Thread: How important it are a scuttle and brush to a beginner

It's like everything it has its drawbacks. Okay let's say you get a boar(personal favorite of mine. I would suggest the Semouge 680 as a good starter. Reasonable price not too expensive)the plus side is it has good backbone but is so soft. Let's say you get a badger(Franks is a good brand) A synthetic I've heard Tweezeman is good. Each brush material has different properties they preform differently. For instance a boar has to be soaked to limber up. It retains more water. A badger is softer on the face.
Along these lines a scuttle is a tool. It assists in making lather and keeping the brush of your choice warm along with your lather. A good cheap scuttle is a microwave salsa bowl. Now if you wanna go fancy and can I know of two choices. The first is SRD (straight razor designs)they can fix you up. Also George Town Pottery they have a toll free number. If you call ask to speak with Jessica. Ask her for what is called a "Seconds" their just as good as a regular scuttle but they have a coloration defect but they work like they should. At about half the price
A long post I know and off point somewhat but hope this helped

Originally Posted by iKe

As per the title, how important are the scuttle and/or brush to someone just starting to straight shave? There's a pottery place pretty local to home that sells a moss scuttle? How important is this? Could I just use a big mug? And the brush... Holay, do I go with one of the many varieties of badger? Or boar? Or a cheapy synthetic from the body shop? Just trying to nail ail things down so that I can enjoy the experience.thanks in advance all.

They are both somewhat important, but both can be substituted or even eliminated depending on the resourcefulness of the beginner. If you are using shaving cream like C.O. Bigelow, you could apply it by hand, directly to your face without using a brush at all. There may be some types of soap that can adequately be applied without a brush as well. However the brush plays a fairly big part in building a lather that will surround the hairs on your face and soften them. It also aids in mixing the cream or soap with sufficient water to maintain a lather that will not dry out too fast. You could get away without a brush, but your experience will be greatly improved with a decent one. The scuttle on the other had is fairly unnecessary. It simply serves as a place to generate a lather using the brush. Some are designed to be heated from below the bowl with hot water which keeps the lather warm. That warmth plays a part, along with the brush, in softening the hairs on your face and making them easier to remove with your razor. Additionally a warm lather feels awesome on the face and enhances the whole shaving experience. However, you could build a later directly on your face with the a brush, or even in your hand. Between the brush and scuttle, the brush is definitely more valuable to the beginner. Practically any container can be used as a bowl to generate lather in, but you could eliminate the bowl all together and not be any worse off. If you can obtain both a decent brush and scuttle, go for it. But if you can only spring for one, get a brush.

The posts above pretty well cover the subject.
Old style scuttles with the itty bitty bowl on top and the water well for the brush in the bottom were a way to get hot water from the range to the shave stand.
If you find one of these, they were really more for face lathering with a shave stick or rubbing the wet face with a soap. The brush was to work up a lather on the face and it would set onto the scuttle out of the way and could get more water if needed.
I find the old style scuttles fun. I can rub or smear a small amount of a softer soap into the bowl and lather there. Then put the loaded brush to my face for fuller penetration of the stubble. a bit more hot water in a minute makes the lather complete.
The new style scuttles are a winner and the same soft soap or cream smeared into the bottom makes a great lather and...stays warm.
YMMV of course as with any other shaving info.
~Richard

My 2 cents... I can see benefit of a scuttle for a beginner. When I first started, I would spend 45 minutes shaving to get a good BBS. Having hot lather for that entire time would have been nice.

I may be an anomaly, but I've always found that face lathering is best. Even from the very beginning. Maybe I was born old...
As for brush, I recommend starting NOT starting with a high-end boar or badger or horse or vegan or [insert type here], simply because you are learning and you need to develop the muscle memory. Purchase a Proraso or Omega starter brush (or similar) then, four months after (and if you can afford the $50+) try a silvertip or equivalent. Or just stick with an Omega. There are lots of great vendors supplying great brushes at great (GREAT!) prices...something about a dog...a whipped one maybe...

I've only been using straights a couple of months now, before that it was a Gillette Sensor with disposable heads. I have though, always used a brush with a good cream/soap. I've never owned a scuttle and never will. Until recently, I had a bog standard Wilkinson Sword shaving brush and it was fine. I have now 'upgraded' to a lovely Edwin Jagger. As long as you use a decent cream/soap, just dip it in, get a little on the bristles and work it into your whiskers and work up a lather that way. Works for me!

I'd say the the brush is way more important then the scuttle. You can lather w/out the scuttle, but not vice versa. When I first started I used a scut. Then I tried face lathering and never looked back. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I feel it creates a slicker lather. Or maybe because I spend the time building lather on my face, instead of in a bowl, it just lifts & conditions my skin better. Dunno, but really like it.

i started with a scuttle, but i eventually transferred over to face lathering. to each his own, but i still use my scuttle to pre-soak my brushes before i shave.

Scuttles are nice but hardly a necessity. Want warm lather?

Fill sink to about 3" with hot water; while doing do, whip up lather of your choice in $1.50 Wal Mart Salsa bowl,
Once you are satisfied with the quality & quantity of lather, transfer lather to haevy bottom shave mug (this is so it doesn't float around in the sink). You are now ready to go........

You can avoid the lather transfer step if you make it in a big heavy mug from the get go, but I like those little 3-legged bowls.

I started with a $5 stick of Schick soap a $5 Boar brush from Woolworths and a $5 Bowl from same. Have been cold shaving for a 1.5 years now. Once it became a regular thing, I invested in a good silver tip brush however still shave with a ceramic bowl that has deep sides and a nice wide base. There are tips about putting some resin glue on the bottom of the bowl to make ridges to lather but I have not yet. When lathering I look for the sticky feeling on the bottom of the bowl to just be apparent by adding water slowly to the mix and lathering up well in-between. When shaving and wiping the edges of the brush on the bowl, the lather slowly sinks down the bowl edge so that when I am ready to lather up the next pass I can mix the run off with the rest without spilling over. I soak the brush in a glass that lets the brush bloom nicely. It is good reading about everyone else’s methods, I tried face lathering but I enjoy the bowl method, it gives me time to relax a bit.