Thread: Hi all, beginner from the uk here!

It would never have occurred to me to look in charity shops! Thank you!

Originally Posted by Liamnelbarker

It would never have occurred to me to look in charity shops! Thank you!

I reckon you have a good chance of picking up something unique, look at small cooking pot type things and general crockery as well as the ornaments, just consider how you will hold it, you either need a handle or to be able to hold it from underneath, unless it is really small or you have massive hands and can grip it around the side.
I used to hold the item and pretend to lather up an imaginary brush

Hey Liam, I have a $5 bowl from a supermarket, when considering the bowl/mug I look for a fairly deep bowl with steep walls. There needs to be enough space inside for you to swirl the brush around without rapping your knuckles on the side. I know the later is a good consistency if the last lot I cleaned off the brush with the lip of the bowl is about halfway down the bowl. It can then be incorporated into the mix at the bottom. Too thick and it will not move down, too thin and it will just wash down the side of the bowl.

Ok, here goes. As far as shave bowls I have one of these:

Amazon.com: Buffalo Horn 3.5 Inch Palm Shave Bowl shave bowl by Hand Made Shave Bowls: Health & Personal Care

And one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Colonel-Conk-M...rds=shave+bowl

I will say this, I was expecting a wider bowl when I ordered he Colonel Conk's bowl. It is a little on the small side, but it does get the job done. But the bowl itself is, in my humble opinion, less important than it's contents. I much prefer the horn one I posted a link to before, but the one I received doesn't have that nice color transition. Mine is all black. I found that to be slightly disappointing, because I was really hoping to get one with some transition. But such is the nature of natural materials like horn. They come as they are, and you make what you can with what you have.

My go-to shave soap is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Aged-Spice-Fra...=1418359233786

I don't know if you're familiar with the scent of the original Old Spice shave soap, but this is very close to what I remember from years gone by. Takes me back to when I was a kid playing with my grandfather's shave bowl lol.

On a whim I picked up this:

Amazon.com: Col. Conk Worlds Famous Shaving Soap, Bay Rum (Net Weight 2.25 Oz): Health & Personal Care

Which has a scent I absolutely love. I don't know if you're familiar with the scent of Bay Rum, but I absolutely love this stuff. Both lather up and shave well in my opinion. And you can put the cake in whatever bowl you get, toss it in the microwave for about half a minute, and form them to the shape of your bowl. In the case of the horn bowl, once the soap I had in there wore down I had to pluck it out and cut gouges into the bowl before melting more into it. The soap gets a little squirrel-y and will move around as you're trying to work up a lather. Very annoying. Using a pocket knife to cut gouges into the bowl has given the soap something to grip once it's melted to the form of the bowl.

I haven't had that problem with the other bowl, but whatever bowl you choose it's an easy solution if you do run into that problem. That's also assuming that you use cake soap rather than creams. If you use creams, obviously that won't plague you as bad lol.

Welcome liamnelbarker! Enjoy the journey!