Needed: Tutorial on using a scuttle

I have several good mugs but I keep hearing about scuttles. I understand the basic idea but can someone walk me through the whole process?

Also...I see a couple popular brands: Georgetown Pottery and Dirty Bird. Without starting WWIII, what are the selling points of each...or a different brand out there.

Thanks.

I am not sure I understand your question of walking through the process. A scuttle is similar to a mug in that you use it the same way to make lather. The only difference is that you add hot water through the spout to keep the lather warm. There is an inner "wall" in the lather to hold the water and that keeps the lather warm without getting water in the lather.

I have attached a picture of my scuttle. You can see where the white stopper is covers the spout. Mine was made by Robert
Becker. It does an excellent job and is inexpensive. Do a search on B&B and you will find various threads and reviews extolling the virtues of each brand of scuttle.

It's pretty easy. This is what I do, but I'm sure everyone does it slightly different.

I fill my scuttle and bowl with boiling water and then jump in the shower.
After my shower, the water has cooled down enough so I add my brush and start my beard prep.
After beard prep, I dump out the water in the bowl and squeeze out excess water in my brush. The Georgetown scuttle works well for this because it comes with a stopper, so the water inside the scuttle won't leak out.
I then add my soap/cream and lather up.

The scuttle keeps the lather warm enough for several passes.

BrookR1 said:

It's pretty easy. This is what I do, but I'm sure everyone does it slightly different.

I fill my scuttle and bowl with boiling water and then jump in the shower.
After my shower, the water has cooled down enough so I add my brush and start my beard prep.
After beard prep, I dump out the water in the bowl and squeeze out excess water in my brush. The Georgetown scuttle works well for this because it comes with a stopper, so the water inside the scuttle won't leak out.
I then add my soap/cream and lather up.

The scuttle keeps the lather warm enough for several passes.

Click to expand...

Great tutorial. Thanks. I do like the stopper with the GP scuttles.

Just got my DB 1.5 and haven't used any other brands, so I can't compare them for you. But man, do I love the DB. I don't think I would want any smaller than the 1.5 either, definitely not too big. I use it on the counter, I think it would be too heavy when filled with water to hold in your hand for any length of time. Does a fantastic job of keeping my lather warm.

I use it like stated above. Fill the inner and outer bowl with hot water from the tap. Soak my brush while showering. Get out of shower and dump scuttle, refill outer chamber with hot water from tap. Lather away and enjoy the sweet bliss of warm, luxurious lather.

On the boiling water,it depends on the make of scuttle.Schwarzweisskeramik scuttles recommends using 160 degress water,or hot water from the tap only.

BrookR1 said:

It's pretty easy. This is what I do, but I'm sure everyone does it slightly different.

Click to expand...

I usually snag a measuring cup and microwave a few cups of water. I let it go 3-4 mins in the nuker and then add it to both the internal resevoir and the lathering bowl prior to hopping in the shower. After the shower is done, I put another batch of water in the microwave (2 minutes this time) and make sure everything is ready to go. As soon as the water is done it goes straight to the interal resevoir and my cream goes in the lathering bowl to go go go!

It stays nice and toasty for 3 passes and probably for another 2 passes if i had titanium skin! Oh, I use the georgetown g5.

I myself wouldn't heat it in the microwave.

I have a DB scuttle and I don't see the need to microwave/boil the water. Hot tap water does the trick just fine. FWIW, I have the 'original' scuttle which is just barely large enough to lather in with my large brush. It works for me, but I could see why some people really need the 1.5.

Another vote for Becker. I think his ebay shop is called "Robert's Feats of Clay" or some such. Mine is the small size. I preheat by filling with hot tap water while I do my face prep so that I can retain heat throught my shave. It doesn't have the hand made look, I suppose, but it works for me and looks nice on my countertop.

I love having the warm lather of the scuttle. I'm a G20 owner simply because they are local. It looks awesome on my counter. I'm sure the DB's are great too. Perhaps there are some small differences in thermal quality based on water temp, ceramic thickness , phases of the moon.....

Dirk-Lerxst-Pratt said:

I love having the warm lather of the scuttle. I'm a G20 owner simply because they are local. It looks awesome on my counter. I'm sure the DB's are great too. Perhaps there are some small differences in thermal quality based on water temp, ceramic thickness , phases of the moon.....

Click to expand...

Any pics of your G20?

Scuttles are great because they are so easy and don't need much instruction. I just load my brush pretty dry and add water slowly to build lather.

brybry642 said:

Any pics of your G20?

Click to expand...

No, but here is a link to a fella who does. Mine is the same color scheme.

http://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/media/34851&catid=member&imageuser=52372

Actually one thing to consider is that you may have to build your lather slightly differently. The heat tends to dry out or evaporate your lather, so you may have to make a 'wetter' lather or use more water later in the shave.

I run hot water from the faucet, fill the scuttle and the sink to preheat them and hop in the shower.
When I get out, everything has cooled to "tepid" so I drain the sink, run the water to hot again, fill the scuttle, cork it, and turn the faucet to "Warm" and refill the sink.

One bad thing about overly hot water is that with some creams (Edwin Jagger/Muhle), the cream will turn to soap. It clumps inside of the bowl and turns into a soft soap. It has never affected performance of the lather, but sometimes it takes a little longer to build it up. So far this is the only cream that's clumped on me.

this is a post i did a while back (having owned both now for a while, the DB gets more use for bowl lathering, and i used the GT for face lathering as a brush scuttle)

here is a side by side comparrison of my new G5 with my DB1.5 (not the new one with the dribble port and lather ridge) that i picked up from a local seller

i did a test lather with the G5 as it was a new pickup today, and even with the small outer reservoir, it kept my test lather warm for 15min...which is longer then i need for a shave.

i was surprised to see the size of the actual lather portion of the bowl, is almost identical in volume, 11oz to 10oz, i guess the extra depth of the G5 makes up for the room.

there is no doubt, after 1 test lather, the DB is easier to make lather in because of the added width, but the G5 would make a better all-around scuttle if you wanted a combo bowl/brush scuttle as it's narrow and deeper proportional so you could easily use it as a brush scuttle (which was my plan). i wasn't looking for another scuttle, but it came up locally for a good price, so i couldn't pass it up.

here are the dimensions, using my digital caliper and a pyrex measuring cup.

DB1.5
inside 11oz
outter 23oz
lather depth 2.274"
lather width 4.503"

G5
inside 10oz
outter 7oz
lather depth 2.433"
lather width 3.685"