Mitchell's Wool Fat lathering tutorial?

[BYUTexan]

Before I invest my hard earned $$$ on this fine English shaving soap, I would like to find the trick to unlocking its lathery goodness. I have heard that it can be quite tricky generating a lather with this fine soap but when you do, it can be as Tabac or Dr. Harris quality.

Anyone on this board that has MWF in their possession, willing to post a tutorial on this complex, yet fine soap?

 

[Antique Hoosier]

I own it now and have used it in the past for perhaps close to a year... Here is the review of the product with many mentions of how individuals manage to use the soap to a high level... http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8445&highlight=mitchells

***searching the soap forum, you will find additional threads concerning its use.***

 

[SiBurning]

There's also more threads than you want to search for in the Shaving Soaps forum http://badgerandblade.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

[strat1117]

I honestly don't do anything different with MWF than I do with Tabac, AoS, CADE or any other soap for that matter. A little hot tap water on the puck before I start with a brush that has been soaked and shaken once or twice. I face-lather, and I add or shake out water as I go, depending upon what's happening with the lather. The whole procedure takes less than a minute, and the lather is always thick and slick.

I will never understand why so many people fear and loathe MWF, or why it has developed a reputation as being difficult to lather. That has not been my experience at all. It is great stuff and it has been around for over 100 years. Just do it(tm) and don't over-intellectualize. It's shaving, for goodness sake, not brain science!

Enjoy!

 

[SiBurning]

There seem to be two issues that come up in those threads.

Lanolin melts at 100C, so if your water is too hot, you may be losing the lanolin in the foamy stuff you throw away.

It may be hard to form a lather with this stuff if you have hard water.

For myself, I like a wetter solution than is good for a stable lather of any kind. Mitchell's is just one of a number of products that I have trouble making wet enough. Penhaligon's cream is another. This is all with face lathering. I end up using just a few specks of the penhaligon's on my brush and it explodes with enough lather for 12 passes. Once a lather forms on the brush, I put the wet lathery brush under hot running water maybe twice, really soaking the brush and wetting the lather good each time. The recommended almond sized snurdle would last me weeks with either of these. Perhaps people are just using too much of it because they're used to other products that do require a whole snurdle.

 

[BYUTexan]

I own it now and have used it in the past for perhaps close to a year... Here is the review of the product with many mentions of how individuals manage to use the soap to a high level... http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8445&highlight=mitchells

***searching the soap forum, you will find additional threads concerning its use.***

Would you recommend it over Dr Harris or Trumbers?

 

[Antique Hoosier]

Would you recommend it over Dr Harris or Trumbers?

I would rate MWF as a current tie for first place among TABAC & Trumper Rose. I have owned DR Harris in the past and did not care for it. I believe I am in the minority among it's users and fans as not liking it when compared to the soaps mentioned. I am fine with owning the aforementioned soaps and would have trouble pinning myself down to any single one of them as absolute favorites. I enjoy the scent and lather of the TABAC, Trumper Rose, and MWF.

 

[AFG]

There really is no trick to MWF. If you can get good lather from any other soap you should be able to get it with the fat. Use the tips of your brush to create the lather and you should be good to go. I used it this morning treating it the same as every other soap I have and the lather was as good as anyone could want. I love the stuff but also like other soaps like Tabac, Harris and AOS. Trumper is another good one, I just don't have any right now. Go ahead and try it. The only caveat I will throw in is that it does seem to make the best lather when you face lather but then I think that of most other soaps as well.

 

[Confilo]

Before I invest my hard earned $$$ on this fine English shaving soap, I would like to find the trick to unlocking its lathery goodness. I have heard that it can be quite tricky generating a lather with this fine soap but when you do, it can be as Tabac or Dr. Harris quality.

Anyone on this board that has MWF in their possession, willing to post a tutorial on this complex, yet fine soap?

The best way to unlock any secret is to try and break the lock. Get the puck and try it. You won't regret it.
You might also go for the Kent soap, same as MWF but cheaper

 

[Stubblefield]

It's just soap.

Buy some and try it.

Honestly, I never had any issue with the stuff.

 

[htownmmm]

Use a very dense stiff badger brush or a boar brush for that lanolin goodness soapers rave about.



marty

 

[Thebigspendur]

It requires a little more water than others but other than that I find no difference. Though its a great soap I would not consider it in the same league as trumpers or harris for example. Its a half a notch lower in my opinion.

 

[joelmole]

I used to have a hard time, to the point of thinking it was overrated and thinking about selling it, but now it's working well for me.

I don't really have what it is that makes it work now completely figured out. I think just using it daily for a couple of weeks can make a big difference. The couple of things I've figured out though, are:

1. Face lathering is better. Some soaps respond pretty well to bowl lathering. MWF doesn't appear to be one of them in my experience.

2. The brush makes a difference. I have a Rooney 3/1 special, and a Shavemac D01. Both work great, and I can imagine that stiffer, short loft brushes will probably do better than longer loft floppy brushes. I also have an Omega 31064 boar. I haven't had as stellar luck with boar on MWF, but some guys have. I may need to just spend more time with it. My first pass is pretty good, but I don't have enough for further passes, as the lather gets too thin and my blade starts to skip. I may just need to resign myself to the possibility that boar brushes don't hold as much lather, so I need to return to the puck for each pass On the other hand, another boar may be better suited than the one I have, but I need to order another to make sure.

3. Since each brush is different, you need to figure out the intricacies of how much water your brush will hold, and what you need to do to get the right amount. I think I've figured out with my brushes that I get better results with just a couple of light shakes, but not a squeeze. You don't want so much water that you get a high volume of airy foam spilling out everywhere, but you don't want a brush so dry that there isn't enough water to get the loading process really going.

4. Don't introduce too much air into the mix. I think I've had better luck with MWF when I don't overwork the lather, meaning, when I pull the brush away from the puck, and go to my face, I want it to be pretty close to ready, so I don't have to work it so long. You pretty much want to apply it to your face, dip the tips of your brush in the sink once, work that bit of water into the mix on your face, dip it once more if necessary and work it in, then call it done. I think the problem with bowl lathering exactly correlates to this, Yes, bowl lathering appears to be a more "controlled" process than face lathering, like making a cake batter, but it probably ends up introducing a lot of air into the mixture, which is not good with MWF. You need to keep it dense to make it work, so figuring out the method that requires the least amount of fussing is important.

5. This soap might have a breaking in period, where the compounded effects of using it daily for a while keeps the soap in a state where it will lather up better. This is just conjecture, could be way out in left field, but there could be some truth to it.

This is the method I used today:

1. Fill shave bowl with hot water, and set the brush in it to soak.
2. Shower
3. With a wet face, apply Proraso pre/post. Not sure if this is a factor in the final lather, but including it just for the sake of being thorough since I don't rinse it off.
4. Fill sink with hot water, meanwhile:
5. Drip just a few drops of hot water onto the puck, and swirl it around until the entire surface of the puck is wet. It shouldn't be so much water that you would need to pour it out. It's just enough to wet the entire surface of the puck so that it's moist. It should kinda "absorb" into the surface of the puck, so that it's wet and glistens, but not much would pour off if you tipped it over.
6. Take the brush out of the bowl, give it a couple of light shakes, then take it to the puck.
7. load for a good while, don't set artificial limits on swirl counts or a set amount of time to do this, just make sure it's plenty of time, err on the side of loading for too long. I tried the upside down lathering trick the last few times. I don't know if it's making a difference, but it doesn't hurt to try.
8. Take the brush to your face, and apply an even coat of the soap with a swirling, scrubby motion. It should be too dry to shave with, so:
9. Dip the tips of your brush into the sink. You shouldn't lose too much of the soap into the sink It seems to like to cling on to the brush more than it wants to dump itself into the sinkful of water.
10. Work that water into the lather on your face, repeat the last step and this one if necessary.
11. After the lather appears to be the right consistency, go over your face with a paint brush motion, making the lather application even, and attempting to capture as much excess lather back onto the brush for future passes.
12. Place the brush back into the (now empty) bowl and shave.

This is what it looked like for me today after face lathering and applying the first pass. This is a Rooney 3/1 special (shorter loft than normal for a Roooney).

 

[cymric]

I will never understand why so many people fear and loathe MWF, or why it has developed a reputation as being difficult to lather. That has not been my experience at all. It is great stuff and it has been around for over 100 years. Just do it(tm) and don't over-intellectualize. It's shaving, for goodness sake, not brain science!

Considering the major difference of opinion with this soap, it may actually be a little brain science to explain why there is such a major difference. You are kindly invited to mull over my detailed description, especially the difference between my experience and the experience with pictures a few messages above mine. Explain that and you'll have truly cracked MWF.

Also, despite common belief, water hardness cannot have an influence: there are too many chelating agents in the soap to have hardness cause problems unless you have really very hard water.

 

[Tone deaf]

You can get it from this UK retailer...don't know about shipping costs though.

http://www.shaving-shack.com/shop/catalog/Shaving-Soap-p-1-c-168.html

 

[Confilo]

Rooney Finest, water, MWF, scuttle

 

[Tiago Basilio]

I also don´t have any problem with MWF. Usually I use a bowl, but today I experimented with face lathering and the same thing happened: rich, full, yummy lather - great stuff! (Plus, I love the smell!)

I shaved at 08h00, it is 15h35 now and my face still feels soft and smooth....

TB

 

[ambrose]

Wow those are some great pics of some fat lather.

 

[StillShaving]

I believe one negative factor is that MWF is very dry and harder to lather when new. I used it 6 or 7 times over a two week period before it started to more easily give up soap. I was only putting a spoonful of water on the puck each time while I showered before the shave, which was not enough. When new, it needs more water & soak time to soften up.

 

[ambrose]

I believe one negative factor is that MWF is very dry and harder to lather when new. I used it 6 or 7 times over a two week period before it started to more easily give up soap. I was only putting a spoonful of water on the puck each time while I showered before the shave, which was not enough. When new, it needs more water & soak time to soften up.

Great advice I must try this