Using Col. Conk Soap

Hello. I searched around on the forums on how to properly make lather, but almost every thing I find uses creams. So Far I'm stuck with a bar of Colonel Conk soap. I'm not sure if I'm doing this properly, since my lather seems to be on the thin side and it disappears rather quickly. First I wet my brush thoroughly. Then I put the soap in the little mug, pour some hot water on it and then pour the water out. Then I "charge" the brush with lather from the mug. Then I proceed to stir the brush around in the mug till some quantity of lather has developed. Then I put it on my face. Am I doing something wrong? My lather is neither thick or very lubricous. Can it be the water quality?

Col. Conk is pretty decent soap. If you have hard water (high mineral content) it could impede the lather making. Generally, you need to put water on the surface of the soap and let it sit for a while (experiment starting with five minutes and go more or less from there). Soak the brush as well. If you are charging the brush then using a different container to make the lather, flick the brush almost all the way dry and make sure that the brush is thick and sticky with soap. If you are making the lather on top of the soap, leave about 2 teaspoons of water in the brush. One gentle flick should do leaving the brush full of water but not dripping too much.

Then swirl, pump, swirl, vigorously until the bubbles that you are forming get very small (think like the head on a draft guinness) a fine foam should develop but may take some work. If it is runny and not sticking to your face or hand well, reduce the water by flicking the brush out more or adding less. The nice thing about lather making is you can practice a lot since you don't need to actually shave to gain the skill. Good luck, let us know how you make out!
:tu

I have found it easier, with Conk soaps, to use a seperate mug/bowl/scuttle to make the lather. when you are loading the brush it should not be very wet, damp tops. if you see a lot of foam on the soap, your brush is too wet.

once the brush is loaded, switch to your other container and add a bit of water, thrashing it like a madman, and you should get thick luxurious lather.

Your technique sounds good, could be too much water in the lather, maybe not enough time spent whipping the lather before applying it.

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Originally Posted by Gaz

Hello. I searched around on the forums on how to properly make lather, but almost every thing I find uses creams. So Far I'm stuck with a bar of Colonel Conk soap. I'm not sure if I'm doing this properly, since my lather seems to be on the thin side and it disappears rather quickly. First I wet my brush thoroughly. Then I put the soap in the little mug, pour some hot water on it and then pour the water out. Then I "charge" the brush with lather from the mug. Then I proceed to stir the brush around in the mug till some quantity of lather has developed. Then I put it on my face. Am I doing something wrong? My lather is neither thick or very lubricous. Can it be the water quality?

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I was thinking of trying this soap out as my supplier now stocks colonel soap. Are you using a good badgers brush. I find bristle or sinthetic brushes don't work as well with the soaps. Just wondering what type of mug have you got because the soap does'nt actualy come with a bowl as such cheers gary haywood.

Sounds like you're not adding water to the mug after your brush is loaded and you're trying to lather up.

"Charged"?

"Loaded"?

Also, is there a step by step guide for making lather using this kind of (glycerine-based?) soap? I have the same soap and I'm a newbie and I've had a hard time finding detailed, hand holding level instructions.

I ordered Lynn's DVD so hopefully it's covered in there. Still, I'd greatly appreciate any other tips or references.

One of my major problems last time (the first time) I shaved was the lather and since I understand that a good lather / good prep is important, I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

I just started wet shaving and got both Proraso and Col Conk Almond. I found it to be no problem to make wicked lather with the Proraso, but was having problems with the Conk. I have been working with the Conk for the last week and over the last 5 or so shaves have improved my lather quite a bit.

I like to put my brush into a bowl of water and dribble some water onto my soap (still in the plastic container thingy) before I shower. I close the lid on the soap thingy.
I get out of the shower and drain the water from the bowl. I shake the brush a couple of times so that there is no dripping water.
I then twist the brush back and forth until I have a good lather going right on the soap.
I transfer to my bowl and begin to whip/pump.
I try and get stiff peaks on my lather, but I usually do not quite get there. Soft peaks for sure.
I then work the lather on my face for probably a minute on top of whatever I did in the bowl.

This has been working pretty good.

I would suggest making a couple of bowls of lather to get a feel for how much water you need to add. I probably make about 5 bowls before I got it right enough.

I'm pretty new at this, but what I found works, is just to really bear down on the soap, and use a lot of it. It burns through your bar quickly, but it works for me.

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Originally Posted by modul8r

"Charged"?

"Loaded"?

Also, is there a step by step guide for making lather using this kind of (glycerine-based?) soap? I have the same soap and I'm a newbie and I've had a hard time finding detailed, hand holding level instructions.

I ordered Lynn's DVD so hopefully it's covered in there. Still, I'd greatly appreciate any other tips or references.

One of my major problems last time (the first time) I shaved was the lather and since I understand that a good lather / good prep is important, I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

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Where in Austin? North, South....I lived in San Marcos for a while before I joined the service, and I always had a hard time with all my soaps when i was there. A lot of places south austin and below, have pretty hard water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by modul8r

"Charged"?

"Loaded"?

Also, is there a step by step guide for making lather using this kind of (glycerine-based?) soap? I have the same soap and I'm a newbie and I've had a hard time finding detailed, hand holding level instructions.

I ordered Lynn's DVD so hopefully it's covered in there. Still, I'd greatly appreciate any other tips or references.

One of my major problems last time (the first time) I shaved was the lather and since I understand that a good lather / good prep is important, I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

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Charging and loading refer to essentially the same thing: getting soap worked into the bristles of the brush. If you're working up the lather in another container such as a bowl, scuttle or whatever, you should shake out as much water as you can before you start working the puck with the brush. This is because however much soap you put into the brush, it will work into a much larger volume of lather than if you were to work it directly in the mug then transfer straight to your face. If your lather is too thin and soupy, you should probably keep working it a little longer to get it to thicken up.

Keep after it. You'll eventually get the hang of it!

Making basic soap lather - Straight Razor Place Wiki

This is what helped me a lot and I was having problems similar to yours at first. I don't have much experience with brushes but I think it varies, I tend to need more water than shown in this wiki because I have a relatively low quality synthetic. Just work with it and you'll get it pretty quickly.

Gaz, it sounds to me like you are doing the right steps, you just need to experiment with the water/ soap mixture. I've been using Col. soap for some time with a boar brush and having the same problems. I recently started trying the SRD soaps. Here is what I have learned:
1) SRD soaps cost more, smell better, lather faster.
2) Col. soaps work fine. I need more patients.
3) When using Col. soaps, soak the brush, give it a light gentle squeze, load the brush until I think I have enought soap on it, then load it some more, have no water in my bowl, start stirring my soapy brush, add water a few warm drops at a time, mix till I think I am done, mix a little more.

The SRP Wiki has a good soap tutorial. You'll do fine. :gl:

I've used a couple varieties of Conk soap in the past and never was crazy about them. They gave a passable lather but it was still relatively weak and tended to dry out pretty fast. Sometimes you can do only so much and if you're water is hard you have a strike against you to begin with. I would try something else.

I use Colonel Conk lime shaving soap. I put hot water in the soap cup enough to cover the bar and let it sit at least five minutes. (usually I do this before getting in the shower) I also have a cup I fill with hot water and soak my badger hair brush in it for the same amount of time. When the soaking is done I pour out all the water and shake the brush until there is no water dripping from it. Then I start swirling the brush on the soap in both directions and occasionally push it up and down while twisting it back and forth on the soap. I do this until the soap cup starts forming a nice lather in it and the brush has a nice thick foam on the ends. Then I splash my face with hot water one last time and start the lathering on my face. Fast small circles until it lathers up nice and thick, and I get complete coverage. This usually takes at least a minute, maybe two. I get a lather that is at least as thick as foams from a can, and it's much slicker and provides a far superior shave. Hope this is helpful.

Truckinmann

I'll have to get my konk bar out and give it a try now....

I like Col Conk's, especially the bay rum.

Here's my technique and it seems to work pretty good.

I soak the brush in hot tap water while I take a shower. Also during this I have a small dab of water sitting on top of the soap (which I melted into a shave mug). When done I gently squeeze the excess water out of the brush, empty the bowl, then pour the little bit of water that's been sitting on top of the soap into the bowl I use to built lather in.

Load the brush for roughly 60 seconds. If the brush is too damp, it will start building lather. It shouldn't at this point. Instead the bristles should be quite loaded with thick soap.

To make lather I start to both swirl and pump in my little bowl, adding dabs of water as I go.

The trick seems to be to load the brush with most of the water squeezed out, load it a lot, then add water gradually as you build the lather in a separate bowl. I have not tried face lathering so I can't speak to that technique with Col Conks.

Keep at it, the Col really is a decent soap.

Charlie

I like Col. Conk alright. Nothing special. Truthfully, I usually go for the cheap and available VDH, but have some others I use to change things up, etc.

I have incredibly hard water. Even with a water softener my water is harder here than I've ever experienced in any other place I've lived. I use a horse hair brush most days, but have gotten lather with a boar brush and Col. Conk. It takes more work with the boar than the horse, but still doesn't take forever.

1) If I'm using a puck for the first time in a while I'll put a little water on it the day before and let it soak. If I just used it yesterday then I won't worry about this step.
2)I put a little water on the puck while I soak my brush, shower, and strop my blade.
3) I use an Old Spice mug to make lather and soak my brush, so I pour out the water and shake the brush twice to get out excess water. **The first shake goes back into the mug, the second into the sink. This gives me warm water to lather with, but leaves the brush dry enough to properly load it.
4) I "Load" the brush by swirling it quickly over the puck about 3x/second, for about 12-15 seconds. If it foams then I didn't shake enough water out of the brush.
5) I swirl the brush in my mug to make lather by using a circular motion that is high at one end and low at the opposite end, thereby swirling AND pumping each rotation. Using the same speed as I did to load the brush, generating a lather takes about 30sec, but can take as much as one minute.
6) If the lather is thick and sticky looking and fails to build in volume, then I add water...about a half teaspoon at a time, or just enough to coat the bottom of the Old Spice mug.
7) If the lather is frothy like the foam on a coke or rootbeer, then there's too much water for the amount of soap. I'll try and pump it more, but if by 30sec it isn't taking shape, I need to re-load my brush.
8)I aim for a lather that's the consistency of room temperature Cool Whip; it should slide easily down the side of the mug, but leave soft peaks, and have a slightly glossy sheen. Generally speaking if I load my brush as described above, then I only need to add water once, if at all, to get this consistency.

I hope this was step-by-step enough to help you out. Boar brushes require more work to get lather than Horse, and more still than Badger. Hard water makes for harder work to get lather. Inexperience and having no real way to experience what proper lather is like makes finding your way a little difficult. For me, this was the hardest part to figure out about straight shaving, but I did. You will too.

Peace,
Jim