Feather Portable travel razor – a review

Feather Portable travel razor

My Feather Portable razor arrived this week and today was the perfect time to take it out on its maiden voyage.

When I first unpacked the razor from the mailer in which it arrived, I was surprised at how small it was.  Being a travel razor, a compact size comes with the territory, but the Feather was truly tiny.  The plastic case that holds the razor and blades is only about 3 inches by 2 inches and looks like it should contain a toy.  Fortunately, the Feather Portable is a serious razor and certainly not a toy.

Assembled, the Feather Portable bears a striking resemblance to the Gillette Tech razors.  My reading about the Portable told me that, unlike the Techs, it is an aggressive shaver.  This was not a concern for me because my daily razor is a Gillette Fatboy F-4.  The Portable ships with a pair of Feather blades but because of its aggressive nature I decided to start with a middle-of-the-road blade, a Crystal Platinum.

Being a three-piece razor I knew it was easy to have the blade misaligned when assembling the razor.  Therefore, I took special care to ensure that there was the same blade edge exposure on each side of the razor head.  Another concern, for me at least, was how to ensure the even wear of the blade edges.  With my Fatboy I start with one side of the blade and shave the entire side of my face.  I then change sides on the razor to shave the other side of my face.  Fortunately, the Portable has a Feather brand name in one corner of the underside of the bottom plate.  This provides me with the convenient landmark I need.

After my usual prep, I set about shaving with the Portable.  My first impression was that the razor is much lighter than my Fatboy and the handle is considerably shorter.  After some adjustment in my technique (slowing my strokes and making sure the angle on the razor head was correct) I completed my usual, two-pass shave with no nicks or weepers.  The resulting shave was every bit a good as I would have received using my Fatboy, SuperSpeed, or Tech.

The Feather Portable razor is a lot of razor in a small package.  It’s small size and ability to render a good shave make it an ideal travel companion.  I would also be comfortable recommending the Portable as a first razor for someone new to double-edge shaving.  Selling for around $9.95 or less on eBay and some of the shaving message boards, it’s one of shaving’s great bargains.  My new Portable is going right into my travel bag.