Hopefully if you're reading this page, you've progressed beyond ubiquitous cartridge & electric razors and learned the use of double edge safety razors.  It is likely you'll become inspired to try a straight razor, seeking even better shave results.

Straight razors abound in the used marketplace, easily had in good user condition in outlets such as our own page.   Arriving to you honed from an experienced user, you'll have something that will (if properly maintained) shave you just fine for the rest of your days. The environment would thank you if it was sentient-and straights are cool, too.

The bugger with regular straight razors for some, however, is they are maintenance hogs.   That's not necessarily bad; many straight razor owners thoroughly enjoy the processes of edge maintenance.   Straight razors require a strop and a hone, both costing money, and the strop must be employed regularly (proper stropping keeps the hone away for months).  Stropping and honing, beyond shaving itself, are also learned skills.   Just like the straight razor shave, the steep learning curves require patience.

The Feather Artist Club razors, however, aim to deliver the joy of straight razors without the fuss.  They've got a disposable blade edge, and yield 5+ great shaves from each blade.  It is a far cry from the numerous "Shavette" disposable-blade-holders on the market; this is much more like a real straight razor.

Amortized to a few years, this is a rather economical way to shave.  Unless you're a careful buyer of used gear, getting the Feather & supplying it with blades remains for many years cheaper than most of the straight/strop/hone paths.

Having significant time with traditional straights, double/single edge safety razors (and all their various blades), and modern cartridge razors, the following must be stressed; beyond trying to shave with a surgeon's scalpel, there's absolutely nothing that comes close to the sharpness of the Feather Artist Club professional blades (that includes Feather's own fine double edge blades).  Look in a microscope at a professionally-honed straight razor and the Feather AC's blade-the difference is astounding.  It may be too sharp if that's possible.

The Artist Club razors reward deft, light handiwork with unbelievably close, comfortable shaves just as quickly as they brutally penalize user error.  It is a razor which commands respect-and like flying, its use is a skill which isn't necessarily difficult but is entirely intolerant of mistakes.   Should you hang on long enough to get a perfect shave out of it, you'll be stunned-and I say that even as one who feels they've mastered the safety razor.

The Feather Artist Club brushes away stubble as effortlessly as you'd collect dust with a butler's hand broom.  Just like a real straight (and unlike cartridge or safety or electric razors), there's no implement to align and/or stretch skin and blade beyond you and your wits.  Brilliant and awful results alike are all on you.  After ~50 shaves with the Feather Artist Club, I've come to terms with it.  Often, it is just too sharp for my own peak skills as a razor user.  I've had absolute bloodbaths with the Artist Club, a half-dozen or more brutal hacks strewn about.  One wonders why you'd keep trying with it; that's never happened to me with regular straights or with double-edge safety razors.

The Feather blade's unforgiving nature makes even a perfectly executed shave for me far from the relaxing Zen experience that is shaving with the normal straight.  Plenty of other more skilled users do not agree.

With any normal properly conditioned straight, I can approach the barba at various angles; though ~30° is often stated as ideal, I use steeper angles immediately below the nose and shorter angles at other softer spots on the face.

When using an aggressive angle I barely, gingerly pass; sometimes I contort my face to stretch and use my off hand to pinch the head of the blade between thumb and index finger.   I learned quickly how to approach skin, handle the blade, and vary incidence angles with movement around the jaw line and other irregular contours.  You and the normal straight become one after awhile like good dance partners; via its cutting action, it communicates to you what it'd like from your end.

With the Feather; you must reduce the incidence angle range to nearly parallel with the skin surface.  To even bring the blade to the face at the wrong angle means an instant cut.

But the shave's potential quality is terribly consistent, the unscathed results absolutely enviable.  That's why you should try it, if you dare.  After some learning penalties, perhaps you'll get the hang of it.  Many devotees of the Feather "AC" abound.   You might find, as I have, that you can get a better result with 1-2 passes of the Artist Club than with 3+ passes of your best straight razor or safety razor/double edge blade combination.

One other point to mention: the mass and weight of the blade holding end is significantly more than nearly any straight you'd use, thus dictating an even finer need for a delicate hand.

Feather makes the RG basic-class model and the DX, which uses better stainless steel for the blade holder instead of a coated brass alloy.   A variety of spiffy handles for both RG & DX are available.  I personally went for the cheapest, plastic-handled RG version; having now seen both side by side, it is true that the DX has an obvious air of sophistication to it.  The plastic handles available on both the RG and DX models is the kind of tough stuff that can be heavily boiled for sanitation without any damage.

Changing the blade is simple, just pinch the back and drop one in and ever so carefully assure that it is properly seated.

The razor entirely disassembles for sanitation and for quick drying; I use a Giottos Rocket blower brush to disperse standing water and a few spritzes of isopropyl alcohol to help speed microscopic evaporation at the blade's edge, as the replacement blades are rather expensive.

Left to right are the "Pro Guard", "Professional", and "Professional Super" blades.  We've also got the (not pictured) 'Light' blades.

The "Pro Guard" are thinner (0.15mm) blades buffered with wire wrapping, similar to protection offered on "beauty" razors.   You get 15 blades per pack instead of 20, as the wire consumes storage space.  These extend the standard 1.2mm beyond the holder's edge.  If you want to try the Feather system but doubt you won't cut yourself, the Pro Guard blades provide a modicum of protection.

The "Professional" is a 0.254mm thick blade, and we find it to be extremely, outrageously sharp. It extends 1.2mm beyond the blade holder's edge.

The most aggressive model, the "Professional Super", is 0.31mm thick and extends a whopping 1.45mm beyond the blade holder's edge.  All the ooomph of a wedge with exacting control unimaginable to them, the Pro Supers are for those shavers that are so damn good that only the world's most demanding and sharp blade will do.  Consider yourself warned!

Lastly, they've debuted the "Light Blade", which is 0.254mm thick and extends just 0.6mm beyond the holder, which apparently makes it softer upon sensitive skin than any of the others.