Something New Learned

Learned something new today. For the past year I was wetting my brush in hot water then building up my lather in the same bowl as my soap. The problem with that is that I was going through soap pretty quickly. In order to lessen my soap usage I purchased a nice apothecary bowl to use to build the lather up. However, I was running hot water in the bowl with my brush while I stropped the razor. Upon completion of stropping I would get the soap infused into the brush then go to town in the apotehcary bowl. What I was getting was a lather that had the consistency of a merangue, not the whipping cream I desired. It was really bugging me because I thought I was doing everything right. It dawned on me a few minutes ago why things were not right. I was getting the lather bowl hot! This prevented the lather from building into a nice, thick consistency for a smooth shave. The lather was disappearing quickly on my face, and my puss paid dearly for that error. I just got back from the sink creating the lather in the lather bowl that was not heated. I have seen the light!!:yThick, smooth lather that stayed nicely on my face...

Another thing falls inito place:D

The first few times I used a scuttle my lather seemed to disappear rather quickly (I'm a face latherer). It worked itself out within a weak - soap/water ratio, I guess but I don't know what was the change that made it right. Also now that I'm down to only two high quality brushes one of which I use almost exclusively things seem to work just the same every time.

I use a scuttle and actually go to extra lengths to get the bowl as hot as possible to keep my lather warm. I am not sure but you may be experiencing more of a problem with your water to soap ratio. However, these things are really a matter of personal preference and you should do what works for you.
It all comes down to enjoying the personal journey that is along the road of str8 shaving.

Steve, thanks... I'll experiment a bit more tomorrow. Sundays are a day of facial rest for me, even when I was using a safety razor.

BTW, in my previous life (when I was married) I lived right across the street from the Target on New Guinea.

In general when you start warming up the lather bowl, you will also start evaporating water from the lather itself.... You will need to up the water ratio in yer lather to get back to the whipped cream and away from the foamy stuff....
I have also found some soaps, that just dont work well when used in a hot lather bowl, it didn't matter what I did, they would just foam up and die out.....
One trick I learned quite awhile back is never add water to the bowl/scuttle always just dribble some off of your fingertips onto the base of the bristles, this really improved how my lather worked...

One thing the Topher showed me was loading the brush with soap and dropping a dab of cream into the bowl. The combination of the two is outstanding. I do preheat my bowl with the same hot tap water that I use in my scuttle and this works well for me.