Thread: How do you use your scuttle?

I sort of do the Redneck scuttle thing, except I'm using a little Potpourri crock pot and the flower pot scuttle from Don and Lynn. I put water in the Potpourri, plug it in, put the flower pot in it, put hot water in, and let it heat up. Once heated, I mix my lather. It works great and I have it down to a science now. I unplug it when I get to second pass, I have nice hot lather throughout the shave. I couldn't imagine shaving with cold shave cream ever...

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I do the same as described by holli4pirating and jockeys above. I used to use two cereal bowls one inside the other. Filling the larger one with the hot tap water. Later on I went for the small Moss Scuttle and I love the thing now. My lather is warm, never hot but that is to my liking. I have some high end brushes and I wouldn't want to risk damaging them with too much heat. If the water is hotter than I can comfortably touch my face with then it is too hot for my brush. YMMV.

Same here. I like the small Moss as the brush fits in nicely and the heat doesn't dissipate like the larger one. It can hold the lather pretty warm, especially with a touch of water in the bowl.

Lynn

I've been SR shaving since Feb, but brush shaving for about 25 years. I face lathered, or lathered on my soap for most of those years. Always wished I could have a warmer lather. A few months ago I bought a Dirty Bird scuttle....for $42. Yep, an expensive coffee mug, if you look at it that way. Me, I love how it works and the very warm lather I get for as many passes as required.

I fill it with boiling water from a $10 Target purchase. I fill the boiler and let it cook while I shower. I also put hot tap water in the scuttle though Julie, the owner of DB says you can fill it with boiling water without preheating (obviously some of the heat would be lost to the cool pot).

Ok, by my rationalizing...$42 and the "expense" of a few moments with the boiling water thing (you dont have to watch it boil folks) divided by hundreds of delightful shaves...well, the math works for me.

Viva la differences. Best to all,

J

That is what I do as well.

1. Hot water from the tap to fill jacket and bowl. Put brush in bowl while showering in the hot water.
2. Empty all after showering fill jacket with hot tap water again.
3. Put soap in bowl add some hot tap water.
4. Create lather.
5. Enjoy.

The "investment" for me was completely worth it. Now when I go on short trips and don't have it with me, I don't get the same comfort. It is like having a warm towel not necessary but makes things that much better.

Originally Posted by jleeg

I've been SR shaving since Feb, but brush shaving for about 25 years. I face lathered, or lathered on my soap for most of those years. Always wished I could have a warmer lather. A few months ago I bought a Dirty Bird scuttle....for $42. Yep, an expensive coffee mug, if you look at it that way. Me, I love how it works and the very warm lather I get for as many passes as required.

I fill it with boiling water from a $10 Target purchase. I fill the boiler and let it cook while I shower. I also put hot tap water in the scuttle though Julie, the owner of DB says you can fill it with boiling water without preheating (obviously some of the heat would be lost to the cool pot).

Ok, by my rationalizing...$42 and the "expense" of a few moments with the boiling water thing (you dont have to watch it boil folks) divided by hundreds of delightful shaves...well, the math works for me.

Viva la differences. Best to all,

J

Don't get me wrong, if you want to spend $42 or even $100 on a scuttle, and it makes you feel good to do so, you should. Feeling good is a great investment at any price. I can get by just fine with a ceramic coffee mug, however, and would get no benefit from the additional expense (the coffee mug was free, it makes great lather, and it stays warm enough for my once over shave).

I use a mug in a sink of hot water as you stated. Here's my routine.

Run hot tap water over the mug to heat.
Fill with hot water
Wet the brush with hot running water and put in mug
Fill sink with hot tap water
strop my razor
Prep my beard or hot shower
empty the sink, mug and shake the brush
brush back in the mug
re-fill the sink with hot water and put the mug back in.
Lather on my face
Put brush back in mug while shaving

I have found that pre-heating the sink, mug and brush keeps the lather on the brush hot for my three passes if the mug is just large enough to hold the brush and the bristles are in contact with the bottom and side of the mug. I would like to get a scuttle some day but I believe my sink holds more hot water than a scuttle would. It's all in the pre-heating and heat loss.

Also as a note, I keep a silicone hot place in the bathroom and use it when I take the mug out of the sink or on the rare occasions that I use a bowl. It prevents my vanity from acting as a heat sink draining the heat out of the mug/bowl and the brush/lather.

I use my scuttle on the weekend when I have more time. First I boil the kettle and fill the scuttle with boiling water. Then I have my shower. After I finish my shower I have warm soap. I just wet my brush under cold water. The hot scuttle is enough to give me warm lather. Living in the tropics warm lather isn't all that special, but still enjoyable.

I feel like I should point out, there's really 2 different kinds of scuttles, and it sounds like everyone here is talking about a "modern" scuttle.

I use an old antique scuttle I picked up on ebay, which is quite different in design and use.

First of all, the spout is actually big enough that you dip your brush into the hot water reservoir to wet it. Second, there are holes in the soap dish up top. It's only meant to be a convenient place to set your shave soap, not a place to build lather, as all the lather would get forced through the holes, and down into the hot water reservoir. This also makes it useless for cremes.

The way I use it, is I'll put a kettle full of water on the stove when I get in the shower. If I set my stove to medium-high, the kettle starts to sing about the same time I finish toweling off. (Did I mention that I don't own a microwave?)

I use the boiling water from the kettle to fill the reservoir of my scuttle.

Dip the brush into the reservoir, tap once to shake off grossly excessive water, and twist/pump the brush on top of the soap to load it. I make no attempt to build lather on top of he soap at all.

I then lather on my face. Boiling water in the brush, plus slightly above room temp soap balances out to a piping hot lather brush on my face. Also, using good quality shave soap, like TGQ, I rarely have to load more soap on my brush for 2nd/3rd pass. I just dip the very tip of the brush back into the boiling water. It heats the soap in the brush back up, and adds a little more liquid. Sometimes for the 3rd pass, I'll reload just a little more soap, but usually it's about 3 seconds of loading. No more.

fyi: version 2

http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...le-v2-0-a.html

Originally Posted by sebell

When I used my large scuttle (I don't anymore)
I would fill both sections with hot tap water, let
my brush soak and the scuttle heat up for a few
moments, then empty and fill the outer section.

- Scott

I am wondering if you keep the soap in the scuttle while both sides soaks.

Am I doing something wrong? I use a mug and this is what I do...

1. fill mug (with soap bar [mamma bear] at bottom) with hot water and put brush inside to soak

2. shower

3. drain water out and create lather

should i not be soaking the soap too?!

I am planning to by a scuttle by the way.