Always had trouble getting a close shave as it seems my stubble grows out of the skin at quite a shallow angle so it comes out almost lying parallel with the skin. Each hair is very thick too. After years of struggling with cartridge type blades i got a safety razor:

Merkur 34C HD
Trufitt & Hill Ultimate Shaving Cream
Edwin Jagger Pure Badger Brush
Astra Superior Platinum Blades

Have read countless guides online and am currenlty using this method (am now on my 5th safety razor shave):

Hot shower (lots of steam)
Then over to the sink filled with warm (not hot) water
Mix up the cream in its tub with the brush
Apply to face with brush

Now i've tried both long slow (6 secs from neck to chin slow) strokes and short faster strokes with the grain (re lathering between strokes), this still leaves me with 1.5 - 2mm of stubble. It generally feels like im using a blunt cartridge razor, i feel a lot of tugging and pulling, its almost like the blade cant cut the hairs.

So then i try the above across the grain, this will get me down to 1mm, even longer at tricky areas.

So my only resort is to go against the grain, now ive tried all manor of combinations of strokes with do eventually result in a close shave BUT with a LOT of pain, discomfort and blood. With cartridge razors i can just about get away with it but the safety razor i genuinly feel like if lost a layer of skin, its worse than any razor burn ive ive ever had, to the extent that i have to have the coldest shower i can bare for at least 5 mins, and even after that i cant touch my face for 45mins - 1hr afterwards because of the pain! This cant go on, mainly because of the pain and discomfort but also because in total i end up lathering and shaving each area 10+ times.

I have yet to try pre shave treatments but as im at an extreme level of discomfort i dont think any pre shave treatment with make that much of a difference.

Is there anything else i can try before going back to expensive cartridges?