Let me preface with my facial hair and skin type as I do think this impacts blade performance. I’ve got pretty thick coarse hair and slightly sensitive skin (due mostly to said hair). I’ve been shaving with DEs for a few months and I did start off with IMHO pretty primo blade brands such as Kai, Feather, Astra, and Rapira. All are very keen and smooth blades with minute variances to me. I’d suggest those to anyone. However, GSBs day one to three have been an unpleasant and bloody trial. Tried several preshaves and soaps to see if that helped but no luck. They will cut my hair and take some flesh and blood with them. Brand new they shaved as good as my daily used, month old Mach 5 cartridges if that puts it into perspective.