What's new

Custom Manchurian by OUMO tricky lathering MFW

Hi there!

So, I made this brush the day before yesterday. It's an OUMO Lotustip Machurian 24 mm 2-band badger (gel tips) that I glued to an artisan-made bog wood handle.

I exclusively use shaving soaps. Making lather from cheap Pinaud Clubman soap (which is more like a cream) is very easy. As it's also easy lathering some Edwin Jagger soap in a mug. But I'm mainly using MFW these days. Lathering MFW is kind of tricky with this brush. I've lathered MFW with other badger brushes without problems (my water is not soft, but it's not very hard either).

Yesterday I had some "dissapearing" lather. Then I swirled more and it became a lot more stable but that was kind of an effort. I used warm water.

I noticed that this brush likes to start lathering a little bit on the dry side, then add little bit more of warm water on the tips, then load more MFW then face lather. That way, MFW lather is very stable but not really rich, or let's call it "dense" lather.

I watched Mantic59's tips for lathering MFW. The problem is I really like soft brushes and I really like hard soaps (Tabac, MFW, OSMA, etc.). I understand that's a challenging match every morning.

So, I'm posting this because I'd like to read your experience when lathering hard soaps with Manchurian 2-band badger hair brushes. I know some of you have this type of hair in your shaving brushes. I'm not sure if it's the same as Simpsons but let me say that there's back-bone but the tips are EXTREMELY SOFT. I've never had such soft tips in a brush before. OUMO call this "gel tips" (there's a hook on the tips of the hair and so they're very soft). It retains a crazy amount of water.

Given that picture, what are your suggestions for lathering hard soaps with this kind of badger hair besides warm water and soaking the soap? How can you describe your experience with this type of hair? Is there kind of a learning curve with this type of hair? Because I have the feeling there is but I'd like to read you.

Kind regards,
CoffeeAddict24
20220601_221616.jpg


20220602_134051.jpg


20220602_134109.jpg


20220602_134131.jpg
 
I've only experienced disappearing lather in MFW/Kent's once before, and that was when I was using too much water in the mix. Maybe try loading up longer and for more? I load for maybe 30sec before trying to make lather.

The only soap I've truly struggled with was Zartgefuehl. That thing becomes more paste than lather.
 
Thank you all for replying!

Yeah, I figured that I have to load a lot more. It's very time-consuming in the morning.

Any ideas of a faster, still badger, brush? I'm now thinking I'd be better off with a pure badger...

Does any of you have tried OUMO's or Boti's pure badger knots?
 
I've made brushes with the Oumo Manchurian and HMW and have no issues lathering with them. They are dense so I'd try more soap too.
 
Last edited:

Rudy Vey

Shaving baby skin and turkey necks
Thank you all for replying!

Yeah, I figured that I have to load a lot more. It's very time-consuming in the morning.

Any ideas of a faster, still badger, brush? I'm now thinking I'd be better off with a pure badger...

Does any of you have tried OUMO's or Boti's pure badger knots?
if you asking for fast then you should not use soap and brush, but a goo (foam) from a can.....BTW, never heard about a faster brush, just use more soap, or use a cream if soap is too slow for you. You say that is a very dense brush, logically, one needs more soap to load.
 
I understand.

I mean "fast" in the way that I'd load less and there would be more soap flow through instead of the brush eating the lather up.
 
I'll chime in & agree with the suggestion of loading more soap. I've got a few Manchurian knots & they work splendidly, but I load more soap. It's not that much more loading time, an extra 10 - 15 seconds.
 
Totally agree!
Had a brush from the same Vendor; Got rid of it.
@Coffee Addict suggest you to get rid of that brush and buy a proper brush from Shavemac (or Epsilon, Simpson ...)
I already took the knot out. It's a total lather hog. Loading more soap IMHO is a waste of product and time. I can lather MFW better and faster with a floppy Omega Silvertip which is what I'm doing right now.

I just bought a knot from Boti. It's a 24 mm silvertip with regular, not gelled, tips. I contacted Boti before choosing and they told that's a Silvertip with regular tips.


I'll do a review when I try it.

Kind regards,
CoffeeAddict24
 
Bloom the soap while you shower. Eventually your puck will be hydrated enough that you won't need to. Most lather issues are always not enough product and not enough water.... very rarely the brush.
 
Top Bottom