MERKURDOVO Merkur Safety Razor, 34 g, HD Gold

This was a Christmas gift, I had requested a DE razor as I have recently become interested in wet shaving as an alternative to disposable / multi blade cartridges, which have caused me a problem with irritation and burn almost all of my adult life. And so the adventure begins... It took me around 7 days to get used to it to be fair (advice for other beginners-hot shower, always warm the blade, max. 1 inch strokes on each pass, and get an anti-irritation cream for -pre and -post shave in case you make aggressive razor contact with the skin, no PRESSURE needed!), and to learn the proper techniques etc. (watch some videos on youtube) and I am now getting the closest shave I could want with no irritation, cuts, or burns and when I calculate how much I will save in the long-run, it is pretty amazing. This product looks very classy in the bathroom, fits in my leather toilet bag for travel and as a heavy duty razor I imagine it being with me for the rest of my living days, keeping the classic retro look, which I love! Stay away from the high street brands, get into wet shaving:- the products are better value, better for your skin, come with great scents, and come with a heritage and class that is a pleasure to re-discover. Brilliant gift.

Beautifully balanced and medium aggressive razor. I have experimented with many others (New and vintage, DE, straight and kamisori) and this has very quickly become my daily razor. Smooth efficient operation with practice. A two or three pass shave daily is quite possible without irritation and with excellent bbs results, using a reputable soap and brush. Install a good quality blade (I favour a Gillette Nacet or PolSilver - ymmv) dial the technique in and this is a nimble and entirely pleasurable performer. Hard to find any fault.

Impressive looking razor which feels good in use. Only failing is that the main barrel is in two pieces which became separated after only three weeks, but that does not affect its use.