So today I came across a couple of refill cartridges for the Gillette Techmatic for a dollar each. Since I have one of these handles for literally decades and hadn't used it, due to lack of "blades", I bought them. Now, I have heard real horror stories about this razor so, with some trepidation, I loaded a cart set it to 1 click below medium, and gave it a try. I did nothing more than wash my face with warm water and apply a goodly dollop of Gillette Foamy Menthol canned goo for prep and I must say, the shave was excellent. The blade was extremely smooth and sharp. With one pass I was just barely shy of having a BBS shave. Slapping on my usual skin bracer revealed no irritation or stinging of any kind. Let me note, I was shaving 2 days growth and I have a medium to heavy, stiff beard. IMHO this razor has gotten a lot of un-earned negative press. Now if only they would make carts for it again. I only have what equates to 20 blades for this razor. But used sparingly I can make them last. If you come across one of these razors with a refill, by all means pick it up and give it a shot. As always YMMV.