Traditional shaving scuttle

[Alexius.m.]

My dream came true when Cyril R Salter's shaving scuttle arrived today. I've wanted one pretty much since I switched to DE. I haven't seen much discussion about these kind of scuttles and was wondering if people have these. Apparently they were used in the days when there were no hot water taps. So your valet would heat up water while making your morning tea and bring warm water to your bedroom where you filled a scuttle up and started lathering. Water would keep the soap warm.

Here is the scuttle.

Fill it up and soak the brush in spout.​

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Brush can stay on top and hopefully will stay warm...

Here's the soap that came with it. (I've read it is similar to T&H luxury shaving soap)​

Holding it feels a bit awkward. Hopefully that will improve.
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Any experiences? I know that a modern scuttle is more usable, but I'm a sucker for old fashioned things.
You can see these kind of scuttles in Jeeves and Wooster tv-series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkkvAPlnPQA&feature=related (click at 8:11)
And Brideshead Revisited http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1S3LBDT3vk (8:41)

 

[brooks_bro]

I've always felt that these "old fashioned" scuttles were a bit dainty for my taste. Also, how exactly do the physics work here? Warm water in the base warms the soap and the brush, then you load on top of the puck and face lather? How exactly does the lather itself stay warm? Does the warm water penetrate the soap puck and warm it up?

 

[tacchini]

thats a nice piece, i have a puck of the salter soap its a good soap, nice traditional smell and a good performer, i also picked up one of the old wade scuttles and have been using it for the last week, i am more into bowl lathering, but with the scuttle its got me into face lathering.

 

[rajagra]

I have a couple of traditional scuttles, but am struggling to find a practical use for them.
One big obstacle is the size/shape of the spouts. Getting a large brush in would be difficult.

They would clearly be OK for holding a puck of soap (possibly grated in), but I think they would make poor lathering bowls and very poor brush warmers.
They do have a certain charm though, and I want to find a "killer app" for them.

 

[Alexius.m.]

I tested it today. I was a bit disappointed with the soap warming. I think it should be warmer, but since the brush brought warm water, the lather was warm in the end. Soap was good. It gave me nice glide and protection, but it wasn't very moisturising.

I think Tacchini's mug would perform better since the waterline can be higher and actually touch the soap compartment (correct me if I'm wrong). If I filled mine up that high, the water just overflows through the spout.

As for the spout, I don't think the bigger brushes would fit. In the pictures I used Mühle 23 knot.

I left the brush on top of the soap during the first pass, but it did not keep it very warm, so during the second pass I left the brush in the water. This method ensures warm lather, but some of the soap is wasted.

I think these scuttles could be handy if I needed to shave outside my bathroom, but otherwise it is fairly impractical. It does look nice so I'm happy with it.

 

[tacchini]

mines is much the same as alexius, i justfill with warm water and put the brush in spout, take brush out and use on soap to face lather, the soap does not seem to warm up any, i think i prefair bowl lathering, but the old scuttles do look the part, the vie long brush i use is small and can just make it in the scuttle spout, anything bigger would be no use.