Thread: Tis the little things

heya

I've been lurking around here for quite a while now and I recently decided to participate more actively. This, being my first real post, I wanted to dedicate to the small things in life that make it a lot more enjoyable. So here is the story of my most recent acquisition.

The first soap I ever bought was a puck of Mitchell’s Wool Fat. I was just starting out, had sensitive skin and I heard the lanolin in the soap is nurturing for skins like mine. I bought it in a nice wooden bowl, in which the puck fitted snugly. And for about a year and a half, that’s how I build my lather, no knowing any better. I’d just dampen my brush and try to build lather directly on top of the puck. Needless to say, I didn’t get a very rich lather and I had to re-lather multiple times during a shave.

Fast forward a while and I returned from my post-school travels to the other side of the world (a whole other story). In need of a shave, I rummaged through some of my old stuff and found my old friend again, My Dovo Prima 5/8.




I had not seen my straight for a long time, since I decided to take a Parker DE with me for practicality’s sake. So I toughed up my Dovo on my hones, stropped it, build my poor man’s lather and had a shave. Even though the lather was sub-par I was hooked again and started reading more into straight razor shaving and eventually ended up on SRP.

So I saw some pictures of people making lather and getting these white fluffy clouds of lather, while I was getting some watery stuff that would dry up on the left side of my face before I was done shaving the right side. “Well, maybe I have the wrong soap”, I thought. I searched around, and found out MFW is a well-used soap, so it could not be the soap. The brush then, but it turns out Omega brushes, while not very high-end, are well used too. Then, after just clicking away, I found some info about these weird looking, ceramic bowls, or ‘scuttles’, as they are called.

I looked into it, and looked up where I could buy one. I found a few places, but also found out these were quite expensive and I wasn’t ready yet to splurge a lot of cash on something I didn’t know would work very well. After some more reading about scuttles and hyping myself up a bit about the subject (“I have to get something like this”, I’m sure you know what I mean), I decided to try my luck at the local thrift store. No luck however on scuttles, there were none to be found. What I did find however at the ‘flower pots’ section, was this rather nice looking, handmade pot (the name ‘Ine’ is inscribed in the bottom).




It didn’t have a price on it, but being in a thrift store, I figured it couldn’t be a whole lot. It turned out it was €0.50 ($0.70).

Upon returning home, examined the pot closer and, it being handmade, was quite rough and had a few bumps (or waves) on the inside. I figured this would only help agitate the soap and create a better lather. So of course I gave it a try and was amazed by the lather I got. I finally had my white, fluffy mountains of lather (I used way to much soap the first time around). Now I just needed a way to keep the soap warm and I would have all the functionality of a scuttle for €0.50. I had a few ideas, but the easiest one, turned out the best. Leave it floating in a sink of warm water after warming up a bit.




I’m so happy with the results, that I don’t even want to buy a scuttle anymore.

So now I finally get to the moral of my story. Around these circles you find a lot of folks being very happy with a new acquisition. A lot of the times these get pretty expensive and there is nothing wrong with that, so long as you have the luxury of expendable income, but I just bought myself a €0.50 piece of equipment that completely rekindled the flame for me. I’m super stoked about this flower pot made by Ine and I’d like everyone to remember the small things in life that put a smile on your face.

Cheers,
Jos

Hey jos,
You are right the small things can be bigger than the big things, there are a few of us who look out for a new lather bowl at secondhand shops etc, in fact razorfeld has quite a collection, but its nice that yours has someones name on it.
Your story made me smile from the inside out
Thank you.

Welcome back jos, and welcome to the world of the thrift shop solution to high cost items. While I might not be thrifty at times I am a devote to haunting thrift stores looking for interesting items that can be used in ways not intended for it. My latest find isn't from a thrift store, but from a large merchandiser, Walmart. There I found plastic salsa bowls just the right shape for lather building. They did lack the bumps and swirls that the expensive scuttles have so I bought a fast acting epoxy tube that you put a mixing tube on the end and added bumps and swirls. Set in 5 minutes, but I waited 24 hrs to use. Great results. Have used that technique on ceramic bowls, like yours, also bought at a thrift store. Total cost for the salsa/epoxy bowl, about $1.75 USD.

Ah! I lather in exactly the same way, with a v similar charity shop bowl, but have always been disappointed with lather cooling off.....I think I will give your method a shot next time. Thank you.

I had the same idea about the epoxy, Razorfeld, however the epoxies I could find in the hardware store were about €5 per 25 mL or something, thats why I ended up at the thrift shop around the corner

Originally Posted by Damo

Ah! I lather in exactly the same way, with a v similar charity shop bowl, but have always been disappointed with lather cooling off.....I think I will give your method a shot next time. Thank you.

You're welcome. I don't think it'll work as good as a propper scuttle, but at least you won't be smearing frigid lather all over your face. I'm satisfied with the result so far, but ymmv.