MERKUR 23C Double Edge Safety Razor - Polished Chrome, Long Knurled Brass Handle, Made in Germany, Plastic-Free, Three Piece Design, Closed Comb, Straight Bar

A friend encouraged me to grow lamb chops in my sophomore year (‘71) after I complained about shaving. I used the DE butterfly razor Dad got for me where once or twice a week it wreaked havoc on my zit covered face. I’m not entirely sure whether the razor was open comb, or the blade itself was combed for safety. That meat-hammered face look was nothing to be embarrassed about back then as half the boys in class had crater faces. Those handsome senior year book photos? Air brushed.Entering the workforce about 1977, daily shaving was required along with suit and tie where I was forever commuting with 3-4 pieces of TP to patch up the wounds. I should have joined a ‘styptic pencil of the month club’. About that time, I tried the Gillette Trac II and finally settled on the plus model which added a lubricant strip, along with Edge Gel Aloe Vera Sensitive shave cream. Finally I began to get a decent shave with less blood letting. That’s been my shave for nearly 50 years, made more affordable by cheap cartridge refills in packages of 100. Thankfully, the suit and shave requirement was retired in the late 80’s when I went into IT – tech support is supposed to look casual and nerdy.Shaving just twice a week on average, there’s times I simply wait too long and the Trac II plus isn’t up to it, so I bought an electric razor YUCK! and finally a Weishi DE butterfly razor in short and long handle. My big hands hate the short handle, but the long handle gave me a decent 1 pass shave in like 2 minutes with an occasional nick if I cut the corners or wasn’t careful in setting it on my ugly mug. But I don’t get the feeling of quality from the Weishi and hate the gunmetal finish which looks dirty all the time. So I started watching YT shaving videos to find something better! Who knew there were so many shaving fetishists!Unable to spend more than 40 clams on a razor, brought me to the Muhle, Parker and Viking lines – where I ruled out anything with short handles, odd colors and matte/rustic finish. Adjustable razors all seem to be short handle so they’re out. My peculiars finally brought me to the Merkur 23c where I’m using Parker blades left over from the Weishi. I’m frankly shocked that it has yet to give me even a hint of a nick or cut. The shave is close enough for someone who hates to shave. Mine is a squirrely beard with grain going in several directions – which means the 23c requires several passes to get it smooth enough for my liking, especially the corners of the mouth, tip of the chin, jaw line and neck. It’s a smooth shave where the grain is straight and regular. On the recommendation of Frank below, I’m going to pick up a 25c for a more aggressive shave – where I hope that the Trac II plus, Merkur 23c and 25c will finally help me loathe shaving a little less. The price is right for a quality product.

If you have ever thought about buying a razor like this, just buy it. I was skeptical of buying one and done a lot of research and review reading. This razor is the bomb. I will never go back to disposable razors.

I regret leaving this at home because I ended up using disposable razors that made feel bad because of how expensive they were in comparison

This razor has an easy grip but the blade protection is a little too long for me. I cannot get a close shave with this razor.

I own six different razors always looking for the right one and now I have found it no nicks no burn very clean and smooth shave highly recommend the Merkur 23c.

Decent quality and workmanship. Since finding wet shaving, I started with a few antique Gillette's and landed on a super basic Edwin Jagger as my daily driver. Thought it was too agressive until I swapped the blades someone recommended to me for something more forgiving blade (Rapira). It's been pretty smooth sailing since then but I have felt myself wanting for something less slippery and hard to grip from time to time. I'd heard that the basic Merkur head cut similly or identicaly to the EJ but had a better knurled longer handle better suited to my XXL ham fists.Not so much. Turns out the cutting angle of this razor is different enough that I really can't seem to get a decent shave from it due to the shallow angle. Tried swapping in the super agressive Feather blades that destroyed my face in every other razor but with this one it barely made a dent. Resigned to just using this on my neck during haircuts...and though it makes the area easier to reach, it still only does a mediocre job at that. Feels like the Merkur does have better workmanship than the Edwin Jagger but I personally can't say it's worth it based on how shallowly it shaves.You don't have my face though so your mileage may vary.EDIT 12/30/2021:Hard to believe how much difference a year meant to how I'd review this razor. I used to mostly use a shaving oil. Early in the year I decided to try a new shaving soap with my normal shaving oil as a pre-shave. Happened to use this razor with a Rapira blade as the baseline for my first experiment. Holy crap did this make a difference. I managed to get an almost perfectly close shave. No nicks, no cuts, no skin irritation at all. Did the same shave setup later with my Edwin Jagger and got consistently worse results. I liked the soap (Mitchell's Wool Fat) a lot and got consistently better results from it with this razor. So I decided to settle into using this razor as my daily driver and haven't needed to look back since.Every one in a while I'll still try a shave with just the oil and my Edwin Jagger just to shake things up. But it's never the same.Needless to say, I'm changing this review to 5 stars. Turns out that this actually was the perfect razor for my face.Who knew?