Sorry for my bad english I am not a native english speaker, I am trying to improve this point, I hope my future posts will be better
This manual is intended for those who wonder if Mitchells is a good soap, or if the lather is so amazing, but they get flabby lather, or take so long to get decent lather or ,...... the BS about hard water ....
This HOWTO is done in the following conditions:
Room temperature: 21 º C, water temperature 21ºC, water pH 8.2, KH or Carbonate Hardness, 13, Hardness 12 GH. Under these conditions the lather can be obtained in quantity and quality, no matter the material used ,you will need:
Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap
Brush, in boar or badger, I will use both a pure badger Plisson #10 20 mm. knot and a Semogue 2000 boar
Bowl, a regular ceramic bowl and optionally the soap dish of MWF
ACT I: The Badger
1st Soaking Brush and soap
It’s important to use water at room temperature, not warmer, soak the brush and soap ,we need 2 minute soaking the brush, for the soap 1 minute is enough, to know he is ready, swipe your finger over soap, if the finger takes soap it’s ready.
2nd Drain the brush properly,
the brush should be wet, very wet, but not dripping, just drain the water down and apply a soft pressure over the bristles with your fingers. The aim is that the brush remains dry enough to scratch the soap but not as wet to soak the soap or to make flabby lather.
3rd Load and unload lather.
We have to do lather, the first lather will be flabby, continue beating until it becomes thick, without crushing the hair of our badger brush, after beating. 20 or 30 seconds you will see thicker lather, at the end the lather is too thick,
that is the real lather of MWF that we are worth, with few large bubbles, thick, dense, cushioned ,....
we have to pass it to the bowl and collect all the lather from the bowl of soap that we can, I even drain brush and then pick lather from Mitchell’s ceramic bowl to the bowl that I used to make final lather.
4th Work the lather
Mitchell's is a good soap, but not as easy to handle as Tabac, but surely we have lather that has large bubbles and still we have to beat until these bubbles become fine, probably the lather will seems drier than necessary. You only need water ...Hold water drops on your fingers and let it fall into the bowl and beat them to mix it with lather.
Do you see how water is added?, From the fingertips fall droplets, 4 or 5 are sufficient to obtain a softer and more moisturizing lather, this way yo can have a perfect control of the added water
After the effort comes the reward, a bowl full of creamy lather with the soft scent of MWF
5th Face lathering
Once the lather has the desired look we are able to pass the brush over the face, in the case of MWF I recommend face lathering, the light exfoliating ability of the brush attached to the lubricating oils of the soap will help to soften the shave, as "soft" as scratch our skin with a sharp blade
NOTES: The water at room temperature MWF does not work well with hot water, some people's problems come from using a hot scuttle or preheated bowls brushes full of hot water. Apart from melt the lanolin (at 42 º C ), lather is worse, one of the keys is the temperature. Do not worry about the cold lather works well and if you want you can heat the cold lather in your scuttle once assembled
ACT II: THE BOAR
Introduction,
this manual is definitive, and low cost in a single step, if you can’t obtain lather this way buy a Noxzema can, you were born for great achievements but doing lather is not one of them ..... Be quiet you going to do fantastic fat lather with a cheap brush, and
- Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap or Kent, without the bowl
- A large bowl, with the width of a CD and about 2 inches deep minimum…the typical bowl for breakfast
1st Soaking Brush and soap,
this time we take the puck of soap and put it in the large bowl. It’s important to use water at room temperature, not warmer, soak the brush and soap ,we need 2 minute soaking the brush, for the soap 1 minute is enough, to know he is ready, swipe your finger over soap, if the finger takes soap it’s ready
2nd Drain the brush properly, the brush should be wet, very wet, but not dripping, just drain the water down and apply a soft pressure over the bristles with your fingers. The aim is that the brush remains dry enough to scratch the soap but not as wet to soak the soap or to make flabby lather.
Pressing to remove excess of water
Brush drained
3rd MWF or Kent to the bottom of the bowl,
you have to release the soap from the ceramic (MWF) or wooden bowl (Kent) or use a refill,
4th Beat vigorously soap
We will use our boar brush to beat the soap in the bowl with rhythm, vigorously, the first lather that you can see is flabby, but this has just started,
in seconds it appears as a thick cream as meringue,.... you are at the doors of the nirvana of shaving lather ....
If you want you can remove the puck cleaning it with a brush to remove the precious lanolin rich cream. If you leave the puck the lather works fine, but if you decide to take it out and you should pass it through water and leave the soap drying before storing, the soap must be kept dry
5th Add water if necessary
Adding water droplets must be done to, with your fingers to soften a bit the density of lather and do it more lightly, as you like, if you like it firm and thick you can skip this step.
6th face lathering Once the lather has the desired look we are able to pass the brush over the face, in the case of MWF I recommend face lathering, the light exfoliating ability of the brush attached to the lubricating oils of the soap will help to soften the shave, as "soft" as scratch our skin with a sharp blade
NOTES: The water at room temperature MWF does not work well with hot water, some people's problems come from using a hot scuttle or preheated bowls brushes full of hot water. Apart from melt the lanolin (at 42 º C ), lather is worse, one of the keys is the temperature. Do not worry about the cold lather works well and if you want you can heat the cold lather in your scuttle once assembled
Compare the two lather brushes, it’s awesome, who doesn’t want to feel one of those brushes in the face?
Greetings gentlemen, I hope it is useful. If you have progressed with the MWF by reading this Howto I will be satisfied.
I am trying to help with my experience if you know the way to do it better please let us to know it, I'm glad to learn from B&Bers
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However, my lather was a lot better using hot distilled water than hot hard water. I'll find out what my water hardness rating is, I'd be interested to know.
