As so many other men have done in recent years, I’ve migrated from multi-blade (in my case the five blades of the Gillette Fusion package) shaving to the single blade. Merkur has become my go-to blade for its reasonable price, German simplicity, and awesome sharpness. I enjoy simply studying the thing and wondering how such an inexpensive marvel is produced and its quality maintained.
Full disclosure: if it had not been for an adult son’s similar migration and wanting to share a bit of manly life with him, my gentle rebellion against the multi-blade oligopoly of Gillette and their peers, and a certain fascination with the brush, the soap, the whole deal … I would not have made this switch. And I still take my Gillette with me when I travel, for ease of use.
As others have noted, shaving this way is not automatic. In fact, it’s hard. Cuts abound, though in decreasing quantity, as I get used to the thing.
This Merkur blade gives me three shaves, although the number is comparatively low because I shave my entire head, which is of circus-side-show dimensions. Others will likely get more than three shaves out of each blade, even those who grow a coarser beard than my whispy red Pennsylvania-German tuft.
If you’re going single-blade, you can start with the Merkur with confidence that it’s the real deal: simple, quality-controlled, German.
Canter Bridge 
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