Feather Artist Club Razors: folding SS (top), folding DX (middle), non-folding DX (bottom)
Feather Professional Artist Club Razors
Feather Professional Artist Club razors, often called Feather razors and/or Feather Artist Club razors, are a replaceable blade razor made by a Japanese company named Feather Safety Razor Co., Ltd.
The company’s literature indicates the Feather Professional Artist Club razors are targeted at barbers, hence the word “Professional” in the name, but many people, myself included, have bought Feather Artist Club razors for their personal use.
The primary draw to Feather Artist Club razors are that they give you a shave similar to that of a straight razor, but require none of the maintenance.
If the blade gets dull you pop the old one out and put the new one in using their injection-style cartridge. You don’t need to worry about honing or stropping the razor like you would a straight razor. Of course this comes with the minor setback of needing to purchase replacement blades.
Why I Like Feather Artist Club Razors
My favorite feature of Feather Artist Club razors, and this extends to straight razors as well, is their ability to shave long lengths of hair without clogging up. The longest length of hair I’ve personally shaved with one is a 6-month beard and the feather razor sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.
The only maintenance I’ve ever had to perform with one is clean up some rust stains with some rubbing alcohol. The handle itself is highly resistant to rust, unless you use inappropriate chemicals on it, but the actual blades themselves, as with all razors, perform rust.
If you leave a blade in long enough, eventually you’ll get some surface transfer from the blade to the blade holder, but it’s easily cleaned with rubbing alcohol. I’m not a materials scientist, so take this with a grain of salt, but I don’t think the actual blade holder is rusting. Rather, I think the rust is just sitting on the surface of the blade holder since the blade and blade holder are in direct contact with each other.
Feather Artist Club Razors come in a variety of models and colors. Each model has a slightly different construction leading to a different shave experience for each model.
Feather Artist Club Folding VS. Non-Folding Razors
Top: Folding DX Bottom: Non-Folding DX
Before discussing specific models, I want to mention that each model comes in two varieties: folding and non-folding.
Feather Artist Club Folding Razors
The folding Feather Artist Club razors bear a striking resemblance to a traditional straight razor. The blade holder part of the folding Feather Artist Club razor t folds into the handle when it’s not in use.
A casual glance might even make you believe it was a straight razor if you didn’t pick it up and inspect it. I’ve even seen some websites refer to them as straight razors, but they’re more accurately categorized as a shavette since you can replace the blade.
Feather Artist Club Non-Folding Razors
The non-folding razors are also referred to as Japanese-style razors. Feather’s literature refers to the non-folding razors as Japanese Razors. You’ll see some people will refer to them as kamisori razors as well. The most notable difference you can see with the non-folding Feather razors is they lack the handle part that the folding razors have.
Since there is no handle to guard the razor blade, it’s recommended that you buy a separate plastic guard that is designed specifically for these non-folding Feather Artist Club razors. The last thing you want to perform is accidentally cut yourself on the unguarded razors. The blades are extremely sharp and it doesn’t take much for you to cut yourself with them.
Feather Artist Club Razor Models
There are three different Feather Artist Club razor models to choose from: SS, SR, and DX. The SS is the least expensive and the DX is the most expensive. I’ll expand on each specific model below.
Feather Artist Club SS Razors
Feather Artist Club SS folding razor
As mentioned above, the SS razor is the least expensive Feather Artist Club razor. I have used this razor to shave both my head and beard since 2012. It’s definitely a solid razor and will get the job done.
Feather Artist Club SR Razors
I don’t have any personal experience with this razor. The news section of Feather’s website lists the Feather Artist Club SR razor as a New Product as of 6/29/21. The SR appears to stand for “Super-Razor”.
If you look closely at pictures of the SR razor you’ll see pronounced fluting in the area of the razor that’s often referred to as the “shank” on straight razors. The fluting contains relatively wide dips with narrow ridges. Contrast with the reeding on the DX razor which has relatively wide humps with narrow dips.
Feather Artist Club DX Razors
Folding Feather Artist Club DX razor
Feather Safety Razor Co., Ltd. touts the Feather Artist Club DX razor as their flagship model. Three notable differences between the DX and the other two models are the finish, the tip of the razor and reeding on the handle. These differences will be discussed in subsequent sections.
Feather Artist Club Handle/Scales Colors
Some colors like black can be found across all the different models, but other colors are limited to a specific model. Below you’ll find information about what colors are available for each model.
Feather Artist Club SS Razor Handle Colors
The Feather Artist Club SS razors come in four different different colors: wine, black, lime, and brown. The brown-handled folding razor is notable because it’s the only one that is made out of wood. Additionally, it only comes in as a folding razor and does not have a non-folding counterpart like all the other models.
Feather Artist Club SR Razor Handle Colors
The new SR line up has razors with handles that are black, blue, and pink.
Feather Artist Club DX Razor Handle Colors
The DX razor differs from the SS and SR razors in colors in that the folding and non-folding razors are different colors. For the folding DX razors you can choose between a white pearl color with a logo that changes color depending on how the light hits it or a dark brown wooden handle.
There is only one non-folding DX razor and it’s color is light blue
Feather Artist Club Razor Handle Composition
Feather Artist Club razors handles are made out of four different types of material: a super engineering resin, a silicone resin, wood and an elastomir resin.
“Super engineering resin” – The folding models of the SS, SR, and DX are all made out of a super engineering resin according to Feather’s website. This material feels like a hard plastic The only exception to this are those folding models that are made out of wood.
Silicone resin – The non-folding SS and SR models are made out of a silicone resin. This actually just seems like something that slips over the tang/tail part of the razor.
Wood – Only the SS and DX models have wooden handles.
Elastomir resin – Only the non-folding DX razor has an elastomir resin. This is very soft feeling to the touch.
Feather Artist Club Razor Composition
Top: SS razor with sandblast finish. Middle/bottom: Folding and non-folding DX with hairline finish.
The metal piece of each razor is slightly different. In traditional straight razor terms this would be the piece that makes up the face, spine, shoulder, shank, and tang of the razor. I’ll discuss the differences between the difference razor models below.
Sandblasted Steel – Both the SS and SR models are made out of sandblasted stainless steel. Feather’s marketing literature indicates that this is to prevent the razor from sticking to the skin.
Hairline Finish – The DX razor is the only Feather Artist Club razor to have a “hairline finish handmade by a craftsman.” If you’re like me and not familiar with that term, like me,KDMSteel describes a hairline finish as a “decorative texture effect of stainless steel surface stripes resembling human hair.”
Feather Artist Club Razor Steel Type
Feather’s website lists both the SR and DX razor as both being made out of SUS316 stainless steel. According to the McHone Industries website, “SUS is the typical Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) designation for stainless steel grades. It stands for “steel use stainless”.
If you look at pictures at both the SR and DX razors you’ll see SUS316 stamped into the steel. Feather doesn’t mention on its website what type of steel the SS is made out of.
Feather Artist Club Razor Weights
Feather Artist Club SS Razor Weight
All the SS razors weigh around 1.5 ounces except for the wooden-handled SS razor which weighs around 1.79 ounces. This means, that all but one of the SS razors are lighter than the all the SR and DX Feather Artist Club razors.
Feather Artist Club SR Razor Weight
This razor appears to be a “mid-range” razor as it weighs in at 51 grams (1.79 ounces) which is more than all, but one of the SS razors and less than the DX razors(except for the DX non-folding/Japanese razor.)
Feather Artist Club DX Razor Weight
The DX razors are the heaviest razors and weight 55 grams for the one with the white pearl colored handle and 56 grams for the one with the wood handle. This is 1.94 and 1.97 ounces respectively. The non-folding DX weighs in at 45 grams.
Feather Artist Club Razor Disinfection
Except the razors with wood handles, all of them can be disinfected by “boiling or using ethanol”. Feather’s websites cautions against using “autoclave or sodium hypochlorite for disinfection.”
If you ignore Feather’s cautions against using sodium hypochlorite for disinfection, then you can expect corrosion and pitting to occur as discussed on the British Stainless Steel Association’s website. Also, the BSSA’s website mentions that “household bleach solutions are around 5.25% sodium hypochlorite.”
I’ve used isopropyl rubbing alcohol to clean my SS razor since 2012. I haven’t seen any noticeable pitting or corrosion with it.
To sum it up, don’t use beach to clean your Feather Artist Club razors and check other cleaners you may use to make sure they don’t contain sodium hypochlorite either.
Feather Artist Club Blade Holder Profiles
Left: SS tip profile Right: DX tip profile
Feather Artist Club Blade Holder/Tip Shape
One of the key differences between the SS, SR, and DX Artist Club razors is the profile of the blade holders. The SS blade holder is rounded and reminds me of a dolphin’s beak. Feather’s literature refers to the SS as having a rounded tip and says it provides a soft-feeling with low blade exposure.
The SR blade holder has a less pronounced rounded tip than the SS razor, but more pronounced rounding than the DX razor.
The DX razor has minimal rounding and in some of Feather’s drawings it almost looks flat.
Feather Artist Club Blade Exposure
Feather references blade exposure in their documentation. This refers to the amount of blade that extends from the blade holder. The SS and SR Artist Club razor models have the same exact blade exposure for a given type of blade.
The DX Artist Club razor model had 0.2mm more blade exposure for any given blade model compared to the SS and SR razors
Feather Professional Blades
- Feather Professional Blade – Black cartridge, designed for all kinds of beards
- Feather Professional ProGuard – Gray cartridge, designed for a close and relaxing shave. Soft feeling and a safe/smooth stroke. semicircular guard.
- Feather Professional Light Blade – Green cartridge designed for a mild and thorough shave. Light feeling due to smaller blade exposure.
- Feather Professional Super Blade – White cartridge designed for a close and thorough shave. Designed for heavy thick beards.
- Feather Professional Soft Guard – Pink cartridge, designed for a mild and relaxing shave. Wavy guards. Women and people with sensitive skin.
Feather Artist Club Razor Reviews
As I review different Feather Artst Club razors you’ll be able to find links to the reviews here.
Other Feather Artist Club Posts
How to Take Apart the Japanese Feather Razor – In the post I walk you through how to remove the top of the blade holder, so you can clean the inside of the blade holder.
The Only Drawbacks to Shavettes and Feather Razors – In this post I discuss a very minor issue that Feather Artist Club razors have that straight razors perform not.
Japanese Feather Razor – My original post about Feather Artist Club razors. I used to call them Japanese Feather razors, but I decided that was a little confusing since Feather Safety Razor, Co Ltd. refers to their non-folding Artist Club razors as “Japanese Razors” and Feather Safety Razor, Co Ltd. makes other razors besides their Artist Club razors. I decided to make a new post with that distinction.
Feather Artist Club Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
You can find a list of questions and answers about Feather Artist Club Razors here.