Gentlemen
I'm generally a bowl latherer with cream soaps and a mug latherer with hard soaps. My brushes are boars and synths. I have found, so far, the boars tend to be better at hard soap lathering as opposed to soft soaps in a bowl. Probably just gonna take a bit of time for break in to improve. Meanwhile, the synths have been really good at both. I'm having fun with this.
Now, I've never liked the old fashioned scuttles in that the top never seemed to be large enough for a soap puck, the opening for the brush too easy to spill hot water etc. Then I started paying attention to the newer scuttles and liked the way they were constructed and how they worked.
So I purchased the Naked Armor SS scuttle and the PAA "Intergalactic" blue polypropylene travel one. Both have built in ridges to help build lather, although I do have a couple of smooth mugs/bowls which work fine. This time I tried the NA SS product and filled it with hot tap water. As you can imagine the SS heated up nicely and stayed that way for the duration of then shave. PAA supplied a small sample of soft soap and I used that. My brush was a Zenith boar, which I soaked for a few minutes and then started to create my lather. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the boar whipped up a nice yogurt-like lather and I proceeded with my shave.
Well...this was great. A nice warm lather just made this shave really enjoyable. Beforehand I had been heating my lather bowls/mugs in the sink filled with hot water. It works but the scuttles are easier to accomplish this with.
Now, the PAA scuttle works in the same manner although the heat is somewhat diminished by the insulating properties of the material used. It's still warmed up the lather and the shave was enjoyable as well. Where I think this scuttle will work best is it was intended to be a travel unit to begin with. Dropping it will not be a concern whatsoever, very durable and robust. A bit awkward to fit inside my shave kit but it can be done. What I like the most is that when traveling, I was using a Palmolive soap stick which I would rub on my face and then use my brush to create the lather. It took pleasure out of shaving and I finally got tired of doing that.
So, really pleased with both purchases and the PAA scuttle is a good price, the NA scuttle is more expensive but it is SS. Both are welcome additions and will be in the rotations plus the PAA will be going on trips for sure.
I'm generally a bowl latherer with cream soaps and a mug latherer with hard soaps. My brushes are boars and synths. I have found, so far, the boars tend to be better at hard soap lathering as opposed to soft soaps in a bowl. Probably just gonna take a bit of time for break in to improve. Meanwhile, the synths have been really good at both. I'm having fun with this.
Now, I've never liked the old fashioned scuttles in that the top never seemed to be large enough for a soap puck, the opening for the brush too easy to spill hot water etc. Then I started paying attention to the newer scuttles and liked the way they were constructed and how they worked.
So I purchased the Naked Armor SS scuttle and the PAA "Intergalactic" blue polypropylene travel one. Both have built in ridges to help build lather, although I do have a couple of smooth mugs/bowls which work fine. This time I tried the NA SS product and filled it with hot tap water. As you can imagine the SS heated up nicely and stayed that way for the duration of then shave. PAA supplied a small sample of soft soap and I used that. My brush was a Zenith boar, which I soaked for a few minutes and then started to create my lather. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the boar whipped up a nice yogurt-like lather and I proceeded with my shave.
Well...this was great. A nice warm lather just made this shave really enjoyable. Beforehand I had been heating my lather bowls/mugs in the sink filled with hot water. It works but the scuttles are easier to accomplish this with.
Now, the PAA scuttle works in the same manner although the heat is somewhat diminished by the insulating properties of the material used. It's still warmed up the lather and the shave was enjoyable as well. Where I think this scuttle will work best is it was intended to be a travel unit to begin with. Dropping it will not be a concern whatsoever, very durable and robust. A bit awkward to fit inside my shave kit but it can be done. What I like the most is that when traveling, I was using a Palmolive soap stick which I would rub on my face and then use my brush to create the lather. It took pleasure out of shaving and I finally got tired of doing that.
So, really pleased with both purchases and the PAA scuttle is a good price, the NA scuttle is more expensive but it is SS. Both are welcome additions and will be in the rotations plus the PAA will be going on trips for sure.