Theyre not much different from other bowls apart from ridges in the bottom....so why the crazy prices. Ive seen a normal porcelain bowl for under 5 bucks yet shaving bowls for 35 bucks....what gives?
Why are shaving bowls so expensive?
- Thread starter Tester28
- Start date
People buy them regardless of the cost, pure and simple. Go to the local discount store and get something like an imitation stone salsa bowl for a couple of bucks and lather away.
Supply and demand. Simple as that..
Most of them are hand-made, so that adds tremendously to the cost factor.
And many are custom-made, which increases the price even more.
And many are custom-made, which increases the price even more.
If you are talking about a pottery scuttle which is a hand painted hand-thrown bowl within another Hand painted hand-thrown bowl, like a "Moss" or Georgetown pottery scuttle, I can accept the $60 pricing for a large one. It's really great. And "seconds" are about half price. Well built hot lather for three passes is not to be sneezed at
but a simple, mass produced plastic or metal bowl surely can't be worth much just for being ridged.
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if I'm going to spend 35$$$ or more I want one that is over 50 years old then...
Time. It takes time to make them. Then a lot of time in the kiln.
Actually the amount of work that goes into a scuttle for example (Two fired parts, plus handle) take quality work by the potter. My G20 is a good example of that. I would not sell or trade it.
Well don't drop it then. 
My 6" wide shaving bowl in lavender/red, hand-made but not advertised as a shaving bowl, was sixteen bucks from Utilemud, on eBay. Ridges on the bottom. Glazed interior, matte exterior. You can catch a glimpse in my avatar pic. I bowl-shave every day, and I'm super-picky, so I feel the price I paid was fine. Perfect size. Love the vibrant colors.
Why are shaving bowls so expensive?
Who cares? With a stubbly face, you have the ideal surface for generating lather. So no bowl is required for a spectacular shave.Mass produced in a cheap-labor foreign country with a broad sales market versus handmade in the US in very low quantities for a very specific target market.
Get $1 salsa bowls at dollar store or WalMart. My lather bowl is a sugar bowl from thrift store. Cost me all of 62 cents. Get an Old Spice mug. Perfect size, classic style and $10-15.
It can change the order in which soap, water and air are incorporated. So to try the Marco method with Arko, I'm not going to bother mashing a stick. I'll rub the stick on the braille-like decoration inside my Turkish handmade (TJMaxx, $7?) ceramic bowl, then carefully melt it in a small amount of water without lathering it, and only in the end, whip it.
It's hit-and-miss which soaps like to be hydrated first. I'm sure with Arko, it'll be like Kiss My Face, just threatening it with a brush will generate lather either way. But the KMF lather was less sticky and amazingly fragrant. Its a quality issue related to skin sensitivity for me.
I don't like the idea of lathering on my face. Apparently a lot of people do it, but I would much rather use a bowl.
I know dirtybird are made to order and worth every dime.
But then you get the things that are just an old regular bowl, but it's a 'shaving bowl'. If you buy one with a company logo it's 35 bucks, but an identical one at a regular store is 35 cents.
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