many of us who get double-digits out of the GEM, often feel that the first shave is the worst shave of the many we get.
I can get five shaves out of a Personna Stainless PTFE coated blade in just about any Gem or Gem-ish razor. With a very few, such as the ATT G1, I can eke out a sixth shave but in most Gem razors going for six is not gonna happen.
I have only had trouble with the first shave in one razor, a Gem Jr. Bar that's likely over 100 years old. When I'm 100 I probably won't clamp things as tight as I did as a callow punk of 60, either. Still love the thing, just take off the first shave in a more congenial razor for that purpose.
Getting just one would certainly qualify as a real drag. One thing I noticed about my preshave technique was that I was getting warmer and warmer water because I thought it would soften things up. What was really happening was my skin was getting more and more irritated, which led to worse and worse shaves. I use lukewarm water to make lather, do not use a scuttle, and my only preshave prep is to wet my hand and rub it on the area I'm going to lather next. I work in areas so the lather doesn't dry out. That, and using a soap with loads of residual slickness, works for me as well as anything.
O.H.