Another Haslinger’s vote! 
(I have all eight options and they all work great!)
(I have all eight options and they all work great!)
Soaps as slick as Mitchell's Wool Fat but with easier lathering and better quality control?
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DR Harris soaps are the slickest hard pucks I've used. Easy to later too. Only downside is the scents are very mild...except the (wonderful) lavender.
I gave MWF several attempts and, while I was able to get excellent lather every time and perfectly acceptable shaves, it failed to impress me. I really wanted to get the legendary slickness I've heard about but, for whatever reason, it just never happened for me.
IMightBeWrong
Loves a smelly brush
I’ve had 3-4 different MWF pucks and they were all identical in performance. This idea that they don’t have good QC is baffling to me. My newest puck is basically brand new, got it just 6 or so week ago, and it’s brilliant. If you have any difficulty lathering it, a synthetic brush will help you get it dialed in within seconds.
As for other similar soaps, in my mind there aren’t any. Not even Haslinger. Not a single soap I have ever tried is notably similar to MWF. Haslinger may be about as close as possible, but MWF is in its own category. Not better, just unique.
As for other similar soaps, in my mind there aren’t any. Not even Haslinger. Not a single soap I have ever tried is notably similar to MWF. Haslinger may be about as close as possible, but MWF is in its own category. Not better, just unique.
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
Those of you who for whatever reason can't get MWF (or any soap, really) to lather should consider offering them to others in a PIF. Don't throw them away! I'll take as much free Mitchell's Wool Fat as you want to send to me!
Any flavor of Haslinger.
garyg
B&B membership has its percs
Great idea, but I repurposed the MWF that was leftover. Never one to throw anything useful in the trash, I found out it was also not the greatest shower soap ..
MF is their best of their “normal” soap line IMO. The clay additive really does something special.
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Before you throw it away you might try putting your puck in the Mitchells dish,filling the dish with the puck in it almost to the top of the puck, covering the puck, and let it soak up the water for three or four days. This softens the puck and has always made it easy to get a good slick lather for me
I'll try this after I've aged the soap. Because it has animal fat base in the soap, it can take longer to get a really good cure from what I remember my soap teacher telling the class. It hardens and looses some moisture though it becomes richer and better with ageing.
It is certainly the worst soap I've got by a very long way at the moment.
Hey! Don’t go hoarding all The Fat!
According to a B&B member that lives in Bradford, Yorkshire, UK. The people at the Mitchell’s storefront recommend covering a new puck with water until it swells to fill the ceramic crock. Look at it every day and top off the water as needed. Once it has expanded, pour off all but a teaspoon of the water and go at it with a damp, not soaking wet brush. Load the brush for 60 seconds and then start lathering adding a few drops of water off your fingers or dipping the tips of the brush as the lather soaks up the water. It will take quite a bit of water to get to a nice shiny lather, but once you are there, you are in Fat Heaven.
When you are cleaning up your gear, put the top on the crock and rinse the outside of the container while holding the lid on. When you are done, look inside to confirm that some water (about a teaspoon to tablespoon) has gotten inside. Do not pour off the water. Put the lid on and put it away for tomorrow’s shave.
If for some reason you rotate another soap in, or don’t shave for a few days, check the soap to make sure there is still a little water on top. If not put a teaspoon of cold water on the soap and close it back up.
A lot of folks let the soap dry out in between shaves. This causes me nothing but trouble. Its the main reason The Fat gives people trouble when not used daily. A wet Fat puck is a happy Fat puck.
If you still can’t get it to work, send it to me.
Mystic Water is a great soap with the FAT and lanolin and is very easy to Lather pulled an old jar of it yesterday and had forgotten how good it was.
You should probably start out by trying Haslinger Schafmilch which is quite similar to MWF, but very easy to lather. It has lanolin and that helps with the post shave.
Another soap I might suggest for you to try is Provence Sante. It contains shea butter and that helps give it a very nice post shave feel. It leaves the skin feeling clean and conditioned, without feeling greasy. Also, extremely easy to lather.
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If you're willing to spend some money for a soft soap, you can always try A&E's Kaizen base. MWF is always going to be the best bang for buck soap purchase anywhere in Europe, but the American artisans can match the slickness and massively improve on post-shave if you find a decent place to buy from. MWF is similarly priced to American artisans in NA, so we end up spending around $20 for a soap regardless, making the choice easier.
Zero issues getting MWF to produce some of the best lather out there.
Used MWF and Kent branded pucks with the same excellent results.
I use the @Marco Method adapted for bowl lathering. Works every time - without fail.
YMMV
Used MWF and Kent branded pucks with the same excellent results.
I use the @Marco Method adapted for bowl lathering. Works every time - without fail.
YMMV
Same here.
I'm not an Excel kind of guy, but would guess, I'm running a puck of MWF per year and never had issues and that is for face lathering with Chubbies. (Chubby 1 for many years on it and used my Chubby 3 this morning the second day on a new puck).
I'm at a loss to imagine, how there could be issues with bowl-lathering, but I have an idea, how deceiving MWF can appear to some in contrast to their habits with other products.
However it's just a soap and I'm just a simple man and all therefore and as I don't use it every day, there's no special process involved. I don't use the ceramic bowl as a standpost, I don't bloom it at midnight, I don't soak it at sunrise and I don't speak no words of witchery to the puck.
There are some creams and croaps (and even some hard soaps) that expand their volume like a monster and they amaze you with their richness compared to the tiny load you started with. And most hard soaps gives you just what you expect without exploding in mass when adding water.
And then there's Mitchell's Wool Fat. The recommendation I would share we're I asked about it, is to load it super-rich, with the emphasis on 'super'! If you just load it richly with much solid, pasty consistency like other hard soaps and then add water while building the lather on the skin, MWF tends to thin out. Like a diva telling you "If I mean so little to you, then just let's forget about the whole affair!"
What I do is:
- Load a decently damp (but neither wet nor drippy) brush on the dry puck of MWF with a rich amount of gooey soap. Just like with other hard soaps.
- Add some drops of water on the puck or to the brush and then load from the puck again producing a noteworty amount of well-lubricated layer on top of the paste - like cream on a pie. That's the part of 'super' in super-rich.
- Softly (without pressure) paste the creamy lather from that layer on my skin, then work the pasty soap from the first load into that. And then add water to the brush if and as necessary.
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