at 50, maybe prey to a bout of nostalgy, i decided to get back to the good old days and purchased a merkur 25c DE safety razor after years of gillette shaving. i won't adventure myself in any metaphysical debate about multiblade shaving vs. old style DE shaving; i want only to add my little advice about the choice of blades. so, to put it simply: i tried astra blades, derby blades and lastly the feather blades. the feather blades resulted *by far* as the best choice of the lot. i'd rate them, well, let's say, as twice as good as the others. you have to be just a little prudent in shaving since they're very sharp, but, sincerely, nothing dramatic: just a light hand and you won't have any problems (actually, i got nicked with astra and derby but not with feather). if you shave with a DE razor, i don't think you should search further. buy the feather blades.