I typically bowl lather and am wondering how to keep your puck from sliding around the bottom of the bowl? If the bowl is a bit bigger than the puck, the puck seems to just slide all over the place as you are swirling your brush. Do I need a smaller bowl? Should I get a bowl for each puck and form the puck to the bottom of the bowl so they don't slide around? Is the answer to just buy more soaps, bowls, and mugs until I get a magical pairing that works wonderfully together?
Keeping your puck in place
- Thread starter lowjax
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I grate all of mine into Ziploc storage containers.
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- #3
Are they big enough to lather in? Seems like there would be lather running over the sides.
I've only ever used bowls with soft shave products, such as creams that do lather, and Italian type soft soaps, and back in the day, it was just a handy cereal bowl or dessert bowl from the kitchen. Now, I've acquired a plastic Salsa bowl with cute little stubby legs, a little more than a dollar, from Walmart. Not until the current year was I ever swapping around between soaps, so I had coffee mugs, somewhat big ones, but still just coffee mugs, for whatever current puck of soap I had on hand.
Last spring, I still had just one soap, VDH, and suffered a sudden severe bout of SMAD, after which I had six new (to me) shaving mugs. (Edit: I forgot to mention a similar followup bout of VSSAD -- Vintage Shave Soap Acquisition Disorder.) So now I have more pucks than mugs, and keep spares in the Zip-lock containers.
Last spring, I still had just one soap, VDH, and suffered a sudden severe bout of SMAD, after which I had six new (to me) shaving mugs. (Edit: I forgot to mention a similar followup bout of VSSAD -- Vintage Shave Soap Acquisition Disorder.) So now I have more pucks than mugs, and keep spares in the Zip-lock containers.
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No, I just load the brush from the Ziploc container and then build lather in a seperate bowl, usually my suribachi.
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- #6
Thanks for the info. I do have more soaps than mugs as well, but haven't opened many of the soaps.
Wow, this may sound silly, but I never even considered that option. It's so simple. Thanks for the the info. I think that is what I will do.
I use Pyrex 1-cup glass bowls with the lid. For hard pucks, if they don't quite fit right, I use a knife and trim the edges to fit. Here is a recent thread showing the same thing.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/310924-First-Cade-Puck
The puck will slide around the first time, but after, leave a little lather at the bottom and around the edges of the puck and it will dry and keep the puck in place next time.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/310924-First-Cade-Puck
The puck will slide around the first time, but after, leave a little lather at the bottom and around the edges of the puck and it will dry and keep the puck in place next time.
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- #8
Thanks for the link, Ryan. I do like the Pyrex glass bowls and that's a great way to get them to fit.
What you're doing is usually called "lathering on the puck". "Bowl lathering" means loading the brush on the soap and then going to a SEPARATE bowl to create the lather in. Most of us keep our soaps in small, tight containers so that they don't move around when the brush is on them
+1. I have most in their original wood bowls, but the last two I put in the Pyrex and I like the Pyrex better. They also stack better. The wood bowls are always sliding off each other when I open the drawer.
I WET the bottom of the puck and the bottom of the cup and let it set over night.
Put the cake of soap in the bottom of a mug. Load up the brush in the mug, then transfer over to another bowl for working the lather.
I had a coffee mug with a puck of VDH. The VDH was a bit small for the mug, and a bit of a reach with my WD silvertip. I found an Old Spice mug in the B/S/T forum, which is much shorter. To make it complete, I found a puck of handmade Old Spice type Shea Shaving soap from Artifact Soap Works on eBay. The puck had to be trimmed a bit to fit the Old Spice mug, but I'm really enjoying this. It's a very nostalgic experience for me: I learned to shave with my father's shave kit, and he used Old Spice shaving soap in his Old Spice shaving mug. This is as close as I can get to coming full circle in my shaving ritual.
I had a coffee mug with a puck of VDH. The VDH was a bit small for the mug, and a bit of a reach with my WD silvertip. I found an Old Spice mug in the B/S/T forum, which is much shorter. To make it complete, I found a puck of handmade Old Spice type Shea Shaving soap from Artifact Soap Works on eBay. The puck had to be trimmed a bit to fit the Old Spice mug, but I'm really enjoying this. It's a very nostalgic experience for me: I learned to shave with my father's shave kit, and he used Old Spice shaving soap in his Old Spice shaving mug. This is as close as I can get to coming full circle in my shaving ritual.
I agree with Deltaboy, after a few uses the wet puck will "glue" itself to the bottom of the mug. I am not a fan of grating soap. I know a number of members here do with no problems but I follow the advice of a good friend who used to do it and thought that it changed the soap in a negative way. I don't know if it was a real or perceived difference but I just never found the need to do it. I am one that values presentation in my shaving experience so I like to have my soap in wood bowls, ceramic, pewter, and other containers that are unique or original to the soap. But that is just my preference, you may find pleasure in the Pyrex, tin or plastic containers and if that is what works for you then that is what is most important. Enjoy your shaves!
Regards,
Doug
Regards,
Doug
#1
After a few uses it magically glues itself to the bottom. However, if you have a really hard soap that required soaking in hot water before a shave, this will tend to unglue itself from time to time.
Put mine in a rubber Marvy mug. Even if the puck is too wide for the holder at the bottom, it has very little wiggle room and after one shave it has solidified in place.
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I store soap in one container and build lather in another container. The puck does not move around when I load soap on the brush
same here. i don't own a single soap that does is not in an OS mug, container, tin or jar.
lowjax:
You could just melt (nuke...for about 30 seconds), your soap(s), into your bowl (if your bowl is 'nuke-safe'). If your soaps are too big, then cut them up or grate them before 'nuking'. I add about 8-10 drops of glycerine per VDH Deluxe puck (and about drops of Clubman Citrus Musk), before I 'nuke' it), extra lubercation, cushion, glide and scent .
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lowjax:
You could just melt (nuke...for about 30 seconds), your soap(s), into your bowl (if your bowl is 'nuke-safe'). I add about 8-10 drops of glycerine per VDH Deluxe puck (and about drops of Clubman Citrus Musk), before I 'nuke' it), extra lubercation, cushion, glide and scent .
“Laughter is the [shaving lather]...that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart”. Mort Walker
Please don't try to melt anything but glycerine non-tallow type soaps, you'll ruin them!
Doug:
Why is that if you don't mind me asking?
