probably onto something regarding the cause Gary. Nonetheless, it is troubling. The blade I used for today's shave felt like a shard of broken glass as had one of the previous blades from this pack. The other blades from the same pack though were silky smooth.

I wonder if the several Feather blades I tried were all bad? It would certainly explain my experience with them.

The main reason I would like the Feather blades to work for is that you can pick up a 20 pack of blades for around $13 and now that Telly lost his contact for cheap Kai Mild blades they are much more expensive. I paid $13 for a 22 pack of Kai Mild blades.

(04-26-2012, 09:11 AM)yohannrjm Wrote: Yep, the Feathers are all over the place.

A while back, I was gettihng close to 20 shaves in a CC with each Feather blade. That's dropped off to about 7 shaves lately.

Maybe their QC is suffering as the demand goes up.

That is a serious drop off in quality.

(04-26-2012, 09:15 AM)TexBilly Wrote: Dang, I was getting closer to finally ordering a CC but all the talk about blades has me concerned. Didn't I read another Feather blade is a bit better and of more consistent quality? It might have been Shawn (Sully) that mentioned this.

It wasn't me. I'm a proponent of the Kai Mild blades. I've used the Feather Pro Guards in the CC but I didn't really care for them and I was only getting about 10 shaves per blade. They just feel strange in CC, but I really like them in my Feather AC SS.

(04-26-2012, 09:24 AM)Snuff Wrote: I have had a few blades that where really no good especially with the professionals, the super professionals seem to be ok, no problem with the kai's either (in the close to 100 blades so I used so far.)

Are you using a Cobra Classic?

(04-26-2012, 10:12 AM)EHV Wrote: I was under the impression that the CC didn't accept the Super Pros. I've been thinking that it's only the Feather Pro's the Kai Captain Mild's, the Feather Pro Guard's and the Dorco's which are difficult to find.

I'm sure that I am not anywhere close to being definitive!

I was under the same impression, that the Super Pro's didn't work in the CC. What Dorco's are you talking about? I didn't know that Dorco made a blade that would fit in the Cobra Classic.

Shawn -

The Feather Super Pros didn't fit in my CC, but that was when the CC was still $125, so maybe they made some adjustments to the razors since that time.

The Dorcos people are talking about are the Hair Shaper blades. They're apparently only available from Korea, and I know of only one guy on the forums who buys and resells them.

I've only just started using them, and the initial results are promising. They start off smoother than the Feathers, but I still haven't used them enough to make any claims about consistency and longevity.

I picked up 50 older Feather Pro blades (sold in packs of 5) from a forum member in Japan and will try these out to see if they are more consistent than current production.

Can't say I'm a big feather fan. I find they need to be corked to work right. I also can't get more than say 3 shaves out of a feather before it starts to cut me up.

(04-27-2012, 05:38 AM)yohannrjm Wrote: Shawn -

The Feather Super Pros didn't fit in my CC, but that was when the CC was still $125, so maybe they made some adjustments to the razors since that time.

The Dorcos people are talking about are the Hair Shaper blades. They're apparently only available from Korea, and I know of only one guy on the forums who buys and resells them.

I've only just started using them, and the initial results are promising. They start off smoother than the Feathers, but I still haven't used them enough to make any claims about consistency and longevity.

Any chance you could tell me who is selling the Dorcos?

(04-27-2012, 07:17 AM)bullgoose Wrote: I picked up 50 older Feather Pro blades (sold in packs of 5) from a forum member in Japan and will try these out to see if they are more consistent than current production.

I hope the turn out great. Please keep us posted.

(04-27-2012, 11:33 AM)1.41 Wrote: Can't say I'm a big feather fan. I find they need to be corked to work right. I also can't get more than say 3 shaves out of a feather before it starts to cut me up.

Are you talking about the Feather De blades or the Feather Pro blades?

i have also found the Feather Pros to be a bit inconsistent, but only a few.
The Cobra can use either the Feather Professional or the Pro Guard blades.

Knock on wood, I have not had any issues with my Feather Professional blades. Granted I have a bit of a surplus from a couple years ago, so maybe quality control has dropped? If that is the case it is a serious bummer....