My take on Mitchell Wools Fat.

[sergio]

Thanks to a friend of mine who was kind enough to send me a sealed puck of MWF i was able finally to try this soap, i have heard a lot about it and was very intrigued by it, so thanks to my friend for allowing me to try it, you know who you are, cheers

Now about the soap.....
if i was to review this soap in a very few words the words that i will use would be...."boring yet very efficient"...now let me explain.

This soap completely puzzled me....knowing from reading other reviews i knew this soap was hard to lather, so i pulled a regular badger brush thats not to dense and a bit scratchy that picks up soap from a cake like no other one does, there was no room in this party for a dense soft and luxurious silvertip...we were gonna get dirty...we needed results, also lathering in a bowl was out of the question...with face lathering i was gonna teach this soap a lesson...give him no excuse not to fully "explode".
Well....it did not explode....any other soap using this method would have created luxurious,thick ,slick copiuos amounts of lather, not mwf...its lather was kind of empty....without substance......yet...i followed through and shaved doing 3 passes.....it lacked cushion and feeling of protection....i thought for a second i was gonna tear my face up.
In the scent department this soap scores a cero, smells like nothing, dont mean to sound redundant but the best word that comes to mind is "boring",
it did not stimulate my senses ....BUT ....this is were things took a turn....it was undeniable that after shaving and rinsing off my face even before applying aftershave, my face ,against my own prediction felt more soft and nourished than ever before.......i wanted to hate this soap, i wanted to throw it away...i wanted to be pissed at it for having it ruined one of the most enjoyable things for me...but i couldn't....i kept "faceturbating" not believing the results of this soap....i then went on to apply my rose water followed by splash, followed by aftershave balm....and man....it was different, my face felt really good, i think this is owed to "lanolin", the famous ingridient of this soap.
I am gonna cut to the chase and stop boring you guys....
My final veredict is this.
While its not gonna become my go to soap , i am gonna keep this baby, play with it, experiment and get to know it because its undeniable that this soap does take care of your skin...if it just wasn't so "blah" to use...

 

[professorchaos]

"my face ,against my own prediction felt more soft and nourished than ever before."

That is exactly why I kept trying it. Wait until you get a really good lather out of it. You never know...it could become your "go to" soap. I didn't think it would become mine. Yet it did.

 

[richmondesi]

Thanks Sergio and Henry. I've been putting off a MWF purchase, and it looks like I'll be happy when I pull the trigger

 

[Ignatius]

I like the scent; its soapy smelling soap. Rather that than flowers (Trumpers) or bad cologne from 1970 (Tabac).

 

[FLTiger]

Thanks Sergio and Henry. I've been putting off a MWF purchase, and it looks like I'll be happy when I pull the trigger

As cheap as Kent soaps (in the wooden bowl, even) are on ebay...from Kent themselves...there's little reason to put it off.

 

[professorchaos]

Thanks Sergio and Henry. I've been putting off a MWF purchase, and it looks like I'll be happy when I pull the trigger

You may not be happy right away. Takes a little work to get the hang of getting a good lather out of the soap. Once you do, look out! That is has but a mild soapy scent no longer matters. It shaves that well.

 

[Mr. Igg]

You may not be happy right away. Takes a little work to get the hang of getting a good lather out of the soap. Once you do, look out! That is has but a mild soapy scent no longer matters. It shaves that well.

Exactly. I've benefitted from the month-with-a-single-soap many of us are doing. Once I learned to use MWF--for me, use Jim's tutorial, but keep more water (don't shake the brush as much, and squeeze it less)--the lather became wonderful, and my face feels terrific.

 

[Soulcraft]

I am a bit baffled by the problems encountered here by many regarding MWF. It was the first soap I used after making the move from creams and I never had problems lathering the thing. I leave around half a teaspoon of water in my mug and I go from there. I do not use it as often as I used to, I went on a crazy spending binge lately and bought tons of new soap to play with, it is still one of my favorite. Do not despair man, your face will thank you later.

 

[marvin100]

i like the scent; its soapy smelling soap. Rather that than flowers (trumpers) or bad cologne from 1970 (tabac).

+1

 

[Legion]

Well I just had my first MWF experience five minutes ago. I was recently sent a puck by a very nice guy so I could try it out. I'm more of a cream guy so it has been sitting in a draw for the last couple of weeks. But since reading this thread and others I thought I would bust it out for my Sunday shave. The puck was just a little too big for the Old Spice mug i wanted to use so I gave it a bit of a trim and jammed it into place. I soaked a badger brush in really hot water then went to work. Nothing. No lather at all. But i kept at it and then, after losing a bit of the water, BOOM! Lather galore!

Being used to cream this felt a little dry at first, quite cushiony but not quite as slick... But what a shave! I sit here now rubbing the tip of my chin (Always the toughest part of my face to get bbs) and it feels like my forehead! I don't think I have ever gotten a shave this close. My cheeks do feel a little tight which may be the soap or I may have to dial back a little on the aggression, but man, Close, close shave.

I may be converted to the dark side. Soap instead of cream? I'll give it another go and if I can replicate this result it might be time to switch.

 

[heirkb]

I had the exact same experience until recently. I got GREAT lather. It was what convinced me to actually start using soaps again (even back when I had wimpy lather)

 

[Tabaliah]

I like the smell, I get lots of lather and love the feel. I guess it really is true what they say, YMMV.

ps - I live on the prairie, my water is hard, full of minerals and smells to boot.

..michael

 

[adonnellyr]

This was actually a really enjoyable post to read. The ups and downs...it has all the makings of a blockbuster hit! Seriously though, after using MWF your skin really feels unlike the aftermath of any other soap. I don't care for the smell either, but it needs to stay in the rotation because it's just different than other soaps. Sometimes you want your face to feel insanely smooth after a shave, and it delivers.

 

[ctakim]

Very nice post! "Faceturbating" is hilarious. Seriously, your eloquent description matches my experience with this soap completely. With time I can get a much better lather from MWF, especially when I use a boar brush. But it take more elbow grease and I disagree with the folks who say it lathers as easily and densely as Tabac. But as in all things shaving, YMMV!

 

[Bertilak]

MWF is one of my favorites as well. Never had any trouble getting lather. I do have a water softener but that doesn't seem to be a factor for many.

Perhaps it takes a little more effort to lather, but I wouldn't know. Of the three soaps I use (Tabac, MWF, Cella) all lather just fine and any difference in difficulty is small enough I am not aware of it. No sense in getting out a stop watch to compare.

re Scents:

• Cella: almond. This is my favorite.
• MWF: country breeze blowing through fresh laundry on the line with a sheep pasture up on the hill? Second favorite.
• Tabac: what passed for masculine in the 1950's? Maybe Robert Mitchum used it. The also ran. It is acceptable and light enough not to really matter. I can see how anyone whose nose was more sensitive might not like the scent. I'm just lucky I guess!

 

[strat1117]

I disagree with the OP on everything but the results, which, for me, are never anything short of fantastic.

I do NOT have any trouble getting a thick and slick lather out of MWF, and never have, and I think it smells rather pleasant, albeit in a soapy sort of way, while in the bowl, and totally inoffensive when lathered.

I cannot imagine why MWF seems so frequently to engender such strong negative opinion. It's been around for over 100 years -- someone must like it. I keep it as one of my top 4 (AoS, Tabac and L'Occitane CADE being the others).

 

[Confilo]

I disagree with the OP on everything but the results, which, for me, are never anything short of fantastic.

I do NOT have any trouble getting a thick and slick lather out of MWF, and never have, and I think it smells rather pleasant, albeit in a soapy sort of way, while in the bowl, and totally inoffensive when lathered.

I cannot imagine why MWF seems so frequently to engender such strong negative opinion. It's been around for over 100 years -- someone must like it. I keep it as one of my top 4 (AoS, Tabac and L'Occitane CADE being the others).

What's wrong with this lather (from this morning's shave, using a very soft C&E pewter handle brush)? It even posed for a picture!

I totally agree with Neil, I'm also surprised at the many posts debating MWF and the problems some have with it.
I used a DO1 Shavemac, I just got with MWF and the lather was fast and awesome.
I don't think the water in my place is soft due to the white stains it leaves in my black scuttle and I build the lather by judiciously tipping the brush in the small receptacle of the scuttle and bringing into the lather as needed.

 

[TorzJohnson]

I just used MWF for the first time today. I had read equal amounts of feedback saying that it doesn't lather, and that it lathers great. Also, that it doesn't smell like much of anything or that it smells like plain old soap and maybe sheep.

I found that it lathered perfectly well, not much different from my other soaps. I have also read that sometimes people get a great lather on the first try, but subsequent uses are more difficult. I don't see how that could be possible unless magic was involved, but MWF seems to be a special case. We'll see...

The smell was quite pleasant to me. Like Robert said, "country breeze blowing through fresh laundry on the line" but I don't seem to pick up any hint of a sheep pasture up on the hill. I really like it.

I got a great shave from it though, I'm glad I got this and even more glad that it only cost $35 from West Coast Shaving. Those places asking $50 or $60 must be smoking crack.

 

[sergio]

Thanks for the input guys, after reading your thoughts i cant wait to experiment with it and see what i can do with it.
Be well.

 

[joelmole]

What's wrong with this lather (from this morning's shave, using a very soft C&E pewter handle brush)? It even posed for a picture!

It may just be the picture, but it doesn't look so great to me. I've figured MWF out somewhat, and can get good lather from it, but that looks closer to what I get from MWF when it's what I consider bad lather, thin, foamy, brittle looking, big bubbles. No disrespect intended, just an opinion. Just so it's clear I'm not making things up, here's today's lather after applying the first pass.

This is coming from a guy that had nearly written off MWF.