Merkur 23

Great for beginners. Sadly not as aggressive as I need, so I switched to a Mühle R89 (same head as EJ DE89x) which has a slightly larger blade gab. The long handle is nice at first, but once your technique improves, it's not really needed and you never actually touch the last 1 cm, I've found.

A lot of forums recommend the 34 or HD however that one was a lot more expensive. I thus chose the 23c for the blade configuration and not the handle.

As it turns out the Merkur is very easy to use. Loading a blade is perhaps a little more fiddly than with a TTO type but the shave it gives is far better than my Gillette Mach 3 ever gave me and that is on the first pass. The long handle suits me as I have large hands.

I'm already using Palmolive Classic shaving cream (complete with a bowl and badger hair brush). That already improved the Mach 3 shave far beyond aerosol based foams but using the Merkur really took my shave to a new level.

Right from the beginning using this Murker confirms to me that DE shaving eliminates razor burn and irritable skin. Why the majority of men use cartridges is beyond me... Gentlemen - Go back to safety razors!

The one thing I regret is that there's nothing to adjust. Once the technique is down that's it, the Merkur stops there.

I would like to shave with a little bit more blade so it seems I need to move to an adjustable model such as a Futur or one of the vintage gillettes.

Overall recommended for the beginner - it's never hurt me (that said YMMV!)

I bought this as an upgrade to my beloved Lord L6. The lord has a Merkur style head and a long handle, albeit aluminium, so this seemed to be the model to choose.

I have absolutely no issues with the Lord, nothing could shave me better, but it's a cheap razor, and human nature being what it is then there is the price/quality association.

Not disappointed, this gives me the same great results, feels more substantial being heavier, and the long handle gives superb grip. The balance is perfect, and it looks good on the eye.

Like the Lord, it tames any blade, and whilst my go to seems to be the Lord Superchrome, I have used feather, treet platinum, wilkinson sword classic and Tesco personnas blades with good effect. I am not sure whether this means it's mild or aggressive, but whatever it means it's smooth and comfortable and leaves my skin in a good state.

In short, I got my Lord upgrade. This will be my day to day razor, and the Lord will do the Travelling, which is actually a compliment for both.

I heartily recommend the Merkur 23c to anyone who needs a DE razor.