Quite the bizarre experience!

I finally received my scuttle in the mail yesterday. I had a good amount of glycerin soap in my mug so I popped it in the microwave and then poured it into the top of the scuttle. When I decided to shave today, the soap had, of course, cooled and hardened. Wanting a nice, hot lather, I poured water in the scuttle (about 190 degrees) and began whipping up a good lather. Hmm, I thought, nice and thick! I applied the lather and, moments later, began shaving. Something was definitely wrong! The razor wouldn't move! That's when I discovered that the glycerin soap had melted in the scuttle due to the high heat from the water and the "lather" wasn't really "lather" in the conventional sense. Once it hit my face it cooled to the consistency of hardened plaster of paris!!! Hell of a job getting it off!!! Once I did and remade the lather at much cooler temperatures, all went perfectly.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has done something this idiotic and, effectively, spackled their face? :banghead:

Use the scuttle for making lather and keeping it warm.
Store your soaps in seperate containers.

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Originally Posted by HNSB

Use the scuttle for making lather and keeping it warm.
Store your soaps in seperate containers.

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Sounds like wise advice. I will do that!

Thanks for sharing this strange albeit humorous situation. Simple posts like this one highlighting what doesn't work save the rest of us from making similar mistakes in our wet shaving journeys. It sounds like you basically waxed your face on accident.

The question really becomes at what temperature does any given soap behave ideally. I have never used water hotter than what comes out of the tap but I have noticed that some soaps last longer when the lather is made with cool water. Good luck with your future shaves and the great scuttle temperature conundrum!

Per whiskerharvest, cold lather stays wet longer in my opinion, and I have found cold water shaving in general works for me, but it is generally fairly warm where I am so it isn't like torture or anything, if I was still in the UK with almost freezing water in the winter it may be different.

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Originally Posted by edhewitt

Per whiskerharvest, cold lather stays wet longer in my opinion, and I have found cold water shaving in general works for me, but it is generally fairly warm where I am so it isn't like torture or anything, if I was still in the UK with almost freezing water in the winter it may be different.

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I may try the cold lather and see how it feels to me. It's a bit difficult to do in Tucson AZ in the summer. The cold tap puts out warm water in the summer. ;-)

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Originally Posted by SDeDanaan

I may try the cold lather and see how it feels to me. It's a bit difficult to do in Tucson AZ in the summer. The cold tap puts out warm water in the summer. ;-)

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To be fair it does here too, however haven't been straight shaving long enough to have experienced last summer, I also soak my brush in bottled water and use the same for my lather, mostly because the water is fairly hard here and the softer water lathers better, so the water is at room temp 18-22 degrees. I use a sink of tap water to wet my face though. Lets see what summer brings

Extremes of anything are never good. My hot tap is really hot and many soaps will break down (the lather that is) with high heat. I try and keep it in the warm range and I find all the soaps I have perform the best. If you ever had lather from a lather King machine which is what barbers used it was warm not hot.

You probably already know this but when you move the soap, take it out in its hardened form. A lot of scuttles aren't made for the microwave. I have two different ones and both makers said not to microwave them.