Well, I did my first shave the other day and it went surprisingly well. The only problem was that I was having a lot of trouble trying to get a thick lather from my soap (col. conks) and a boar bristle brush (part of the vdh wet shave kit). I filled my dish with hot water and after soaking the brush I strained the water out of the brush and swirled it on the soap. Then I swirled the brush with the soap in the dish of water but it only resulted in a very thin, mostly liquid lather? What am I doing wrong?