Thread: Mitchell's Wool Fat...

Hi, I live in London (UK) and we have hard water

I want to try out Mitchell's Wool Fat shaving soap. Will I still be able to acheive a good lather with some experimenting, despite the hardness of the water?

Are there any tips for acheiving a good lather with hard water...

Thanks

Hotter water , I live in the wilds of Nth Idaho and use well water (very hard) The water you start with should be as hot as your fingers can handle that seems to help, so does putting a few tablespoons of the hot water on top of the puck of soap for a few minutes before starting....

You could use distilled or deionized water to form your lather to asses the effect of your tap water on lather formation.

Al raz.

Soften the puck with some water prior to loading your brush. Leave the brush pretty wet and then load. I prefer face-lathering and never have a problem creating a nice lather with MWF using this method.

I had trouble with MWF at first (Londoner here too). But two completely different methods worked well when I tried them:

1) After soaking the brush, squeeze it dry, flick it to make it even drier. Then work the brush vigorously into the soap, loading it up like crazy. Then you can add water and make the actual lather in a mixing bowl/hand/face.

Or:
2) After soaking the brush keep it really wet. Just allow any excess to run out while you hold the brush still. Maybe a tiny flick if you must. Then work the brush into the soap while pumping the brush frequently. You need the water to dissolve the soap and then suck the soapy water back into the brush. So keep pumping, the brush will load with soap eventually. Then make the actual lather in a mixing bowl/hand/face.

What DOESN'T work is running a wet brush gently around the puck of soap.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

I had trouble with MWF at first (Londoner here too). But two completely different methods worked well when I tried them:

1) After soaking the brush, squeeze it dry, flick it to make it even drier. Then work the brush vigorously into the soap, loading it up like crazy. Then you can add water and make the actual lather in a mixing bowl/hand/face.

Or:
2) After soaking the brush keep it really wet. Just allow any excess to run out while you hold the brush still. Maybe a tiny flick if you must. Then work the brush into the soap while pumping the brush frequently. You need the water to dissolve the soap and then suck the soapy water back into the brush. So keep pumping, the brush will load with soap eventually. Then make the actual lather in a mixing bowl/hand/face.

What DOESN'T work is running a wet brush gently around the puck of soap.

Never run any brush gently around any puck of soap!!!

Load her up boys!

I know this sounds ignorant but what does 'pumping the brush' mean??

Originally Posted by newstraight

I know this sounds ignorant but what does 'pumping the brush' mean??

Pushing the brush into the soap so the bristles splay out, then lifting again.

Roughly what Mantic59 does 30s into this video (except he's doing it upside-down with the soap in his hand!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N0C1...e=channel_page