Which is Best? Mug, Bowl, or scuttle?

[grump]

I'm new to the safety razor. I still have a can of Barbasol, but when it eventually runs out, I want to get shave soap. Some come in a little wooden bowl just big enough to hold the soap, then there are bigger bowls, mugs, and various kinds of scuttles.

Which do you prefer? Doesn't the soap get soft? Isn't there a lot of waste with the smaller bowls? I'm assuming you have to clean off the edges, wasting some good lather. Thanks all.

Michael.....

Welcome to B&B.

When purchasing soap, many will buy the puck refills and put then in a wooden bowl, old cup, vintage cup or new container. MWF, Tabac, and others will also come with dishes or bowls if you so choose. These are mainly for storage and to hold the pucks for loading your brush.

Now, as far as lathering after the brush is loaded, I mostly face lather soaps.

I keep a larger bowl around for when I wish to superlather or just bowl lather. For this a stoneware bowl, soup cup, scuttle, or whatever you feel would function well and looks good should work.

I have settled on a heavy stoneware bowl(good for holding heat) from a resale shop.

 

[takeshi]

Which is Best? Mug, Bowl, or scuttle?

As with any "Which is best?" question, it's highly subjective. I have a bowl for lathering but I'm mostly face lathering these days.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

I'm new to the safety razor. I still have a can of Barbasol, but when it eventually runs out, I want to get shave soap. Some come in a little wooden bowl just big enough to hold the soap, then there are bigger bowls, mugs, and various kinds of scuttles.

Which do you prefer? Doesn't the soap get soft? Isn't there a lot of waste with the smaller bowls? I'm assuming you have to clean off the edges, wasting some good lather. Thanks all.

Michael.....

Michael:
Although I own a Becker Scuttle...I'm still kind of partial to using my 'own' Sterling (needs polishing now & then), Silver Baby Cup my Mother (finally), gave me (as my family Keepsake), many...many 'moons' ago.

Also, yes..my B & B friends...it's engraved with my name, birthday and these notes;

"A Great Lather is Half the Shave"

"To Smoke is Human...To Smoke Cigars is Divine"

And the beauty of this Cup is that is small enough (2 1/2in wide), that it would easily fits my Chelsea's Unscented Shave Soap perfectly...unwrap...in the cup...no hassles...no issues and at the same time only being 2in deep, it prevents almost all shave brush 'clanking'.

[/IMG]

Christopher

 

[RosaryMan]

Before I ever started looking into this, I saw mugs and always thought that the soap in the bottom was worked up into a lather in the mug. Now it seems, correct me if I'm wrong, that a man loads his brush with the soap in the mug but then works up the lather in a bowl, scuttle, or on his face.

 

[kbuzbee]

Michael, as you've heard, the answer as to "best" is very subjective to your needs.

Do you want something to hold your soap/load your brush? Soap bowl or small mug.

Do you want something to rest your brush in to keep it warm between passes? Brush scuttle.

Do you want something to build lather in? Larger bowl or scuttle.

It really depends on what you want to do. As with most things, there is no universal "best".

Ken

 

[Shavely Manden]

Something with high walls to prevent spills, wide enough to move the brush in, and with enough of a slope to prevent lather from getting caught in the corners.

 

[Shavely Manden]

Do you want something to build lather in? Larger bowl or scuttle.

Considering your brush selection, I imagine you'd need one of these

 

[shrubble]

I'm new to the safety razor. I still have a can of Barbasol, but when it eventually runs out, I want to get shave soap. Some come in a little wooden bowl just big enough to hold the soap, then there are bigger bowls, mugs, and various kinds of scuttles.

Which do you prefer? Doesn't the soap get soft? Isn't there a lot of waste with the smaller bowls? I'm assuming you have to clean off the edges, wasting some good lather. Thanks all.

Michael.....

Welcome aboard! I've been at it a few months now, and if there is one thing I've begun to learn more than anything else it's that it's a journey, and the journey is the best part.

Start with a mug, a puck, and a boar brush. You will naturally find yourself in situations where you'll think "that's why some guys get scuttles/use cremes/use shaving sticks", and you will seek them out then, and what's great is that they will have more meaning to you at that point, because you will better understand the need.

And don't forget to enjoy yourself!

 

[fccexpert]

I guess I would have to say bowl. In practice, I drop my puck of MWF into a ramiken that I bought at Target. Works for me.

 

[mandoman]

face lathering is the best

 

[Saltchuck]

Another face latherer here- only real problem is that you are relathering from the brush and the lather gets cold.

That's what brush scuttles are for!

 

[orpheus]

I've been thinking of getting a scuttle. Will I need a brush scuttle too, or will a regular scuttle do "double duty"?

 

[TAP119]

A scuttle would be beneficial if one face lathers. I have face lathered using the Proraso in a tube while traveling in order to travel light. I'd rather use a short, wide soup mug from Dollar Tree which works like a mug. I prefer cake/puck soap and I swirl the wet brush on it to load, then I build my lather in the "bug", the bowl-size soup mug and lather my face. Any good lather left over in the soup mug can be put back on top of the soap in its container and saved for the next shave. It will dry to nothing, but the wet brush will pick it up.

Experiment!!

 

[Ski-Patroller]

Before I ever started looking into this, I saw mugs and always thought that the soap in the bottom was worked up into a lather in the mug. Now it seems, correct me if I'm wrong, that a man loads his brush with the soap in the mug but then works up the lather in a bowl, scuttle, or on his face.

Pretty much.

For years I made the lather on top of the Puck, but it is easier and more cost effective to load the brush and then make the lather in a bowl. Anything, 5 or 6" diameter and reasonably deep will work. If you want it to stay hot, rest it in the sink.

Doing it this way uses a lot less soap makes a better lather and also makes it a lot easier to clean the soap out of the brush.

Of course you can always face lather and forgo the bowl.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I suggest that you don't wait until the Barbasol runs out. Good soaps and creams, and the good lather you get from them, are a huge improvement and at least half the fun of wetshaving.

+2- I gave away 3 cans of Edge (kept one emergency) and now use only soap. Shave quality has greatly improved.

 

[Wheater]

There are a lot of ways to go on this. Like everything else with DE shaving, it is largely a matter of personal preference.

For me, the small glass candy dish that I bought for $3 at an antique shop is the perfect solution for a lather bowl when I use creams (as I typically do). When I use soap, I face lather.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Will I need a brush scuttle too, or will a regular scuttle do "double duty"?

I don't have a scuttle yet, I am currently doing the bowl in the sink with hot water. If I push the brush down so the strands splay out the brush stays pretty warm, too. I am getting a Dirty Bird 1.5 scuttle next month- I think the trick out to work with that, too. No real need for the brush scuttle- although it might be a nice luxury to get later. You can never have too much stuff

 

[kbuzbee]

Considering your brush selection, I imagine you'd need one of these

Definitely!


Ken

 

[kbuzbee]

+2- I gave away 3 cans of Edge (kept one emergency) and now use only soap. Shave quality has greatly improved.

Keeping a can of Edge sounds like an emergency that needs to be dealt with ASAP!



Ken

 

[Munxcub]

I prefer the bowl I have. Hand made from some artsy shop, has ridges, nice and big so lots of room, holds some heat.