I spent my first couple of wetshaving years bowl lathering. I’ve never used a scuttle, but most pictures I’ve seen they seem to have “bowls” on the smaller side. As fancy-pants wetshave enthusiasts, we’re used to copious amounts of excellent lather – whereas scuttles came about during a time when Williams Mug Soap, etc. were the main style of soap. Those soaps didn’t require as much water and for the most part are just “load, spread, shave”, without any real “lathering” (just my opinion, and that’s not any sort of widely accepted theory, just something I came up with).
Anyway, with bowl lathering there are two different moves. Splaying and stirring. Splaying the knot ensures enough air gets into the lather to make it “look right”, and stirring makes sure the water gets mixed throughout. With a smaller bowl I’d start out with a quick splay to get things started, and then switch to stirring for the rest, because stirring is easier to do without lather going everywhere.
That makes sense, thanks. So maybe I don’t need to load as much soap?
I do generally use a stirring method. I haven’t watched any in a while, but the videos I’ve seen for bowl/scuttle lathering seem to show them stirring without having the same problem I have with the the lather overflowing.
I spent my first couple of wetshaving years bowl lathering. I’ve never used a scuttle, but most pictures I’ve seen they seem to have “bowls” on the smaller side. As fancy-pants wetshave enthusiasts, we’re used to copious amounts of excellent lather – whereas scuttles came about during a time when Williams Mug Soap, etc. were the main style of soap. Those soaps didn’t require as much water and for the most part are just “load, spread, shave”, without any real “lathering” (just my opinion, and that’s not any sort of widely accepted theory, just something I came up with).
Anyway, with bowl lathering there are two different moves. Splaying and stirring. Splaying the knot ensures enough air gets into the lather to make it “look right”, and stirring makes sure the water gets mixed throughout. With a smaller bowl I’d start out with a quick splay to get things started, and then switch to stirring for the rest, because stirring is easier to do without lather going everywhere.
That makes sense, thanks. So maybe I don’t need to load as much soap?
I do generally use a stirring method. I haven’t watched any in a while, but the videos I’ve seen for bowl/scuttle lathering seem to show them stirring without having the same problem I have with the the lather overflowing.
Oh, I would never suggest anybody load less soap.