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My thoughts on MWF

First, let me start by saying YMMV. This is my experience with the Fat. (TL;DR 8/10 star average)

I used MWF for around 4 months, maybe a little longer. I used two brushes with this soap. The first, a boar brush that does not need to be named. The second, a synthetic from Simpson.

A known issue with MWF is that it can finicky. Double if you have hard water. While I dont have hard water, MWF wasn't always the easiest to work with.

First impressions. This soap isn't flashy. It comes in a pretty boring box and honestly, I like that. Whether it's true or not, it makes me feel like the company is confident enough with their product that they don't have to try and be fancy or over the top with logos or drawings. 8/10

Next is the scent. Spoiler alert, this smells like generic soap. No essential oils added for smell here. At first that didn't bother me, but then I found myself craving some sort of scent, just something to lift this experience. I want shaving to be enjoyable and smell, for me, had a lot to do with that. I eventually found myself adding a little bit of TOBS shaving cream to my lather just to get some sort of smell going. This happened after my kid smelled the soap and told me it smelled like a port-a-potty. While I do not agree with her, it did get stuck in my head. 3/10

Lather. I followed my normal routine of placing warm water on the soap and letting it sit while I took a shower. It is the same thing I do with my other soap. Not playing favorites here. I would take my brush and shake the water out and start loading. My boar brush was first on this soap, however because my face is sensitive, I discontinued its use. The Simpson seemed to pick up just as well and the soap acted the same for both brushes. I call this a win although a small sample size. 9/10

Now comes the task of learning this soap. Admittedly, I was adding too much water at first. My soap was thin and my face suffered for it. I started dialing back my water use and I don't feel like I ever hit a golden ratio. It was always felt too thin to me. I would later my whole face and then start shaving one side. Before I finished that side the other side would dry out. I eventually got to the point where I would only lather the side of my face that I was activity shaving. 4/10

While I was shaving, I felt that MWF worked about average. I didn't notice any amazing effects while shaving and my face didn't feel any different afterwards. This could be from my inability to get the later perfect or it could be that people read too much into this soap. Whatever it is I give no score this round.

Life expectancy. Something I felt this soap was great at was how long it lasted. Full disclosure, I tend to shave 3 times a week depending on when I work. I am not an everyday shaver so that may skew my results. However, I did rotate between MWF and another soap. The other soap I got after MWF and it was done before MWF. I tried my best to give equal time to each, so that what you want from that. 8/10

Overall. This soap is okay. It's not bad by any means, but I personally don't think it lives up to the hype. I would urge anyone who is curious about it to try it, after all shaving is one giant pot of YMMV.

With that said, I probably wont buy this again. Been there done that and now I have others I want to try.

And with that also said, opinions are like butt-holes. Everyone has one and they all stink.
 
First, let me start by saying YMMV. This is my experience with the Fat. (TL;DR 8/10 star average)

I used MWF for around 4 months, maybe a little longer. I used two brushes with this soap. The first, a boar brush that does not need to be named. The second, a synthetic from Simpson.

A known issue with MWF is that it can finicky. Double if you have hard water. While I dont have hard water, MWF wasn't always the easiest to work with.

First impressions. This soap isn't flashy. It comes in a pretty boring box and honestly, I like that. Whether it's true or not, it makes me feel like the company is confident enough with their product that they don't have to try and be fancy or over the top with logos or drawings. 8/10

Next is the scent. Spoiler alert, this smells like generic soap. No essential oils added for smell here. At first that didn't bother me, but then I found myself craving some sort of scent, just something to lift this experience. I want shaving to be enjoyable and smell, for me, had a lot to do with that. I eventually found myself adding a little bit of TOBS shaving cream to my lather just to get some sort of smell going. This happened after my kid smelled the soap and told me it smelled like a port-a-potty. While I do not agree with her, it did get stuck in my head. 3/10

Lather. I followed my normal routine of placing warm water on the soap and letting it sit while I took a shower. It is the same thing I do with my other soap. Not playing favorites here. I would take my brush and shake the water out and start loading. My boar brush was first on this soap, however because my face is sensitive, I discontinued its use. The Simpson seemed to pick up just as well and the soap acted the same for both brushes. I call this a win although a small sample size. 9/10

Now comes the task of learning this soap. Admittedly, I was adding too much water at first. My soap was thin and my face suffered for it. I started dialing back my water use and I don't feel like I ever hit a golden ratio. It was always felt too thin to me. I would later my whole face and then start shaving one side. Before I finished that side the other side would dry out. I eventually got to the point where I would only lather the side of my face that I was activity shaving. 4/10

While I was shaving, I felt that MWF worked about average. I didn't notice any amazing effects while shaving and my face didn't feel any different afterwards. This could be from my inability to get the later perfect or it could be that people read too much into this soap. Whatever it is I give no score this round.

Life expectancy. Something I felt this soap was great at was how long it lasted. Full disclosure, I tend to shave 3 times a week depending on when I work. I am not an everyday shaver so that may skew my results. However, I did rotate between MWF and another soap. The other soap I got after MWF and it was done before MWF. I tried my best to give equal time to each, so that what you want from that. 8/10

Overall. This soap is okay. It's not bad by any means, but I personally don't think it lives up to the hype. I would urge anyone who is curious about it to try it, after all shaving is one giant pot of YMMV.

With that said, I probably wont buy this again. Been there done that and now I have others I want to try.

And with that also said, opinions are like butt-holes. Everyone has one and they all stink.
Thanks, great review. I just ordered my first puck of MWF today. Would you recommend the boar brush over the synthetic for someone who easily tolerates it? The closest soap I have to MWF, Williams (same top 3 ingredients and also a hard triple milled soap) works best for me with a good boar brush. My other brush is a Razorock Monster synthetic. I'm really curious to see how similar or different the MWF is from Williams.
 
Thanks, great review. I just ordered my first puck of MWF today. Would you recommend the boar brush over the synthetic for someone who easily tolerates it? The closest soap I have to MWF, Williams (same top 3 ingredients and also a hard triple milled soap) works best for me with a good boar brush. My other brush is a Razorock Monster synthetic. I'm really curious to see how similar or different the MWF is from Williams.
Boar brushes are a great fit for MWF. If you are getting a good lather with Williams, this should be easy. For me, what works well is getting enough soap loaded to saturate the brush tips, then going directly to face lathering. Paint on a layer of soap, then work it to build the lather, adding water very gradually. If needed, revisit the puck to get more soap. The soap goes on thinner than some, but can be built up thicker with the brush.
 
Love my MWF!!


woolfat sep 2013-8106s.jpg
 
I face-lather with MWF and found two bits of information that really helped me to get the most out of it:

It is difficult to work with at first, when the soap is brand new. After the surface has been worn down a bit, it's just like using any other soap.

When it's in the difficult stage, it's important to add water very slowly and take time. It will produce perfect lather as long as you are patient and go easy on the water.

For me, it's one of the best soaps on the market. I would never be without it. I have very hard water.
 
Thanks, great review. I just ordered my first puck of MWF today. Would you recommend the boar brush over the synthetic for someone who easily tolerates it? The closest soap I have to MWF, Williams (same top 3 ingredients and also a hard triple milled soap) works best for me with a good boar brush. My other brush is a Razorock Monster synthetic. I'm really curious to see how similar or different the MWF is from Williams.
My very first soap was MWF. My second was Williams. I’m using MWF again. I love the subtle scent.
 
My secret to unlocking MWF was when I cut the puck in half, wrapped the half in foil, and face lathered with it like a shave stick. Fantastic and foolproof.

Just by chance, I ran across this thread shortly after grating a MWF replacement puck into a container. Having the leftover piece of puck handy, I decided to give @Legion's method a try and use the puck fragment as a soap stick.

Mitchell's Wool Fat Puck Fragment.jpeg


It worked great even with the small fragment - loads of quickly and easily built, great lather. I've built lather twice this way. IME you still have to dial in the water carefully, but even so, this is as good as any method I know of to handle the fat.
 
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