Help me understand scuttles

[TravelingMan82]

I've read the Wiki and I've read various other parts of the internet in regards to scuttles and I'm trying to figure out if I am way off on my conclusions.

Is it to say that you cannot use a Scuttle to build your lather in the scuttles provided bowl? If you cannot, what is the point of the bowl?

Also, you should add super hot water to the lower chamber for keeping the lather warm. Is this lather you build in a bowl and transfer to the scuttle?

Thanks for your time.

 

[82R100]

If you like to bowl lather it definitely makes sense to build the lather in the scuttle bowl, if it's big enough.

Regardless of how you build the lather, most will be stored in the brush, so there's not actually much lather transfer involved if you build the lather in a separate bowl.

Some scuttles are only large enough to hold the brush, and they will tend to keep the brush warmer, all other things being equal.

- Chris

 

[Dustinl]

Some scuttles are large enough to build lather in. I use a regular size Dirty Bird and use it only for lather warming. I build my lather in a mug that Julie made for me, then transfer my lather over.

Be careful about getting your water too hot. It will cause your lather to break down and become too thin later in the shave. Some say that just hot tap water is hot enough. I use a Rival hot pot to heat my water and get it much hotter than I can get from the tap.

Hope this helps!


DL


DL

 

[brokeup]

very good question! I was thinking the same thing, it doesnt seem efficient to transfer lather to the scuttle either?
when I first started wet shaving I thought you left the soap puck in it and made a lather on top of the puck and left the lather on top of the soap to stay warm. Now I know thats not how you make lather so back to square one! I even bought a 110 year old antique scuttle mug to try it out and yes soap stays warm which is great for a warm face lather but not to keep already made lather warm?
Thanks for asking that question looking forward to getting other peoples oppinions and uses for thier scuttles!

 

[Andrew's Razor Burn]

I have an early version of the Georgetown Pottery Scuttle and love it. I preheat it while Im in the shower with hot tap water and then I fill it with almost boiling water from the stove. This gets the lather that I build in the "scuttle bowl" really nice and warm, and it will stay warm through the third pass. I really enjoy mine but to each their own.

 

[Mink]

The confusion comes from the 2 different designs. The old style, when hot water wasn't available from a faucet, boiling water/hot water was added to the lower bowl and the soap puck was put in the upper bowl. The old style lather making process was to use your brush to build up lather on the puck sitting in the upper bowl of the scuttle. This kept your lather, brush, and soap warm. Lathering on top of the soap puck isn't as popular now - it uses a lot of soap. So, the new scuttles have a bigger upper bowl that allows you to either make lather in the bowl or face lather and keep your brush warm in the upper bowl. The upper bowl size varies on whether you face lather (smaller bowl), or make lather in the bowl (larger bowl like the G5, Moss, and Dirty Bird).

 

[slamjet]

I have a DirtyBird 1.5 scuttle. What I do is:

1) Fill scuttle & scuttle bowl with HOT tap water.
2) Insert brush into hot water in bowl to soften up.
3) Put little bit of HOT tap water onto soap puck (in separate bowl/mug than scuttle. I have mine either in a ramekin or container soap came in a-la Mama Bears Soap).
4) Take shower.
5) After shower, empty water out of scuttle and refill scuttle with HOT tap water.
6) Drain water off of soap puck into scuttle.
7) Create lather on soap puck with brush.
8) Transfer brush to scuttle and create even more lather.
9) Shave.

and if you're into shaving cream, then:

1) Fill scuttle & scuttle bowl with HOT tap water.
2) Insert brush into hot water in bowl to soften up.
3) Take shower.
4) After shower, empty water out of scuttle and refill scuttle with HOT tap water.
5) Put some shaving cream into scuttle.
6) Create lather with brush.
7) Shave.

This will give me enough nice, warm lather for at least two FULL head shaves

 

[Jim1968]

I have a DB brush scuttle and bowl. I put hot water at about 125 degrees in the brush scuttle and then use the bowl to make the lather. When I have the lather made I transfer my brush to the scuttle and it keeps warm for about 3 shaves. If I use water that is near boiling then the lather will break down and not be as effective.

 

[MacMitch]

In a nut shell...
There are those who like to make their lather in a bowl and then apply it to their face. This style requires a larger bowl to whip up lather in.

There are others who prefer to make lather on their face. I like this lathering style because I believe it is faster and helps condition my tough beard for shaving. Face latherers use a scuttle to keep their brush and the lather on it warm.

 

[dannywonderful]

I'm another who certainly does make lather in the scuttle. I have a regular size Dirty Bird scuttle and I find the grooves inside the bowl really aid in generating lather, not that I've ever really struggled with creating lather anyway, it's just the grooves seem to whip it up really quickly. I pre-warm my scuttle while taking a shower and my lather is warm throughout a 3 pass shave and a single pass over my head.

 

[michiganlover]

The confusion comes from the 2 different designs. The old style, when hot water wasn't available from a faucet, boiling water/hot water was added to the lower bowl and the soap puck was put in the upper bowl. The old style lather making process was to use your brush to build up lather on the puck sitting in the upper bowl of the scuttle. This kept your lather, brush, and soap warm. Lathering on top of the soap puck isn't as popular now - it uses a lot of soap.

I don't believe the older style scuttles were really designed with lathering on top of the puck as the goal. Especially considering that many of them have holes in the bottom where the soap sits. The lather would thus flow through the holes, and into the water below.

My take on it, is that they were designed for face lathering, and as the entire point was to bring hot water to the shaving area, I don't think keeping lather warm, was even a concern in their design.

They are fairly useless in modern day shaving, as we have hot water readily available at the tap.

 

[Thebigspendur]

I don't believe the older style scuttles were really designed with lathering on top of the puck as the goal. Especially considering that many of them have holes in the bottom where the soap sits. The lather would thus flow through the holes, and into the water below.

My take on it, is that they were designed for face lathering, and as the entire point was to bring hot water to the shaving area, I don't think keeping lather warm, was even a concern in their design.

They are fairly useless in modern day shaving, as we have hot water readily available at the tap.

The holes in the old scuttles were to allow water to drain away from the soap as you made your lather. You would start the lather process with the soap in the scuttle and finish on your face and the scuttle would keep the brush warm.

 

[JPM]

I build my lather in the scuttle. I use it just the way you would a lather bowl. The outer chamber with hot water keeps the lather warm for several passes. The only caution I have is about how hot the water is when you make your lather. If the water is near boiling, I have found it kind of cooks the lather and it breaks down.

I usually but boiling water in the outer chamber and hot tap water in the inner bowl to soak my brush for a couple of minutes. Then I pour out all the water and refill the outer chamber with hot tap water and that seems to be the perfect combination to keep the lather warm for several passes but not so warm it breaks the lather down.

 

[sombra]

I have a DirtyBird 1.5 scuttle. What I do is:

1) Fill scuttle & scuttle bowl with HOT tap water.
2) Insert brush into hot water in bowl to soften up.
3) Put little bit of HOT tap water onto soap puck (in separate bowl/mug than scuttle. I have mine either in a ramekin or container soap came in a-la Mama Bears Soap).
4) Take shower.
5) After shower, empty water out of scuttle and refill scuttle with HOT tap water.
6) Drain water off of soap puck into scuttle.
7) Create lather on soap puck with brush.
8) Transfer brush to scuttle and create even more lather.
9) Shave.

and if you're into shaving cream, then:

1) Fill scuttle & scuttle bowl with HOT tap water.
2) Insert brush into hot water in bowl to soften up.
3) Take shower.
4) After shower, empty water out of scuttle and refill scuttle with HOT tap water.
5) Put some shaving cream into scuttle.
6) Create lather with brush.
7) Shave.

This will give me enough nice, warm lather for at least two FULL head shaves

This is almost exactly what I do with my Schwarzweisskeramik scuttle, except in steps 4/5 above, I refill the bowl with water that I microwaved for 2 mins because my tap water doesn't get hot enough.

My lather stays warm for three passes. For the fourth pass, it's luke warm, but by then I'm usually done.