Thread: Vintage Silver Shave Bowl...good or bad idea?

Hello all,

Just visited my parents over the weekend and i noticed sitting in there hutch this awesome vintage looking metal shaving bowl. i grabbed it and instantly loved the way it fit in my hand. very similar to the metal shave bowls i have seen from geofatboy on shavenation.com. i asked my mom if i could steal it from her and she said asked what for, and i told her i was into straight razor shaving and that i would be my shave bowl. turns out it was a wedding gift for my parents 35 years ago and it is a silver bowl. she thought it was a great idea as it just sits there now and gets no use.

my question is, would there be any draw backs to using a silver metal bowl? i am sure it is not great for the silver with all the moisture it will see, but as you can see in the pics it is already pretty tarnished.

anyways, i think it is a pretty awesome bowl and pretty special that i could use something of my parents almost every day. Just thought i would see if anyone had any thoughts against the idea, for any reason really (such as it adversely affecting the lather for any reason), im new to making my own lather and straight razor shaving, so i thought i would turn to the experts.

thanks much for reading, and for any replies, this forum and its users are in invaluable resource for us newbs

Regards,
James

Draw backs? Hmm ... Not unless you are a werewolf. <.< Folks say the trace amounts of silver one gets from drinking from a silver cup is actually health beneficial. But you aren't drinking from it, so I would say its more than safe. As for the bowl being safe, just buy some silver polish if you see some really bad tarnish areas.

I can see no reason not to use it unless you must have warm lather. Metal looses heat quickly. You may work around this issue by placing the silver bowl in a larger secondary bowl containing hot water. Rubbing the silver bowl each day with a towel might keep tarnish under control.

Soap removes tarnish from silver pretty well, you may find the bowl stays bright just through use.