Damn your complicated!.............................JROK, necro-posting here. So shoot me. But these things have fascinated me since I got one in a box of "stuff" from eBay.
I have been experimenting myself. And I think I have a better answer. But I might be completely wrong.
I figured they didn't have too many shave sticks like Arko, so I was trying to use plain old fashion box lye soap. You know, lard, water, and lye. There is an outfit around where I live that makes a bar that's sold in the local health food stores.
Well, the lard based soap isn't worth a hoot, but I can imagine someone making a tallow based soap just as easily, and then it becomes a commercial product. After all, tallow was just as available as lard. Look at the candle business. So Arko is probably a "reasonable" substitute for the soap of the day.
But, on to the scuttle operation.
I assumed that I didn't have running water, and I needed to boil water in a kettle. Also, get over the example in the video on YouTube where the guy is submerging the whole thing in a sink of hot water. If I had a sink with piped in hot water I wouldn't be using this thing in the first place. And if I don't have a sink with running hot water, how the devil can I submerge it in the non-existent sink.
And how am I going to cram this brush in to the mouth of this thing after I have it full of boiling water, anyway. Or if I stick the brush in first, how am I going to pour water into the thing?
Wait! How am I going to pour water into the thing with a brush sticking in the mouth of it? And how about a little warm water to soften up that soap up top, too.
DON'T plug the holes with the soap. We need the holes to fill the reservoir! We pour hot water *OVER* the soap so it runs through the holes into the reservoir with the brush already sticking in the mouth of the pot.
The soap is warmed and a little wet. The brush is in place conveniently instead of in the way. And I have a little pot of hot water I can carry to my wash basin or Don Quixote style shaving bowl.
I suspect the knots on old brushes were not as generous as the knots of today, so it wouldn't be as much "cramming" in as the knot I've been working with. One thing I have noticed about the old Ever Ready knots is that they don't bloom the way a modern knot does. So it would be a better fit.
Anyone got a different way? What am I missing?
Figured out vintage shaving mug/scuttle? yay Arko!
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Damn your complicated!.............................JR
I never thought of that till you said something, By golly I believe your right!..................
What's so complicated? Stick the brush in the mouth, pour hot water over the soap letting it drain through the holes into the body where the brush is. Brush soaks and soap gets soft while you're getting ready. Swirl the brush on top of the soap to start the lather, and excess water falls back into the reservoir to conserve it.
Remember, you don't have running water in your house at this time. Your most likely doing this on your bedroom night stand so there's a mirror to use. Not to mention the fact that the kitchen, where the hot water is available, is out the back door instead of just down the hallway.
Neither of the first two houses I can remember living in had a bathroom, but the second one at least had the kitchen available without going outside. That's just how it was in old farm houses. The year we moved into a brick Ranch style house with two full baths and central heat it was like moving into a whole new world.
Those are drinking mugs that channel the hot beverage to the center to keep the hot beverage from getting into the moustache and melting the moustache wax and ruining the styling job of the drinker.
The way I've been thinking about it is:
The spout is big enough to pour water into and to pour out from.
1. Pour hot water into spout.
2. place soap on top to soften with the steam.
3. Load brush with softened soap
4. Face lather adding water poured from the spout.
The spout is big enough to pour water into and to pour out from.
1. Pour hot water into spout.
2. place soap on top to soften with the steam.
3. Load brush with softened soap
4. Face lather adding water poured from the spout.
Forgot to mention that soap used to be made with ash and wasn't as hard as the soap we have now which is generally made with lye.
A small piece would do the job and "sink" into the holes quite quickly.
A small piece would do the job and "sink" into the holes quite quickly.
I'm 61 years old, and we always had running water and a bath room. Even the old family farm house had them..................
My uncle - in his mid-80s now - still lives in the first house I can remember. While we have since installed a bathroom in it, about 1964 I think, you still cannot get from the main house to the kitchen without going outside.
Yes, it is a covered porch to get there, but you'll get wet if the weather is bad. He's lived there most of his life, and he sees no need to change it now.
Maybe we were just poor.
Edit: this is the house my uncle was born in, and lives in now. And these are his grandparents, my great grandparents. At the time of this picture there was no electricity in the town, about 4 miles away. And no running water in either the kitchen (not visible) or the rest of the house. My uncle was born in the room with the window visible. And I lived here as a very young child. Multigenerational dwellings were once common. But by the time I came along the house had electricity and piped water into the kitchen.
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I believe POOR is just a state of mind. By that I mean If you think your poor then you are. We never had much money as a kid growing up until dad got a union job driving a truck. There were a lot of people much better off than us, but I never really though of us as poor. And to tell you the truth, I wish the country would go back to those days. I know, "be careful what you wish for".....................
Yeah, I tell people all the time that if I win the lottery I'm going to farm soybeans until I'm flat broke.
But back to the scuttles, as pictured in posting 12, I think that design was worked out prior to the days when running water was common, and certainly not hot running water. And shaving was done with a bowl, the Don Quixote style hat bowl for example.
And as someone who has actually witnessed a wood cook stove in action, with a cast iron kettle (that the pot can call black) for hot water on it, I have tried to think through just how you would really use the thing - probably on Saturday night to be shaved for church the next day.
I found the video someone posted a link to in another thread lacking. As I said, if I had gone to the trouble to install running hot water in my house I wouldn't be using this dysfunctional scuttle to shave with. I would shave out of the sink with the hot water.
Somewhere else, in yet another thread, is a YouTube link of a European guy speed shaving with a straight in about two minutes. You can see that the scene is much more like I describe - specifically shaving at a table rather than in a bathroom. Anyone remember where that was?
As far as soap is concerned, obviously Williams has been around since the 19th century. I tried hard to make "Grandma's Lye Soap" made with lard work. It's lather is too thin. I'm not really sure what soap made from potash drippings is like, although the "Grandma's" brand is a very high quality example of what I recall from childhood. We always used regular box lye, not drippings. (You can find the soap on Amazon easily.)
But I don't believe Arko is such a bad platform to experiment with to discover the best method of operation. Maybe Ivory.
Realistic water temperatures from a kettle or the cook stove reservoir are closer to 160-175 deg F, not boiling. But one is unlikely to preheat the vessel and discard the preheat water, since the water isn't exactly easy to get. So the vessel itself will cool the initial temperature rapidly, especially in winter.
Somehow I'm still having trouble with the "plug the holes with soap" theory.
Since we're guessing at what people did 80 years ago, I have another guess: Could it be used with a candle? My wife has these wax warmers that look similar to the pictures in this thread. You put a little "tea light" candle in the lower compartment and a piece of scented wax in the bowl on top, and the heat from the candle melts the scented wax to release the scent. I'm not suggesting that the shaving scuttle would get a candle inside it, but perhaps it was placed on a stand above a candle to keep it warm?
Well, using a tea light candle could work, but I've never seen a single stand for the pots. It seems unlikely that none of them survived.
I bet you just started hot, and it cools naturally. If you take too long you finish cold.
I doubt guys like my great grandfather were looking at shaving as a zen ritual like we tend to do here. So everything probably tended to be the simpler approach. If something made the job easier then it became popular. If it was a lot of trouble it withered out.
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Ha! Don't worry, it was more of a silly idea that worked for me rather than really meaning anything historically accurate.
Well, as captaincaveman pointed out we really are just guessing. Although I really do have an interest in the historically correct usage.
I could step out behind the house and ask granddad, but everybody in the old family plot is tight lipped after they're buried.
Maybe cruising nursing homes is a good way to get info!
I could step out behind the house and ask granddad, but everybody in the old family plot is tight lipped after they're buried.
Maybe cruising nursing homes is a good way to get info!
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Someone who really wants to research might find drawings, photos, or early films depicting the usage of these whatchamacallems, perhaps advertisements or something...
I have a crab tree and Evelyn and would really interested in the proper use of this item
I have a question about these types of scuttles. I face lather and was thinking about buying one of these to keep my brush warm in between passes. Has anyone tried this? I was thinking I could place the prepared brush on top (where people put the soap) to keep it warm.... is there enough heat to keep it warm up there?
I think you'll find that the top portion is too shallow, the brush too long and the weight of the handle will cause the brush to tumble out.
