I’ve found with excess or larger bubbles, leaving it rest a minute or two, then pouring off the excess water and re-whipping fixes it. I employ a drain near the bottom of a bowl I made for just that purpose.
Hard water soap?
- Thread starter CheesyWalnut
- Start date
I’ve found with excess or larger bubbles, leaving it rest a minute or two, then pouring off the excess water and re-whipping fixes it. I employ a drain near the bottom of a bowl I made for just that purpose.
I became a believer when I tried some old Chiseled Chin (or something like that) tallow soap and tried bowl lathering with a very nice silvertip badger brush and it just would not lather - at all! So I had a PIF synthetic on-hand and gave that a whirl and voila! Instant lather! I still have all my badger brushes and use them from time to time but I've moved on almost completely to synthetic for that very reason.
My badger collection sits on a shelf since I switched. I've broken them out twice in the past year. That's sort of from time to time...I guess...lol.
Nothing beats a $9 RR Plissoft.
I've tried a few of the softer (flimsy) synthetics and not had any good luck, but the White Knight is fairly firm and works well, but my favorites are from APShaveCo on Etsy. NICE synthetics for a really good price and great-looking handles too!
Good to know, thanks. I'll have to check them out!
Martin de Candre and Le Pere Lucien are two that I always have samples of in my travel bag because they lather almost effortlessly in the absolute worst water on the planet.
The APShaveCo Silksmoke has a lot of rave reviews. Good backbone and very soft tips. Very well regarded.
The Synbad's are their newest knots (synthetic badger) and supposedly have the best "splay". I'll know for sure next week when I get mine in the mail.
Wow, they have some really nice handles too! I'll definitely keep them in mind!
- Thread starter
- #33
I think I'm going to get some samples of MdC and B&M
Arko...yep.
I have extremely hard water, hardness levels almost exceed US Federal levels. I find most tallow soaps don't work for me. Martin de Candre, West Shaving Products Rustic line and tube creams all work great in my hard water.
APShaveCo's synthetic horse hair V2 brush works really well for me. I also have a Simpson Colonel X2L, but prefer the APShaveCo.
Have a Great One!
APShaveCo's synthetic horse hair V2 brush works really well for me. I also have a Simpson Colonel X2L, but prefer the APShaveCo.
Have a Great One!
my well went noticeably hard 3-4 years back. it softens for a while with heavy rain. really any soap works well enough when you adjust the soap/water ratios. and I use boar and badger brushes. you really just need more soap in a wet brush to get there.
My standards:
Mike's
MWF
Hasslinger's
Speick
I Coloniali
Central Texas Soaps (veggie)
samplers/one offs that have worked well:
B&M
Grooming Dept.
others...
tallow isn't the issue.
My standards:
Mike's
MWF
Hasslinger's
Speick
I Coloniali
Central Texas Soaps (veggie)
samplers/one offs that have worked well:
B&M
Grooming Dept.
others...
tallow isn't the issue.
Agreed, I've long heard that MWF won't lather in extremely hard water and when I finally got around to trying it I couldn't get it to lather worth beans, yet when I switched from my badger brush to a synthetic brush it lathers like a dream!
and yet, I do just fine with badgers and boars. I don’t use a single synth.
We recently had a water softener system installed. I haven't noticed a huge difference, so Arko is still my favorite, lol.
Well, bully for you! While I haven't tried boar, certain soaps in my area flat out will NOT build a lather with any of my badgers, from my most expensive to my cheapest, no matter what, yet those same soaps lather with perfect ease with synthetics.
Personally, I think hard water was invented here in Florida... after all, we live on a glorified sandbar.
