Originally Posted by Commander Quan

This sounds like a very good start.

When you guys get your new Merkurs do yourselves a favor and throw out the one blade that they come packaged with. Merkur Blades are not looked highly upon and the ones that are packaged with the razors are especially bad.

Originally Posted by The Professor

Yeah. Definitely don't use it to shave -- or any Merkur blade, for that matter. I learned the bloody hard way.

I did save the blades and used them for scraping up paint and finishing paint trim.