Thread: Scuttle

In my experience, a quality, triple-milled soap will far outlast a cream of the same amount.

For instance, Martin De Candre is an extremely hard soap that produces an abundant amount of lather for the little that you use. My large jar should last me well beyond next year, but I also use it in a (growing) rotation of 3 or 4 different soaps.

I've heard that Mitchell's Wool Fat is another hard soap that lasts awhile, but I don't have any experience with it.

Be careful not to write-off creams, though. They have their desired purposes, too! They work well in conjuction with a nice soap to give you a great, smooth lather. Also, they take a bit less time to lather, cutting time off your shave if you're in a hurry (which I can be, some mornings).

You really can't compare them because they are all so different. Castle Forbes for instance requires a pea sized dollop to create incredible lather and it would last a very long time. I think in the end they last about the same comparing equal quality products.

As far as a lathering bowl is concerned, yes modern scuttles lather in the scuttle itself. The small bowls like Oskar sells are to grate soap and load up the brush that way. it's part of his "system".

Veedubb, this is the first time I've heard how to use the older version of a scuttle. Thanks a bunch. Ive actually not bought one in the past due to embarrassment of not knowing how to deal with the holes/shallow platform.

I hope you try one out, they're really wonderful for what they're for.

Something that would really help me decide which scuttle I want is the volume of water they hold. I know its a lot to ask, but can some of you (hopefully one with each type of scuttle) measure how much water it takes to fill the cavity within the scuttle and then how much water the lathering space holds? Some of the suppliers give you lathering dimentions, but the lathering space is not a cylinder so I have no idea of its volume. The cavity is what really matters, the bigger the cavity space the longer it will hold heat.

Someone on the internet measured the Schwarzweisskeramik to have about 4 deciliters in the lathering bowl and 8 in the cavity. If your willing to measure your scuttle, let me know in whichever unit you wish.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Knife

I went to that SCHWARZWEISSKERAMIK site and they have a page where they shave soap with what looks like a cheese grater and then take the shavings and press them to the brim in a tiny bowl then use that to gather their soap. Is there an advantage to this?

So looks like if you want to use a modern scuttle with soap you need a seperate container?

The Swarzweisskeramik comes with a "soap lid", like this:

By blix72 at 2011-07-10

I fill mine with a quite soft soap, I have a kg brick of Cella. Amazing Scuttle!

Yeah part of why I want to get the Swarzweisskeramik is it comes with the soap bowl and it matches with the scuttle. I plan on using soap to lather with, partly because I've been using dove soap to lather with recently and I love it so it'll only get better with proper shaving soap. Although I will be experimenting with shave cream. But thanks for that Cella recomendation, I was looking more toward getting a brick type soap so I can do the shavings thing. Bowl shaped shaving soaps seem to me will be more expensive. Getting a brick and producing shavings and generating a home made soap bowl seams more like a labor of love that will add to my straight shaving experience. I looked up the Cell kg brick, 42 bucks. How long does that last you?

Cella soap is soft enough so you can just cut of a piece and press it into the soap lid with no problem.
I use various soaps in rotation, but I'm still using Cella for around 50% of my shaves. I think 1 kg will at least last a couple years, if not longer.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

... however, you should never lather on top of a cake of soap. That's just a waste...

VeeDubb, I agree that it is a waste, but not a terrible waste. Prior to discovering SRP and straight razors, I wet shaved for many years lathering on top of a cake of soap out of ignorance. An $8 puck of C&E soap would last me over 6 months of daily use. That's still way cheaper than the junk in a can