What's the secret to MWF?

[wdwrx]

OK... I finally broke down and ordered a puck of MWF, but I'm having one heck of a time getting a decent lather... I've always believed that our hard water made soaps a bit problematic but I was hoping that could be overcome with a bit of dedication... Not so far.
It starts out looking pretty good, but usually part-way through a pass, it seems to get very thin and kinda disappears. It's still there, but it just doesn't look like nice lather anymore. I've also broken out lately, several pimples and in-growns... which I haven't had for awhile now, could that be from the MWF?
So what's the trick?

 

[AJMiami]

Here is my advice after months of frustration and love with this soap:
- MWF is harder than any other soap I have, ---> load load load the brush
- Use a fairly dry brush, if you start making large bubbles on the soap you have too much water
- Face lather the first pass, and then continue to build the lather on a bowl. Face lathering the first pass will be a good indication on how much water to add to the bowl

 

[MajorBurnz]

For a new (hard) MWF puck, try this:

1) After soaking your brush appropriately, squeeze and shake it dry. Use that to lead up, and apply the soap to one half of your wet face.

2) Re-load the brush and apply the soap to the other half of your face.

3) Re-load the brush and begin the face-lathering process.

This way you make sure you've got enough product to build a long-lasting lather and you'll get enough stable lather for a 3-pass shave.

This may be overkill, and as your puck hydrates (with use) and softens, you'll be able to get away with fewer loads.

The breaking out could be due to micro-cuts caused by the crappy lather. Hopefully, that will clear up.

 

[wdwrx]

Thanks guys. I'll definitely try your suggestions. I may have been leaving too much water in my brush, and possibly adding too much as well, though I have found that at least two loads of soap are required. I'll also try face lathering, which i don't normally do.

Another thing I've been meaning to try is to use bottled water, but I'm usually well underway before the thought occurs to me.

 

[ackvil]

As for me, I use it to make uberlather. See http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=156022&highlight=uberlather

By combining MWF and a cream plus glycerin you would not believe the amount of thick, rich, moist lather you can get. So far, I have used MWF in combination with Proraso, TH Ultimate Comfort, TOB Almond, a number of GFT creams, Godrej, and Palmolive and the end product has been fantastic.

When I do this combo I get enough lather for four passes and touch up and still have some left over. I put only a pea size amount of the cream but for some reason it just explodes into a tremendous amount of lather.

 

[justinp]

Re: the breakouts-- I know some people have an allergy/sensitivity to lanolin, which is the "wool fat" component of Mitchell's Wool Fat.

I haven't used the stuff myself, just something I've seen mentioned.

 

[maxman]

I use a dry-ish brush and the old 3-finger pinch to stiffen up my Rooney.
With a sufficiently loaded brush I have a choice. If I use a bowl, I have to add hot water to the bowl until I get what I'm looking for.
If I decide to face lather which I normally do with MWF, then I'll need to moisten the brush a little as I go.
MWF is tricky for the first little while, but when the puck breaks in it's great.
The lather is usually thin for me when I use the bowl. Face lathering is much better.

 

[petr]

I think a lot depends on the knot of your brush.

I use a large rooney, or a 2 super chubby and it just explodes with the moisture in soaked and shaken brush alone.

The Austin guys mentioned some sort of tricks for the fat, but I did not catch the whole secret.

 

[Antique Hoosier]

I think a lot depends on the knot of your brush.

I agree with this statement as well as the quality of your water and the fact that face lathering might be the optimal way to really get the best out of this product. I have never had any issues with it but I mainly have used Simpson and Plisson brushes with it however even my big floppy Vulfix #41 loved MWF but I think I had my technique fairly strong by the time I utilized that particular brush on it. This soap is not currently in my stable of products but it has been a few times in the past 3 plus years.

 

[kwsher]

Here is my advice after months of frustration and love with this soap:
- MWF is harder than any other soap I have, ---> load load load the brush
- Use a fairly dry brush, if you start making large bubbles on the soap you have too much water
- Face lather the first pass, and then continue to build the lather on a bowl. Face lathering the first pass will be a good indication on how much water to add to the bowl

This is great advice. I have VERY hard water but get great lather from MWF using essentially the same approach and it sounds to me like you don't have enough product loaded in your brush to start.

Focus on turning the surface of your puck into cream, loading the equivalent of the proverbial almond dollop into your brush. This may take 30sec or it may take a minute. Dont' worry about the time, just the result.

As you load you should hear the soap "smacking" as it forms paste and there should not be foam or lather forming for best result (too much water!). Go to town!

 

[Evbo]

To the OP: My experience w/this soap was that it was a huge PIA. There are so many other soaps out there that have no "learning curve" whatsoever (and that smell much better!); why waste your time? I sold mine on the B/S/T & never looked back.

Of course, that's only 1 shaver's opinion.

 

[Vlad]

To the OP: My experience w/this soap was that it was a huge PIA. There are so many other soaps out there that have no "learning curve" whatsoever (and that smell much better!); why waste your time? I sold mine on the B/S/T & never looked back.

Of course, that's only 1 shaver's opinion.

It is more trouble than it's worth. I think the guys who are really into MWF are the ones looking for the holy grail of lather, which is not that important to me. But since I've got it, I'll keep it in my rotation, and eventually I'll get better with it.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

I found my MWF easier to lather after I milled it back into its original bowl.

 

[cymric]

It starts out looking pretty good, but usually part-way through a pass, it seems to get very thin and kinda disappears. It's still there, but it just doesn't look like nice lather anymore.

Yup, that sounds like MWF alright.

There really is no 'trick' with this soap, but whether it will do its trick for you is another matter. First you should realise that under normal conditions (~ 1 minute long loading time, little water in the brush) its lather does not collapse into the white solid meringue we all know from the 'average' soap, say Tabac, or Speick, or Cade, or Cella, or whatever. It stays relatively airy and bubbly (as in, it's not pure white, and there's a larger bubble to be seen here and there). The sound your brush makes in the bowl is 'crisp' and 'thin' rather than 'muffled'. Mashing, whipping, 'really going to town', facial lathering, palm lathering—to improve matters at this stage it's all of no use. I tried the kitchen mixer on several occasions and even its far more powerful motor could not force MWF into a smooth state at this point. You probably shaved with this type of lather.

Now if you add water, and water, and some more water (all in small gulps of course), there will come a point where it does form the nice smooth billowing masses wich feel nice and heavy too; think of it as MWF being a thirsty soap. If you loaded like you normally would (say ~1 minute with a softly shaken brush) you will have trouble keeping the resulting lather in your bowl too—this stuff likes to expand quite a lot. Unfortunately, those heavy clumps of white yumminess proved to be too wet in my case, so I couldn't use them either. The optimum is somewhere before you get those billowing masses.

What also helps is adding a tiny amount of cream to your mixing bowl (or brush), no more than a pea's worth. This allows MWF to collapse into a smooth state with less water, and may result in a lather you find more to your liking. Note that this presupposes that you generously loaded up on MWF so that the ratio MWF : cream is still quite large (and that the majority of the lather is still MWF).

Personally I found MWF too much trouble to be worth the effort, even if the lanolin leaves the skin nice and smooth. I really wish Musgo Real would become available as a soap, to be honest.

 

[DFrancis]

I boil my water, I would assume that Red Deer would have similar water. I soak my brush and lightly drag the sopping brush across the puck. i then dry my brush and load it up. Apply to a wet face, at first it looks too wet but I keep working it into my face and it get nice and thick and wonderful. I've only shaved a few times with it so I may have been lucky, but I find it's the best soap I have ever used.

 

[wimbouman]

I struggled for a while.
Then decided not to worry too much and just whip up the soap.

And then, one day... it all worked.

Keep trying.
You'll be amazed.

.

 

[Phog Allen]

To the OP: My experience w/this soap was that it was a huge PIA. There are so many other soaps out there that have no "learning curve" whatsoever (and that smell much better!); why waste your time? I sold mine on the B/S/T & never looked back.

Of course, that's only 1 shaver's opinion.

My thoughts exactly. And yes, I did indeed just buy a cake of this soap from Wingham Wool Work last month. It is no better than the Kent cake I had that I thought was maybe dried up. Thin lather that breaks down fast at first. Followed by decent lather if you work at it. One try of AOS put things into a perspective for me that equals the emboldened quote above. Why did I buy it then? I am a sucker for that ceramic bowl. Hey, if you like it and use it, more power to you. Me? I will just dust off that nifty bowl a few times per year to remind myself of why it only gets used a few times per year.

Regards, Todd

 

[Ru4scuba?]

I struggled for a while.
Then decided not to worry too much and just whip up the soap.

And then, one day... it all worked.

Keep trying.
You'll be amazed.

.

This pretty much sums up my experience...MWF sucked when I used it for last year's "Soap for a Month" journey. I put it on the shelf and didn't touch it for a couple of months...then, gradually....I tried it again every once in awhile.

Now I love the stuff.

Total love/////hate for me ...

 

[ackvil]

For all of you who hate MWF try adding just a pea size piece of cream to the mix. You will be amazed how the two react. So far, I have not found a single cream with MWF that doesn't result in great lather and shave.

 

[TheChefs]

For a new (hard) MWF puck, try this:

1) After soaking your brush appropriately, squeeze and shake it dry. Use that to lead up, and apply the soap to one half of your wet face.

2) Re-load the brush and apply the soap to the other half of your face.

3) Re-load the brush and begin the face-lathering process.

This way you make sure you've got enough product to build a long-lasting lather and you'll get enough stable lather for a 3-pass shave.

This may be overkill, and as your puck hydrates (with use) and softens, you'll be able to get away with fewer loads.

The breaking out could be due to micro-cuts caused by the crappy lather. Hopefully, that will clear up.

I do a version of this, very simplified.

Some background on me, I'm LAZY, I don't have much time in the morning to play around with holly grail of methods. I need to get good lather fast and perfect every single time. Because of those reason I don't have time to play around with loading the brush and whipping lather in a bowl etc. That's why I love shave sticks and face lathering.

What I do is:

• Wet my face
• Take the MWF puck into my hand
• Wet the puck
• Rub the puck on my face like a shave stick and load up my face with lots of soap
• Take dryish brush and start working up lather on my face
• Add water to brush as necessery to build the best lather fast
• Shave

I used this method on day one and I didn't have any trouble, give it a go. That's what I do with all soaps.