Lathering MWF with ALOT of water

Howdy everyone, I've been going round the soaps in my rotation and realised I hadn't used my MWF for a good wee while.

I'm used to using quite alot of water with my favourite soap - suds law, I mean super hot water, super soft absorbent brush and only flicking it once - and this technique works everytime, 3 minutes on the face and I've got peaks you wouldn't believe. I forgot that MWF is quite fragile and isn't as accomodating with alot of water so I dunked the brush in a sink of boiling hot water and started in on the puck.

Realising I had too much water didn't take too long but, I thought I would try anyways. It worked like a charm! I started with a brush full of bubbles (10-15 circles on the puck) and the lather gradually uses up all the water in the brush and I ended up with a nice whipped cream MWF lather, add a little bit of glycerin so it doesn't dry out and spank my ass and call me sally I can't feel the brush on my face for the amount of cushion!

No bubbles, thick lather - I could've used this lather as sculpting clay it made peaks that easy.


I urge you to try this, I haven't tried with bowl lathering, but being a face lathering soap, I would suspect you wouldn't get much out of it except bubbles.

does anyone else use MWF this way?

regards Alex

Help a rookie out here, what is MWF? :shrug:

Helo, Nix,
It's Mitchell's Wood Fat soap from England, and it's superb.

I've been looking at that for a couple weeks now. Have to give it a try now.

Addendum: Just placed an order with SRD for some MWF.

I got really nice lather from MWF in a bowl yesterday. I wanted to practice my lathering and also break in and de-stink my Omega boar bristle brush. It worked very well.

MWF is a good soap. I like their bath/hand soaps as well. When you say you use "boiling? water, are you serious? or just the hottest it comes out the tap? Does water that hot have any effect on the brush itself? Just curious? Side note, MWF does work better as a face lathering soap. If you watch Mantic's MWF video on youtue, he holds the MWF container upside down, to allow the soap to penetrate deep in the brush, I've been using this technique with my soaps with good results. I also find that a softer brush works better with soaps.

You know, I'm not an "Uber" guy; However, Glen's uber recipe for MWF is the bomb. He uses MWF of course, a dab of Musgo real, and 5 drops or so of glycerin, he calls it "Lanolin Overload" It's great, and a lot of fun. Give it a try.

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When you say you use "boiling? water, are you serious

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went a little overboard, in our house you can burn yourself with the watr that comes out our taps, scolding would've been more apt, probably not boiling. As hot as you could bear is probably a better phrase.

I think the really hot water definitely makes a difference I've tried with cold and luke warm water and the lather dies and stays in a bubble state. I don't do any beard prep when I do this, and the super hot water softens up the brush in a giffy and makes the lather nice and warm on your face. Its sorta like a busy mans luxury straight shave - if you can't manage hot towels, or leaving hair conditioner on your face for 15 minutes pre shave, then it works pretty well if your in a rush... and also if your not.

Just I always thought MWF didn't like alot of water, when I can get consistently good results from overloading it with water. Oh I forgot to mention, when I lather like this, at the start bits of lather tend to fly off everywhere - thats how much water we're talking here - so watch if your wearing a nice shirt or something, just to cover it up ;)

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If you watch Mantic's MWF video on youtue, he holds the MWF container upside down, to allow the soap to penetrate deep in the brush

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I haven't tried that yet, I load up with the brush on top of the puck and load up until there's not enough space for anymore bubbles on the puck/container, scoop it all up and start face latherin'

I haven't tried glenns Lanolin recipe yet, I'll give it a go when I have the chance.

regards Alex

MWF is a known water hog, so I'd recommend when you get to the point that you think you've added enough water, add some more. The two main mistakes made in lathering MWF (or pretty much any soap for that matter) are not loading the brush with enough product and not hydrating the lather sufficiently. If you miss those steps you will definitely not get the full potential of this fantastic soap.

Of course, there are water quality issues as well, but that's another topic....

Yes, yes, gentlemen, my friend Ryan is on spot. Let the brush feast on the soap and then wash it down with lots of water.

Hello to All,

As Obie & Ryan have said, the main problem users have with MWF is not loading enough of the product onto the brush.

The MWF puck is very hard, particularly if it has been allowed to dry out.

Grating the MWF into a new container and tamping it down gently is an easy way around this problem, and is particularly useful if you use a very soft and floppy brush for your lathering.

My Kent BK4 was a feeble performer with MWF until I grated and reformed my puck.

There is also some anecdotal eveidence in the wild that MWF is best lathered with cool water rather than very hot.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

I don't seem to load up that much with the MWF, 10-15 circles with the really hot water and it seems to be fine for me, and my puck was unused for 2 months at least. I think the hot water helps the uptake of the soap

I have a pet hate of dabbing the brush in water after I've loaded up, I just don't like it for some reason, this is why I like this method so much

My experience is also that mitchell's wool fat shaving soap performs best with more water than most soaps require

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Originally Posted by hoglahoo

My experience is also that mitchell's wool fat shaving soap performs best with more water than most soaps require

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I've found that to be the case also. I have no soap that uses more water to make a good lather when compared to MWF.

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Originally Posted by Obie

Helo, Nix,
It's Mitchell's Wood Fat soap from England, and it's superb.

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That's an understatement, Obie.

I just tried it with my other brush, an omega professional 10098 and I had whipped cream in less than 60 seconds! I didn't like this brush before, but I think its just past the brake in period and I think this brush agitates the soap more than the super soft brush I was using before.

I'm going to borrow some tabac from my friend and see what that does, I remember it being similiar to MWF.

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Helo, Nix,
It's Mitchell's Wood Fat soap from England, and it's superb.

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if your in the US, I've heard its also cheaper to buy it from England as well.

MWF is the only soap I've used so far. I have noticed that the hardness of the water makes a significant difference. I used to live in LA, CA and had a very hard time getting a rich lather for a decent shave and this was using Lanolin, a scuttle and pre-soaking the puck in hot water for a full two minutes. Now that I live in PA, getting a lather with the same method is MUCH easier and the type of lather is much more substantial. The water where I am I'm assuming is much softer and so aids the lathering process.

Your right, I'm in Glasgow so our water is really quite soft, but I still get much better results from really hot water than from cold water, When I was down in Great Yarmouth, England The water there was really hard and it was a bit harder to get lathering

I got a pretty decent face lather from MWF last night, along with my Omega boar brush. The key for me was starting out a bit dry, then adding water bit by bit until it lathered up nicely.

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Originally Posted by gimpyalex

Your right, I'm in Glasgow so our water is really quite soft, but I still get much better results from really hot water than from cold water, When I was down in Great Yarmouth, England The water there was really hard and it was a bit harder to get lathering

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I grew up in the UK. Something about the water in London made shaving a nasty affair for me. Had some good times in Glasgow though, many years ago! So, you Celtic or Rangers... :)

hmmm... neither actually, they're not the teams they used to be, so any team that's playing against them, pretty much ;)

Modern football is all about the $$, especially the TV kind. Unfortunately, not even the Old Firm clubs can compete with the European big boys for the top players anymore, which leads to a downward spiral.

That said, it might just make the Scottish Prem a bit more entertaining in terms of competition, if not quality...I get the odd SPL match over here on my Setanta feed and I have seen some enjoyable football (soccer for the North Americans/Aussies).

I used to get the odd ticket to go see a match. Nothing in North America rivals the sheer passion and (insane) intensity of a ManUtd vs Liverpool or Arsenal match...