I think I have a very different view of lather than a lot of the folks around here. YMMV, but I see no reason to generate a pint of lather that looks like pudding.
I started wet shaving (although still using disposables) when I was about 15. (I'd been shaving regularly since I was 12. Runs in the family)
My dad has worn a full beard since I was 3 to cover scars from a car accident, and had only ever used canned goop back when he shaved. Also, when I was 15, the internet wasn't what it is today. So, I had to teach myself, and only worried about what worked well. I could care less what my lather looked like, or how impressive it was.
I don't lather in a bowl, and if I somehow managed to produce lather that looked like what I see around here all the time, I'd wash everything off, including my brush, and start over. The lather is there to lubricate your skin, not make you look like santa.:rofl2:
First of all, I've always used soap. Just feels more old fashioned.
I have an antique scuttle (just mentioned this part in another thread)
Before the moss scuttle, scuttles were intended for soap, and had drain holes in the soap dish making them useless for creme, and useless for lathering. Also, the spouts were big enough to stick your brush in.
I use one of these types of scuttles by filling it with boiling water from my kettle. It does nothing useful to the soap, but gives me a ready pot of boiling hot water to dip my brush in, and allows any excess water to run back into the reservoir instead of making the soap soggy.
I get the brush down in the boiling water to soak some up and make the brush really hot, then tap the excess off on top of the soap. This softens the surface of the soap, and let's the excess water run back down.
I rapidly twist the brush back and forth while pumping up and down on top of the soap to load it, which usually takes about 10 seconds. I go until I can just see a thin lather starting to form around the edges. The brush will have no visible lather on it.
Then I take my very hot soapy brush, and lather on my face. I get lather that is as hot as I could possibly stand, and a nice full lather. I also get a nice little face massage in the process.
If the brush get's cold while I'm lathering, or the lather get's too thick and sticky, dip the very tip of the bristles back in the hot water, and keep going.
For the second and third passes, I'll dip the brush again, but only the tips, and reload lightly. Just a couple of quick seconds on the soap.
Doing this, I get consistently hot lather, and a 1oz bar of TGQ (which is very soft stuff) lasts me a month or more. And, you can pick up an old-school scuttle like mine for $15-$35 on the bay.