Question about lathering w/ soap

I've got a couple of lame-lather questions:

I've always face lathered (until my Georgetown scuttle arrived yesturday) and I get great lather from TOBS cream, but not their soap. I'm guessing that for whatever reason, I just haven't gotten the brush loaded up enough with the soap.

1) Do you lather directly on top of your soap puck, or just load the brush on the puck and then lather in bowl/scuttle/on face/wherever?

2) If you do lather on the puck, do you then rinse the left over lather, or just let it be? I'm assuming it'd dry and then your process of lathering the next day would re-hydrate it.

1) Load the brush with soap as much as possible then switch to your vessel of choice for building lather. Depending on the soap, sometimes the brush needs to be so loaded with soap it starts to feel a bit stiffer.

2) I end up with a lot of lather on the puck from loading the brush and just leave it be. It's like those delicious crispy bits that are left over when you cook bacon, it makes the next thing you cook (or the next time you make lather) that much better*.

*Analogy does not apply to vegetarians.

I follow this tutorial for soap lathering with extraordinary results.

I just use one small chrome plated bowl. The soap puck is stuck to the bottom (as it will be after the first use). I fill it for literally 2 seconds with hot water from the tap and spill it out and then let it sit while I wet my face. I wet the brush with HOT water from the tap, and shake off the excess with two or three dips (with the bristles pointed down, like a ketchup bottle, as opposed to fliking your wrist witth the bristles sideways, which will get rid of too much water). Then just swirl in the bowl (don't be shy, do it with authority) for a few seconds and -- voila! -- you should have a brush loaded with thick, luxurious lather, plenty for two or three passes. If your lather is too thin, it just means you used too much water. shake out some of the excess in the sink. You can always add more.

Lathering up with soap is absolutely my favorite part of wetshaving. Keep at it. You will get the hang of it sooner than you think, and the improvement in your shaving experience will be well worth the relatively minor effort.

Enjoy!