Shaving Scuttles and Mugs

I don’t currently own a scuttle but have my eye on one imparticular which is by thrown in stone, go check them out they do some beautiful scuttles

Sounds interesting, do you have a link to the vendor site?

There is the thrown in stone official site and traditional shaving that stock them too both sites do sell out fairly quickly but seem to restock quickly too, think you can sign up for an email alert when they restock if they don’t happen to have it in...il put a link to both here

https://www.throwninstone.co.uk

https://www.traditionalshaving.co.uk/448...n-in-stone

I don’t currently own a scuttle but have my eye on one imparticular which is by thrown in stone, go check them out they do some beautiful scuttles

Sounds interesting, do you have a link to the vendor site?

There is the thrown in stone official site and traditional shaving that stock them too both sites do sell out fairly quickly but seem to restock quickly too, think you can sign up for an email alert when they restock if they don’t happen to have it in...il put a link to both here

https://www.throwninstone.co.uk

https://www.traditionalshaving.co.uk/448...n-in-stone

Very nice scuttles. I didn't realize that Thrown In Stone was a potter.

It doesn't get cold enough here for me to want a scuttle.  Having said that, I have several different mugs.  I always come back to the one shown below.  It is a Japanese Suribacbi bowl.

It doesn't get cold enough here for me to want a scuttle.  Having said that, I have several different mugs.  I always come back to the one shown below.  It is a Japanese Suribacbi bowl.

I found one of these at Goodwill. I think the textured surface makes it easier to create a good lather...at least for me.

Yes, the texture is what makes it awesome!

Yes, the texture is what makes it awesome!

Hi Pete123 , I saw a post on another forum complaining about this type of lather bowl. The fellow posted a picture of a horribly matted shaving brush and claimed it was the fault of the suribachi style lather bowl. I've never heard anyone else complain about this so I'm wondering if the guy is fabricating or maybe using an extremely aggressive mashing technique for lathering that is destructive to brushes. Any thoughts or tips?
Thanks,
Marko

Marko, I suspect he is applying too much pressure to the brush when using the bowl, though I think it brings up a point worth discussing.

The Suribachi bowl is made of ceramic earthenware and is unfinished. It has ridges, though they aren't sharp. If I bought one that had sharp ridges I would gently use fine sand paper to remove the sharp edge but not the ridge.

The unfinished ceramic with ridges is what makes whipping up great lather a breeze.

The question is what it does to brush bristles. I would expect that over time, the suribachi bowl is harder on shaving brushes than a smoothly finished bowl. I also think it would take a long time. I don't have any $200 brushes. If I did, I would probably still use the suribachi bowl, understanding that it might shorten the life of the brush.

My brushes are all synthetic, horse hair or Stirling badger brushes. I have no concern whatever with them. The time savings and improvement in making great lather is well worth any shortened life to the brush.

I never compress natural fiber brushes more than 25%. I doubt the gentleman from the other forum would have run into this if he followed that rule.

Marko, I suspect he is applying too much pressure to the brush when using the bowl, though I think it brings up a point worth discussing.

The Suribachi bowl is made of ceramic earthenware and is unfinished.  It has ridges, though they aren't sharp.  If I bought one that had sharp ridges I would gently use fine sand paper to remove the sharp edge but not the ridge.

The unfinished ceramic with ridges is what makes whipping up great lather a breeze.  

The question is what it does to brush bristles.  I would expect that over time, the suribachi bowl is harder on shaving brushes than a smoothly finished bowl.  I also think it would take a long time.  I don't have any $200 brushes.  If I did, I would probably still use the suribachi bowl, understanding that it might shorten the life of the brush.

My brushes are all synthetic, horse hair or Stirling badger brushes.  I have no concern whatever with them.  The time savings and improvement in making great lather is well worth any shortened life to the brush.

I never compress natural fiber brushes more than 25%.  I doubt the gentleman from the other forum would have run into this if he followed that rule.

Thanks Pete123 , that makes a lot of sense. I agree with you that brushes are for using and aren't meant to last forever, however, with a little care and attention they can certainly be maintained for a long time.

I used to be a bowl latherer using either a Dirty Bird or a Sarah Bonnyman scuttle. They both have ridges/pattern in the bottom, glazed but still fairly rough. I'm a face latherer now so the abrasive quality of these scuttles on my brushes isn't an issue although I have found that those scuttles will accelerate the break-in period of boar brushes. The lovely split ends will develop much faster than just face lathering or bowl lathering with a smooth bottom bowl.

I had an exchange a while back with Leisure Guy where we had a difference of opinion on Semogue boar brushes, the 1305 I think. I thought (think) its a wonderful brush and he thought it was trash and actually tossed it in the trash (or so he said) - I'm guessing my opinion was because I had been bowl lathering at the time and the abrasive pattern of the scuttles had made my boars into wonderful brushes. I thought his reaction was a little extreme although I do understand impatience with products that don't seem to work for me when I have so many products that do. Maybe boar brush makers should sell a line of pre-broken in brushes just like already faded and torn blue jeans.

Yeah, the boars take a little to break in.

Marko, I suspect he is applying too much pressure to the brush when using the bowl, though I think it brings up a point worth discussing.

The Suribachi bowl is made of ceramic earthenware and is unfinished.  It has ridges, though they aren't sharp.  If I bought one that had sharp ridges I would gently use fine sand paper to remove the sharp edge but not the ridge.

The unfinished ceramic with ridges is what makes whipping up great lather a breeze.  

The question is what it does to brush bristles.  I would expect that over time, the suribachi bowl is harder on shaving brushes than a smoothly finished bowl.  I also think it would take a long time.  I don't have any $200 brushes.  If I did, I would probably still use the suribachi bowl, understanding that it might shorten the life of the brush.

My brushes are all synthetic, horse hair or Stirling badger brushes.  I have no concern whatever with them.  The time savings and improvement in making great lather is well worth any shortened life to the brush.

I never compress natural fiber brushes more than 25%.  I doubt the gentleman from the other forum would have run into this if he followed that rule.

Thanks Pete123 , that makes a lot of sense.  I agree with you that brushes are for using and aren't meant to last forever, however, with a little care and attention they can certainly be maintained for a long time.  

I used to be a bowl latherer using either a Dirty Bird or a Sarah Bonnyman scuttle.  They both have ridges/pattern in the bottom, glazed but still fairly rough.  I'm a face latherer now so the abrasive quality of these scuttles on my brushes isn't an issue although I have found that those scuttles will accelerate the break-in period of boar brushes.  The lovely split ends will develop much faster than just face lathering or bowl lathering with a smooth bottom bowl.  

I had an exchange a while back with Leisure Guy where we had a difference of opinion on Semogue boar brushes, the 1305 I think.  I thought (think) its a wonderful brush and he thought it was trash and actually tossed it in the trash (or so he said) - I'm guessing my opinion was because I had been bowl lathering at the time and the abrasive pattern of the scuttles had made my boars into wonderful brushes.  I thought his reaction was a little extreme although I do understand impatience with products that don't seem to work for me when I have so many products that do.  Maybe boar brush makers should sell a line of pre-broken in brushes just like already faded and torn blue jeans.

Marko, I use a suribachi bowl about 80-90% of the time. And Pete123 is right - they are lather monsters! I've heard the concern about damaging brushes, but it was well after the fact that I learned I was putting too much pressure on the brush when loading/lathering, easily compressing the brush 50-75%. But even though I was abusing the brush, here is a pic of my most used brush:



I used the brush 112 times in 2017 and 64 times in 2016. With several new brushes in the rotation, I don't expect I will see any damage, if any, for many years.