Question of shaving soap

[CraigarTA]

Maybe I am doing this wrong or not.

Do I leave the cake in the bowl or leave it in a mug and then whip it up in the bowl.

I got this for a gift and not 100% sure

 

[alabamalawyer]

I would leave the soap in the bowl and load your brush from it. To do this, put a bit of water on the soap puck and let your brush soak in some hot water. After a couple of minutes, pour the water off the soap and give the brush a light shake or two to remove excess water. Then take the brush to the soap rubbing it in circular motions until it is loaded with soap. The use the loaded brush to make the lather either directly on your face or in a larger, separate bowl.

If you wanted to keep the soap in a mug and use the bowl as your lather bowl you could. I just expect the bowl might be a bit small for that purpose.

 

[Saltchuck]

Maybe I am doing this wrong or not.

Do I leave the cake in the bowl or leave it in a mug and then whip it up in the bowl.

Check out this post over in the Shaving Soap Forum:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=63824

It has links to several very useful tutorials.

Good luck!

 

[FL shaver]

And so it begins!! Welcome to the world of wet shaving!!

 

[fluffman86]

Leave the puck of soap in the little blister pack it came in, or put it in a coffee mug or something. If you try to build lather directly on top of the soap you're going to waste a lot of soap. Of course, at less than $2 a puck, that's not a huge deal I guess.

Or, you can put the puck of soap in a mug or bowl and build the lather right on your face.

 

[OldSaw]

Put the soap in the bowl, fill it with water from a sink full of hot water and start swirling the brush around while letting the sloppy excess fall into the sink. Try it at different stages of thick and thinness until you get what gives you the best shave. That is the only way to really find out what works.

The biggest watchout is making a very voluminous lather that is weak. It will look like you have lots of lather, but will quickly fade on your face. Keep working it until it is thicker and don't worry about making it too thick as it only takes a few drops of water to thin it out again.

After you have played around you can work on trying the different techniques mentioned and develop your skill.

Just don't expect too much from this product, as it is a low end soap. Some guys love it and others find it doesn't perform very well. So don't feel like you are "doing it wrong" if it doesn't work very well for you.

 

[mblakele]

Feel free to make lots of lather in between shaves, too. It's a good way to practice, and a good way to break in that new brush.

 

[Shavely Manden]

Maybe I am doing this wrong or not.

Do I leave the cake in the bowl or leave it in a mug and then whip it up in the bowl.

I got this for a gift and not 100% sure

Typically, you'll load the brush on the soap (either in a bowl or mug, though sometimes I just hold the cake in hand) and move to another bowl to build lather. You can lather on the soap, but most folks feel that's wasteful of soap.

 

[Shavely Manden]

Feel free to make lots of lather in between shaves, too. It's a good way to practice, and a good way to break in that new brush.

Not to mention satisfying your curiosity about what that new soap smells like!

 

[CraigarTA]

I have been getting the technique down I just wasn't sure after seeing some videos on lathering up.

Been using a Eversharp Hydromatic for about a year and soon to getting Gillette Super Adjustable.

The hardest thing is to unlearn years of using modern razor usage and especially how to shave from the Drill Sergeants in basic training those years ago

 

[Owens187]

Personally I prefer to melt my soap into a cool Harley Davidson mug I have, load the brush in it, and lather in a seperate bowl. I get the thickest, creamiest lather that way...

 

[michiganlover]

Put the soap in the bowl, fill it with water from a sink full of hot water and start swirling the brush around while letting the sloppy excess fall into the sink. Try it at different stages of thick and thinness until you get what gives you the best shave. That is the only way to really find out what works.

Maybe I am missing something, but this technique would seem extremely wasteful of soap, as the amount of sloppy excess (all of it containing soap) that has to drain off into the sink would be huge if you are starting off with a bowl full of water.

The method you describe is called "Zach's Method", but he doesn't start off with a bowl full of soap, just a very wet brush.

 

[OldSaw]

Maybe I am missing something, but this technique would seem extremely wasteful of soap, as the amount of sloppy excess (all of it containing soap) that has to drain off into the sink would be huge if you are starting off with a bowl full of water.

The method you describe is called "Zach's Method", but he doesn't start off with a bowl full of soap, just a very wet brush.

Nearly all the excess is gone in the first few seconds. It may use the soap a little faster, but it works for me and I didn't even know who Zach was when I first started using this method way back in the 80's.