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Mitchells Woolfat🤔

as title, i was considering purchasing Mitchells Woolfat shaving soap, but the online reviews are a bit mixed, so a bit unsure wether it's worth it or not🤔

Just go for it. Its a great soap. You may also find reference to Kent shaving soap which is just repackaged MWF and sometimes cheaper than MWF.

It lathers like a champ and has excellent post shave feel. If you're in to scented soaps, this will be mild soapy. Be aware it has this thing to crack once it dries, and break up and get a bit powdery. That's normal.


Reviews are bound to differ as people's experience with the soap differs. There are those who think it is a superb soap. I'm not in that camp. I not encountered the wonderful lathering performance and post shave feel that many rave about.

Yet I love Williams Mug Soap, a shave soap many revile.

Go figure.

I like Williams, MWF and Tabac as my holy grail soaps. My top favorites. Each of them different price points and lather great for me !

I also buy a few pucks each year as insurance against reformulations, product being discontinued and any such signs of shave apocalypse!!
 

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I got some questions on grating, so I figured I'd respond here. You can find info here on the forum, and there are some good YouTube videos as well. You can use a plain ol' box grater, but it's a bit of a pain. For one thing, the heat from your hands can warm up the soap making it softer and more difficult to grate. It can also release some of the oils and fragrance. I prefer a rotary grater like THIS.

The finer the grating, the easier it is to press back into the tub, tin, or bowl. But I've also seen people who prefer to just use a paring knife to cut shavings and press them back down.

I don't add any water or anything, though I've heard some recommendations for that as well. I just press everything into the bowl by hand. I've never needed the water.

Once you've done it a couple of times, you can start getting adventurous. I recently combined equal parts MWF, Tabac, and Haslinger Schafmilch into a container and made myself some TaFatLinger.
I use the same rotary grater. Works great! :cool:

For Frankensoaps, you should also check out Fat 'as (50/50 MWF and Haslinger Schafmilch). :)
 
Just go for it. Its a great soap. You may also find reference to Kent shaving soap which is just repackaged MWF and sometimes cheaper than MWF.

It lathers like a champ and has excellent post shave feel. If you're in to scented soaps, this will be mild soapy. Be aware it has this thing to crack once it dries, and break up and get a bit powdery. That's normal.




I like Williams, MWF and Tabac as my holy grail soaps. My top favorites. Each of them different price points and lather great for me !

I also buy a few pucks each year as insurance against reformulations, product being discontinued and any such signs of shave apocalypse!!
i actually have an unopened puck of Kent soap in my collection at the moment, i maybe open it and try it on my next shave then😁
 
I'd like to ask those of you getting outstanding results with MWF a question but it's difficult to put into words. I'm still working on my first cup of coffee so that's probably not helping... Anyway, as I continue to experiment with this soap I'm starting to think there's a very fine line between "perfect" lather and "broken" lather when it comes to MWF. Does that sound right to you?

I ask because I think I may be pushing it too hard, meaning I think I may be hitting the Sweet Spot and then mistakenly adding more water and so not getting the outstanding results I should be. Obviously I should experiment with this, and that's what I plan on doing, at the same time I'm trying to pick the brains of those who are getting consistently good results with this soap to possibly flatten my learning curve.
 
IME, as with all the soaps, there is a limit on how much water it can hold. That said, you can add quite a bit of water to it and it does not break. The problem with the Fat is when to introduce water and air in the mix. I try to control the air intake by avoiding to use any swirls. My method is to work the lather on the face enough after the loading phase, using painting motions and no splay, so as to limit the amount of air introduced and without adding any water. Once the lather becomes more uniform, I progressively add water to taste (still painting) and if it thins down too much, I mildly splay the brush, work the lather a bit more and it thickens up nicely.

I hope this helps. :)
 
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I'd like to ask those of you getting outstanding results with MWF a question but it's difficult to put into words. I'm still working on my first cup of coffee so that's probably not helping... Anyway, as I continue to experiment with this soap I'm starting to think there's a very fine line between "perfect" lather and "broken" lather when it comes to MWF. Does that sound right to you?

I ask because I think I may be pushing it too hard, meaning I think I may be hitting the Sweet Spot and then mistakenly adding more water and so not getting the outstanding results I should be. Obviously I should experiment with this, and that's what I plan on doing, at the same time I'm trying to pick the brains of those who are getting consistently good results with this soap to possibly flatten my learning curve.

I would suggest loading more. If you get a sufficiently heavy load, then as @Sotiris_A says, it's hard to get too much water. The problem I always had with MWF in the beginning was getting enough soap loaded in the brush. Because it's so hard, 2 things helped me with that. Grating it into a container and putting a bit of water on the top of the puck while my brush soaks for a minute or two.
 
I would suggest loading more. If you get a sufficiently heavy load, then as @Sotiris_A says, it's hard to get too much water. The problem I always had with MWF in the beginning was getting enough soap loaded in the brush. Because it's so hard, 2 things helped me with that. Grating it into a container and putting a bit of water on the top of the puck while my brush soaks for a minute or two.

True! I completely neglected the loading part, since I tend to use the puck almost exclusively once I start a new one. After the first few uses it softens up and loading enough soap is not a problem. I never grated a puck, I just load a bit more when it is fresh.
 
I would suggest loading more. If you get a sufficiently heavy load, then as @Sotiris_A says, it's hard to get too much water. The problem I always had with MWF in the beginning was getting enough soap loaded in the brush. Because it's so hard, 2 things helped me with that. Grating it into a container and putting a bit of water on the top of the puck while my brush soaks for a minute or two.
This comment, in bold, has me scratching my head because my puck of MWF is not what I would call particularly hard. I'd say it's roughly as hard as cheddar cheese, probably a little less so. I'm in the kitchen a lot and MWF shredded very much like cheddar on my grater. I just did a quick comparison by pressing my thumb into the puck of MWF and then a puck of Stirling (Sheep). While admittedly not very scientific the two were so close in hardness I wouldn't be able to say with any confidence one was harder, or softer, than the other. I'm probably just over thinking this but now I'm kinda curious.

EDIT: Okay, so that's two votes for a longer loading time. I'll definitely try that. Thanks for the input!
 
I'd like to ask those of you getting outstanding results with MWF a question but it's difficult to put into words. I'm still working on my first cup of coffee so that's probably not helping... Anyway, as I continue to experiment with this soap I'm starting to think there's a very fine line between "perfect" lather and "broken" lather when it comes to MWF. Does that sound right to you?

I ask because I think I may be pushing it too hard, meaning I think I may be hitting the Sweet Spot and then mistakenly adding more water and so not getting the outstanding results I should be. Obviously I should experiment with this, and that's what I plan on doing, at the same time I'm trying to pick the brains of those who are getting consistently good results with this soap to possibly flatten my learning curve.
I see suggestions for longer loading time, but I’ve determined that a normal loading time and less water actually works for me. I too believe I was adding too much water and ending up with a soupy airy mess. Now I get good lather and I still get the slickness.

Have you tried the Marco Method? I’ve not had much luck with it but I hear others raving about it with The Fat.
 
Its a good soap. The post shave feel is nice, but for me, I don't find the actual shave with it anything extraordinary. It's good, but I don't think it is a top tier product.
To me, it is a GREAT smelling soap. While I do have some moderately hard water where I live, I have not had any problems lathering it. Give it a little water on top for a few bits, then go at it. I use boar almost exclusively, so maybe the boar helps, but it lathers up easily for me.
 
I see suggestions for longer loading time, but I’ve determined that a normal loading time and less water actually works for me. I too believe I was adding too much water and ending up with a soupy airy mess. Now I get good lather and I still get the slickness.

Have you tried the Marco Method? I’ve not had much luck with it but I hear others raving about it with The Fat.
Suspecting I have been adding water too fast I did a palm-lather test this morning using the Marco Method. It proved... Promising. Tomorrow is a shave day and I'll give the MM a real test then. I do feel like I may be on to something with MWF, just need to dial it in. I think. Still hoping for my "Eureka!" moment.

Appreciate all the input, by the way!
 
Suspecting I have been adding water too fast I did a palm-lather test this morning using the Marco Method. It proved... Promising. Tomorrow is a shave day and I'll give the MM a real test then. I do feel like I may be on to something with MWF, just need to dial it in. I think. Still hoping for my "Eureka!" moment.

Appreciate all the input, by the way!
Keep us posted on your results, good or bad.

I’ve found that by loading with a damp, almost dry brush works for me. I then add a few drops of water, swirl in my bowl until the water incorporates into the soap, then a few more drops of water and so on until I get the lather I’m looking for. It’s time consuming, but it’s worth it.

I was in a rush this morning so I opted for TOBS Jermyn Street. I sure missed the slickness that I get with The Fat.
 
Another shave with MWF this morning. Tried using the Marco Method and wound up with foam "soup". Ugh. Dumped out the foamy mess, rinsed the T1 and started over.

This time I totally saturated the brush, let the water run out of the brush until it stopped dripping on it's own, then gave it a quick, gentle squeeze between thumb and index finger to wring it out just slightly. Went back the puck and started loading again. Loaded for a count of sixty hippopotamus then decided to do another thirty. Moved to the bowl where I sloooowly added water a few times. The lather got to a state of "stiff peak" quickly and it's looking really good. I notice immediately how much better the lather is clinging to my face this time once I start brushing it on and it has a creaminess it's not had before: Minor "ah ha!" moment. Starting to think I'm on to something.

The shave went well but I think I may have either stopped short of adding enough water or loaded too much soap because the shave felt really slick and effortless for the first half of my face, but by the time I got to the other side I can tell things are too dry, the slickness had disappeared and (surprise!) I'm feeling some tugging. Still, I think I'm sensing PFG (Potential For Greatness), like I'm closing in on the bullseye, yet still managing to dance all around it because that first half was really, really good.

Next time I'll use the same loading method, but shorten the loading time. My gut told me to stop at sixty hippo, but nooooo... I had to "push it" and I think that may have been the hitch in my proverbial giddyup. With my luck I'll dial in the perfect technique... on the last shave of the puck!
 
I think you have learned one of the important lessons to getting the best out of MWF and that is, as is often stated, load it like you hate it.

With most soaps I load for 10-20 seconds. With MWF it's closer to a minute.

Once you have that amount of product in the brush then you can be sure it will hold (and need) a lot of water but the result is well woth the extra effort IMHO.
 
I think you have learned one of the important lessons to getting the best out of MWF and that is, as is often stated, load it like you hate it.

With most soaps I load for 10-20 seconds. With MWF it's closer to a minute.

Once you have that amount of product in the brush then you can be sure it will hold (and need) a lot of water but the result is well woth the extra effort IMHO.

All of this. I was about to shelve mine yet again because i keep forgetting this lesson. That and use it for a week or two and it gets easier. I don't bloom mine. Slightly damp boar brush and load away. The puck i'm using has got to be about 8 years old and has a crack going to the centre. Getting great lather and great shaves. The post shave feel of MWF is outstanding.
 
All of this. I was about to shelve mine yet again because i keep forgetting this lesson. That and use it for a week or two and it gets easier. I don't bloom mine. Slightly damp boar brush and load away. The puck i'm using has got to be about 8 years old and has a crack going to the centre. Getting great lather and great shaves. The post shave feel of MWF is outstanding.
There are different ways to Get 'R Done depending on how wet your brush is to begin with and whether you work from a damp puck. None of the ways are right or wrong, just so you get to the same end result.

Happy shaving.
 
After much consideration I just finished shaving with MWF a little while ago. This was a "do or die" shave for this soap because I am about about out of patience trying to dial in the remarkable slickness this soap is known for. To give it the very best opportunity I put a new Nacet on my razor since this is a positively known-good blade in my 38C, right from shave one. Instead of loading from the puck, like I have in the past, I instead scooped out a lightly heaping 1/4 teaspoon of soap (thanks, @TexOkie Shaver!) and smeared that lump of soap in the bowl. I thoroughly saturated my T3 then squeezed out/shook off pretty much all the water I could. With this damp/dry brush I started swirling. I added hot water by letting it drip it off my non-swirling hand and repeated this slow drip and swirl process probably half a dozen times. Just like always, there was no shortage of lather production. I painted a little lather on my hand to see what it feels like and it's feeling PDS™ (Pretty Durn Slick). I lather up my gorgeous face fully prepared to wash everything off at the first sign of drag or tugging and switching back to a puck of Stirling instead. Fattie needs to put ordinance on target this morning or it's headed for the shower stall to live out its final days deodorizing my pit's. I was also sporting an extra days growth (since Mrs. Wogus doesn't mind when I don't shave quite as often and have a little scruff from time to time, if you know what I mean).

(Pause for Dramatic Effect)

So the first pass was very smooth with no dragging. Really nice! Pass two was probably 95% equal to pass one but there maaay have been just a tiny bit of drag going on. Maybe. Still, this is BIG improvement over past shaves with MWF and the first shave on a brand new Nacet is never as good as subsequent shaves in my experience so I'm cutting it just a tiny bit of slack for that reason. All things considered, though, this shave is already leaps and bounds better than previous ones and I'm sensing the slickness I've been looking for. Pass three and a little touching up on my chin left me with a DFS to be sure. Feedback from the alum bar was mild. While not a "Eureka!" moment, I'm calling this shave a very solid success; I got much, much better performance this time around and so MWF will live on to see subsequent shaves. In the future I think I'll bloom the soap smear in the bowl add/or a skosh more water while swirling, since I think the amount of soap I used could have handled it. I'm thinking the, "load like you hate it" crowd is correct and my biggest issue with getting MWF to perform was due in large part to short-loading my brush. That 1/4 teaspoon, I think, is a lot more soap than I would have gotten from my usual loading method.
 
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