Thread: Shaving Bowls

Well i received the Moss scuttle about 2 days ago. I have been using it with C&E sandalwood soap, not the cream. It does keep the lather warm and the brush as well. So far i like it.

Jmy. Ellis

This has kind of diverted from the mug/bowl discussion, but I'm going to add my two cents anyway. I definitely prefer the bowl to the mug. I use a little antique dessert bowl that says "Made in England" on the bottom of it. So I guess that gets me a few retro shaving points, huh? Heh.

The bowls are definitely better for using creams. When I used Williams' soap a while back, all I did was put a thump on the puck and swirl my brush overtop of it and the soap. That kept it from sliding around pretty well.

I've used a mug a few times and I felt very restricted in what I could do with the brush. The "Clinka-clinka-clink!" of the handle on the inner brim was pretty annoying, also.

Those scuttes look pretty neat. I like a hot lather as much as the next guy, but seconds after putting it on your face, the sensation is gone. I liked Randy's idea about running the hot water over the bottom of a stainless steel bowl -- I've got a few of those kicking around.

I think I'm going to investigate getting a copper bowl, or even better, a silver one. Both materials insulate temperatures very well, especially silver, as you'll know if you've ever eaten either a really hot dish with nice flatware, or similarly, something like ice cream. Brrr.

I just spent the last little while experimenting with lathers in the bathroom. Instead of my ceramic dessert dish, I lined up a large mug, a stainless steel bowl and a plastic tub that contains a large puck of sandalwood soap. I had used the soap once or twice before with little success.

First the soap. I filled the tub with hot water and let it rest while I doused my brush. While whipping up the lather, it responded well to adding more and more hot water and frothed right over the brim. I applied it to my face, but as I experienced before, the soap began to dry in the air and slowly disappear. Frequent re-lathering (or speedy shaving) is obviously a must with this product, and neither option appeals to me.

I then tried the mug with a dab of some affordable tubed cream. The mug is 7cm deep and 8.5cm in diameter. With this I was able to work up a great lather, but because of the depth, it was all over the brush's handle and my hands. In my opinion, because a lather is usually easy to manipulate and unlikely to fly all over the place, there's no real reason to use a mug. And this thing is a big mug, too. Looks more like a small pot. Anything smaller would be an even bigger pain.

And then there was the steel bowl. Before whipping up the lather, I filled the sink with very hot water. The bowl really isn't designed for this sort of thing (in fact, I've eaten cereal from it), but I wanted to test the way the material held the heat of the water in and transferred it to the cream. Very well, as it turns out. After I got a good lather out of the cream, I let the bowl with the frothy brush inside it float in the steaming water. After about thirty seconds, I reached to grab the edge of the bowl and had the urge to recoil. Very toasty.

I then applied the lather to my face. Quite pleasing.

I just bought a 12cm at the rim, about 6cm base stainless steel bowl that I'm looking forward to trying out. I like to keep the sink clear so I might have to come up with another way to strive for warmth. I like the copper idea, myself but silver might not be too bad either.

X

I've been using that SS bowl for lathering my creams and I give it the big thumbs up.
Interestingly enough though, I tried, I think it was RT's technique, of turning the bowl over and warming up the lather from underneath in a stream of hot water from my tap and when I tried it on the Sienna cream, the lather had almost melted away under the spot on the bowl centred under the hot water. It didn't happen to Colleen's 4-B Cream sample though, but I was less direct on the water stream placement. Just something to be aware of I guess.

In my estimation it not only heated the lather for the second pass, but the ceramic shaving mug must have been cooling the brush immediately because the innitial lather was hotter. Much more enjoyable experience. Warm lather performs better too, keeping the whiskers that little bit more pliable. Of course there's no bottom rim for my lather to get trapped in either.

Just bought some Crabtree & Evelyn Nomad Soap for the F.I.L. so he's going to get the mug too.

X

X,

I recently got the Eveyln & Crabtree Nomad shaving cream. It is really great but so is their sweet almond.

I'm glad some of you are liking the Cream Scuttle. I don't check in here so often, being a bit busy I stick mainly to SMF, and keep trying to lead them to the straight razor light! I did just yesterday get hold of a small production scuttle and find it is smaller than my prototype (which appears in the picture somewhere above Randy posted). Definitely use the smaller for 22mm or less brushes, and the large for all larger brushes. The main thing is not to use the scuttle for lather building, but to keep the lather warm between passes, and it works best for this if you have a fairly close fit. Page two of this thread:
http://www.shavemyface.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8405
contains some photos I took yesterday and this morning showing what I mean. The whole point is to enjoy hot lather. I agree this means the inner bowl is too small for wild brushwork, but it does permit maximised heat transfer. I heat the scuttle with the hottest water from my tap in both compartments, and dunk the brush in it while I wash. Then I empty it and refill just the outer compartment through the spout. I flick out the water from my brush and add cream, and work the brush around the inner bowl a bit. I will add a drip or two of hot water with my fingers until I believe I have the ratio right. Then I work the brush on my face as only the interaction of brush hairs and beard hairs really gets the air bubbles in the lather small enough to make the lather stiff. This also softens the beard some more. Then I place the brush back in the scuttle and push it down to splay it out. If you have the right size brush/scuttle combination the lather should squeeze up and fill the gap between the brush and the wall of the inner bowl. The lather will be hot for the next pass!

Have fun, and feel free to e-mail me with questions.

Chris

Still catching up here, but thought I would weigh in.

For soap, which I seldom use, I use a mug. Actually, a bizarre little pottery pot my girlfriend got while working at Plimoth Plantation.

For cream, I almost exclusively use a silver scuttle I picked up off e-bay when I started in on this craziness almost a year ago. It's fabulous for keeping a warm later and working it up. It doesn't have a brush slot, but I drench the brush good in runnin ghot and the scuttle keeps everything warm for however many passes I care to make.

I'm really beginning to drool over those pottery scuttles, though. I have a tin one I use for 19th century reenactment, but pottery would hold the heat longer and still carry off the look.