scuttles

[greyantron]

I am embarrassed to ask this, but how do these actually work? At the moment I have an old small bowl in which I placed a cake of shaving soap. I wet the brush by dipping it in some water and hen I just swirl it around the soap. With the scuttle, does the soap go into the inner bowl, or is the lather made elsewhere but the brush and lather then left in the scuttle to stay warm?
MIchael
Day 3 DE shave...got too cocky; must remember to go slow and steady

[Lereas]

It's more your second assumption. You would generally charge the brush on the soap somewhere else and then develop the lather in the top scuttle bowl with the bottom bowl filled with hot water to keep the whole thing warm. This way, your lather and brush stay warm for each of your relathers.

[Chimensch]

I have my soap in a dish. When I load the brush with soap, the brush contains all the soap I'll need for five passes or more, so I put the soap away and concentrate on making lather in the scuttle. During each pass, the lather in the scuttle dries out a little, so I dip the brush in hot water (my scuttle has a place to dip the brush in the water inside) and work up more lather. Other than keeping the brush and lather warm, you actually use a lot less soap than if you were lathering in the same bowl with the soap.

[a_bit_crafty]

I have my soap in a dish. When I load the brush with soap, the brush contains all the soap I'll need for five passes or more, so I put the soap away and concentrate on making lather in the scuttle. During each pass, the lather in the scuttle dries out a little, so I dip the brush in hot water (my scuttle has a place to dip the brush in the water inside) and work up more lather. Other than keeping the brush and lather warm, you actually use a lot less soap than if you were lathering in the same bowl with the soap.

This is also what I do, except with cream. I load the brush with cream, and then make the lather in the scuttle. Just make sure the water in the base of the scuttle is not too hot, or the lather will break down and dry out faster. A little hotter than tap water should be enough.

[rthawker]

Here are the steps to use the Moss scuttle as described by Chris from a link off of sarabonnymanpottery.com

1. Fill scuttle with hot water in both compartments.
2. Soak brush in the hot water in the inner bowl.
3. Do other stuff - for me this means wash face and strop razor, but for you might include reading New York Post, write angry letter to editor, kick cat and so on.
4. Empty scuttle.
5. Refill outer part only with hot water.
6. Shake out brush.
7. Place exactly one British Standard Fingertipfull of cream on brush.
8. Work brush into into inner bowl of scuttle, adding a few drips of hot water as necessary.
9. Make lather on face, dipping brush tip in hot sink water judiciously if necessary (it usually is).
10. Place brush back in scuttle and push down to maximise brush to scuttle contact area.
11. Shave, or something like it.
12. Relather with hot lather. Place brush back in scuttle q.v. step#10
13. Shave again in some other direction.
14. Relather for the bits that need it. Place brush you know where.
15. Shave in another direction, removing tiniest traces of beard.
16. Rinse face, brush, and scuttle in desired order.
17. Kick cat.
18. Go to work, pretend to enjoy it.

Or something like that.

Chris

As far as the older antique style scuttles I'm not completely sure but I think it would be somewhat similar.