Thread: Mug or Bowl?

I am waiting to take delivery of my started kit from Tony. (Dovo, Paddle strop, brush, mug and soap) As I have been reading the forums I have been able to take in a lot of info about tips and tricks for my first shave. I am curious about the difference between using a mug and a bowl to lather up... Is there an advantage to one over the other or is it just preference? I see some soaps are sold in a wooden bowl and I see some mugs (on Ebay) appear to have a notch as though you pour water out of them? Still no idea what is that for?

Anyways I thought I would post rather than lurk. I look forward to talking to you guys some more.

Actually I joined into the chat the other night and was registered as "Joe" But I noticed that there are quite of few Joe varitaions on these forums so I reregistered under a new moniker.

Cheers!

Bowl or mug, it is a personal preference. I prefer a bowl because I like the workroom. For me, the mug just is too tight of a fit. Soaps that come in a wooden bowl are easy to work because the are not deep. They do tend to be messy. The oversized latte mugs are really just small bowls. I keep all of my soaps in re-usable, zip loc storage bowls that have a lid. I'll load the brush with soap, and then still move to my regular bowl. My bowl of choice is a stainless steel mixing bowl, seen upside down in this pic:

Others should chime in with what works best for them. The advantage I find with my bowl is that between passes, I can tilt the bowl sideways and run hot water over the bottom, heating up the lather, in just a few seconds.

RT

I operate under the same premise as RT, however, I use a ceramic bowl.

I put bowl and brush in the sink while I fill it with hot water. By the time the sink is full, the bowl is nice and toasty and the brush is well hydrated.

To me a mug is really just a bowl with a handle. A scuttle is different. My brushes are too large to fit in a scuttle so I don't use them though I have a couple. I prefer the oversized ceramic bowls with covers. Mugs don't have covers and good scented soaps loose their scent over time if left uncovered and its a hassle to use plastic wrap on them each time I shave.

One of the things I find most appealing about shaving with a straight razor is the nostalgia and a connection with the golden era of barber shops. And, as a collector of barber shaving mugs, a traditional mug is the only way to go for me.

EnGarde,

Welcome to the forum. Try both. You already
have a mug coming from Tony and I'm sure
you have a small bowl on hand. See which
works best for you. I prefer a bowl myself,
more room to work the brush.



Terry

I just received my starter kit from Tony a couple of weeks ago. The plastic cup that Tony provides works just fine for me, different strokes for different folks though. I think the kit Tony sells is pretty complete, at least for us relative newbs.

Thanks for participating.

I've just started the whole shaving brush thing after straight shaving for several months and I bought myself a huge mug from the discount store for about $2 CDN. It's about 12cm in diameter and 10cm deep. I'm using creams and find the lather tends to get caught in the bottom ridge and my brush clunks against the vertical side. That flat bottom might be better to hold shaving soaps in place, but I think I'll be graduating to a bowl soon. The scuttles are the ones with the spouts you mention and there's a custom hybrid called a Moss Scuttle which I'm also looking at and daydreaming about. Scuttles were originally designed to keep hot water available in the lower chamber for people without such running luxuries.

X

Joe, welcome to the club. I like using my Old Spice mug for hard soaps. There are some hard soaps that are for the old wood type bowls. A new example of this shape of bowl is the Poraso that you can find at Target. I have a thick old ceramic bowl for creams. Scuttles are kind of a novelty, but are used around here and I applaud that.

Glen

All of the above. I've tried regular mugs, soup mugs, latte mugs, and bowls. The soup mugs are what I'm currently using until I order some soap refills.