Lather Monster?

I bowl lather except for hard soaps. In the winter, I have a Georgetown scuttle, but for the warm weather, the scuttle is not needed. I quickly discovered that smooth sided mugs are bowls are not optimum. At first, I bought this Captain's Choice ridged bowl. The brush is a small 22mm knot Saville Row.



It works great at creating lather, much better than a smooth bowl, but the sides are too low and it can get messy. So I kept looking. The BrushNSoapNblade podcast advocates using a Dollar Store plastic salsa bowl. Sand the insides a bit to get them rough. If it drops, who cares? Its dirt cheap and won't break.  In this episode, a listener suggested a Suribachi bowl, which is a Japanese mortar and pestle.  So I decided to give it a shot, maybe $12 on Amazon.



It works fine. It's not heavy and will break if you drop it. Nice ridges inside. Fits in your hand easily, and creates lather as well as anything I tried. Best yet, the lather does not overflow since its a bowl and to fill it with lather would be a LOT of lather. It's about 5.5" across the top and an inch higher than the Captain's Choice bowl. To show contrast, this is GFT Violet, which appears a bit purplish.

Thanks for posting this Grim. I've been using a Suribachi bowl for awhile but didn't know the type of bowl. I found it at Goodwill and thought it would work well simply due to the ridges on the inside. So far, I've been very happy with how it performs.

just ordered that same suribachi bowl. Thanks for sharing!!!

I came across one of these in a World Market (IIRC). The ridges were pretty sharp which caused some concern over whether or not it would damage a brush. Have you had any problems with yours? Is yours sharp?

I came across one of these in a World Market (IIRC). The ridges were pretty sharp which caused some concern over whether or not it would damage a brush. Have you had any problems with yours? Is yours sharp?

They aren't sharp enough to cut anything but thinner than the other lather bowl ridges I've seen. It is a mortar and pestle so if you smashed something its meant to crush something with the pestle.

In this episode https://brushnsoapnblade.wordpress.com/2...-think-so/ Rick DeWise says he's used it for a month or so and its fine. I've used it with a soft Thater and today with a Plisson (not synthetic a real Plisson HMW) and see no ill effect.

I don't think its any better at generating lather than the other bowls I've tried, only that the design is better in holding it, width, and depth to hold lather.

There’s been a lot of positive feedback about this bowl, but it may not be the easiest to obtain:
http://www.razormaster.com/epages/razorm...cts%2FUlho

FWIW, I've used a suribachi in the kitchen for years, traditionally with a wooden pestle. The reason a wooden pestle is used is so the pestle doesn't wear down the relatively sharp. ridges in the bowl. I've used it to grind sesame seeds, make pastes, etc. My better half is Asian and uses it often (thinks a food processor is too high tech!)

I asked a member who posted a SOTD with a suribachi bowl if it had harmed his brushes, and he said that it didn't. Still, I'd be a bit concerned using one of my better brushes in a newer suribachi that the sharper ridges might split the ends.

Based on grim's recommendationI got one of these. I don't think the ridges are sharp enough to hurt anything. You can see mine in today's SOTD post. The photo is a little watered down looking, but you'll get the idea.

FWIW, I've used a suribachi in the kitchen for years, traditionally with a wooden pestle. The reason a wooden pestle is used is so the pestle doesn't wear down the relatively sharp. ridges in the bowl. I've used it to grind sesame seeds, make pastes, etc. My better half is Asian and uses it often (thinks a food processor is too high tech!)

I asked a member who posted a SOTD with a suribachi bowl if it had harmed his brushes, and he said that it didn't. Still, I'd be a bit concerned using one of my better brushes in a newer suribachi that the sharper ridges might split the ends.

This is what you want when it comes to boar brushes. Makes them softer. I'm not sure about badger though, if that would be desirable or not.

I think churchilllafemme has one or had one of these bowls at some point.