Thread: Newbie in need of seasoned scuttle advice

If the scuttle water is too hot, the lather will dry up too fast. Filling the bowl and chamber with hot tap water, letting the scuttle warm up, and then draining and refilling only the water chamber works for me. In the United States, hot water from a tap must be not less than 110°F (43° C) and not exceed 130°F (54° C).

You will have to rehydrate and remix your warm lather from time to time and find your best compromise between increasing lather warmness and the consequential increased frequency of necessary rehydration/remixing. Really hot water temperatures kill lather in the scuttle's bowl fast. I recommend watching the Chimensch 30th anniversary video where he demonstrates scuttle warming, mixing lather, and rehydrating thickening lather using his Schwatzweisskermaic scuttle. http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...ing-video.html

I believe that large scuttle mass and a large water chamber are really important for a leisurely SR shave with warm lather as small scuttles cool off too fast, unless one shaves fast. The scuttle will also work well to make room temperature lather in hot summer weather, just do not fill the water chamber. Large scuttles work best when left on the counter top in use, they are too heavy to hand hold. If you want to make room temperature lather, a bowl is smaller, lighter, and less expensive, and many can be hand held while mixing lather. I also use a nice decorative bowl from the local pottery shop for making lather at room temperature.

HTH

I splurged for Oskar's Large scuttle early on when starting out.
I tried others as well, but it is in my book the perfect scuttle.
Well, I bought a white one, so after a while I ordered a backup black one

Oh, and so there is no confusion, the owner/proprietor of Schwartzweisskeramik.com is named Oskar.

@sheajohnw:
Really? Is that temperature range somehow regulated by law?
I keep my boiler at 75°C (167°F)
Which is way too warm to put directly in the scuttle, it will kill the suds rather promptly

I've just measured my tap water and its coming out at 81 °C. I do live in the UK and its an old combi boiler so maybe our laws are different or the boiler dates from a time when people were allowed to think for themselves before the health and safety madness of today

How is this for the perfect scuttle companion
Steaming hot water taps | InSinkErator UK

+1 for a Dirty Bird!
Love mine

"In the United States, hot water from a tap must be not less than 110°F (43° C) and not exceed 130°F (54° C)."

That's not true in my part of the US. Mine is set at 140. I adjusted it upward when I started the wet shave.

Finally got my SWK XL on the way Its not SWK's fault it has taken so long, when i made my initial contact they had them in stock buuuuuut i didn't send the money for a week or so (i can't remember) and in that time he sold out. I have had to wait for the new batch to be made and paid straight away this time lol

Posted on Monday so i am hoping to have it by the weekend

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

"In the United States, hot water from a tap must be not less than 110°F (43° C) and not exceed 130°F (54° C)."


That's not true in my part of the US. Mine is set at 140. I adjusted it upward when I started the wet shave.

It is essentially true, but it's not as if someone is going to come into your home and check it. I am a plumber and we are not supposed to set water heaters higher than 125°-130°. It is usually marked on the water heater. It says something like"it is not recommended to set water temperature above x° due to risk of scalding". There is also usually a little chart showing how long it takes certain temps. of water to scald you. You can set it to whatever you want after I leave. I have done it on request occasionally.

I think it is mainly to protect against lawsuits. And scalding.

Well, I guess some one has to throw in the descending opinion. First of all, I had a G20 when I was hot lathering it. After I found out that the hot process was a major cause of my irritations (multiple, yes) I switched to lukewarm or cold water shaving and 99% of my irritations went away and I sold the G20. I probably am the one referred to in the OP's comment about reading it somewhere here about modifying a bowl with epoxy. I have modified ceramic, wooden and plastic bowls and sent off several to interested parties to use. It is not a permanent solution, but it works well and is certainly cost conscious. Don't get me wrong, scuttles are a delight to look at and while at times expensive, certainly solve the problem of hot lather. I want to suggest that for giggles, try loading it with ice cold water and do a cold lather and cold water shave and compare it to the warmer version. I'm planning, when it gets too hot for comfort here, to use ice water to lather and a bowl of ice to set the lather bowl in while I shave.

Here's to a healthy discussion.

I'm all for energy savings but setting your water heater that low is asking for all kinds of cooties, like legionalla, to grow in it.