Mitchell's Wool Fat (MWF) - a not very helpful tutorial.

antdad

antdad

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Firstly let me say I love using this stuff and it's well worth a try, it can produce a rich cushioning and moisturising
lather that leaves your'e skin feeling lovely and soft. I normally face lather directly with this soap and that just means
loading my brush and applying it directly to the chops and lathering until the correct consistency is reached, for me
most lather issues are resolved by adding more soap and less water or both.

I know I'll knock up a great lather in a bowl take pictures post and document, it can't be that difficult. I'm in a hard water
area, I like to use my cheapest brush and an every day container to demonstrate that you don't need a high end badger
brush and scuttle to achieve great results.

Well I couldn't do it...I have a few ideas why but it didn't happen.

Usual start, soak brush, sit a little water on the puck.
Squeeze and shake brush, load brush thoroughly start aggitating until the cream starts to form, add water a few drops
at a time until lather increases in volume and becomes rich and slick.

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This looks okay from a distance but when you get closer...
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this is not what I like to shave with it is light and airy and would offer very little lubrication.
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There are a few things that I noticed when trying to lather with MWF.
I will add a lttle later...
 
I probably tried it about 6 -10 times altogether and on a few different days, that result was the best I could with that set up. I don't normally bowl lather with the fat.

A few things I noticed about the fat was that it was very susceptable to drying out, don't use it for a day or two and it starts to crack up very easily, this could make a big difference with the amount of soap you are able to load on the brush.

When I was working the lather in the bowl it felt that I got it to a point where it wouldn't improve any more and then it would just deteriorate, in mid lather I even squeezed the brush out and went back to the puck to load more soap, it didn't make much difference it didn't get thicker or slicker than what you can see.

I'm wandering whether the bowl type can make a difference, the bowl I used is clearly glass without any surface texture unlike you're skin, might be worth a try with stoneware or similar?

Any suggestions?
 
I too have noticed the cracking but don't think it should make much of a difference, I've seen this on other soaps too. However I do think this stuff is more suited to face rather than bowl lathering. But I don't see how the glass bowl could affect this. Could it be temperature?

Pete
 
You might be right....the folks that sell bowls claim that a groove/rigde swirl left in the clay before it is fired is crucial. It will certainly have more "texture"

If you load the brush with the same amount of fat as you did for the bowl lather, does face lathering work better?
 
Never bowl lather with the Fat. It is designed to be face lathered.
Simply load the soap on your brush until you think that you have enough and then load some more.
Swirl the tallowy goodness around your face and keep dipping the tips of your brush in water until you get a good consistancy.
This soap needs to be used differently to other soaps otherwise it will not work. People fall out with this soap because they add too much water and the lather becomes to thin.
When directly applied in such a way to the face your skin will be as soft and smooth as a small philipino boy in no time. :lol:

Disclaimer: I would like to add that i have never touched the face of a small philipino boy nor would i want to.
 
Right then, I'll follow Manimal's instructions to the letter and see if I can get the stuff to work for me. I'd really like to get on with MWF as it comes from just down t' road, but thus far the results have been less than impressive.
 
I have a puck of this I am itching to try but promised myself I would finish some of the other soaps before breaking this one out the packaging. It sounds right up my street and i like the smell.
 
I agree with everything Manimal suggested it is a wonderful soap except I never saw any bowl lathering disclaimer with my MWF :D

So if I can find some stoneware I will get back to it...
 
Just an update on bowl lathering with MWF. I tried using an old mortar that was unglazed internally...hey presto good rich lather fairly quickly.
Seems that glazed or glass surfaces are just too smooth to agitate and knock those large air bubbles out of the MWF lather.


If anybody is particularly interested I will post a picture or two but otherwise as previous posts suggest I would face lather with this soap it is well worth a try.
 
I was sure that it was me at fault and not the soap, and so it proved last night when I followed Manimal's instructions. I got plenty of good rich lather without too much trouble, and would I'm sure have had an excellent shave if it wasn't for a Derby blade which was past its sell by date (only good for 2 uses in this instance it seems). I'd make the following observations:

1: plenty of soap seems to be the order of the day
2: it takes quite a bit of work to get the lather going
3: getting just enough water into the mix seems to be critical: not enough and it just sets into facial artex.

Anyway, thanks Manimal. I'll be looking forward to using Wool Fat a lot more from now on.
 
If you buy the Kent version of MWF, the instructions on the box tell you to face lather.

Having said that, I tend to palm lather it for a bit before whacking it onto my face.

Ian
 
I trial and errored with this soap.
Initially I was unhappy with the lather but after putting more soap on my brush than I thought I needed and face lathering, it's brilliant and my "go to" lathering treatment.
Of course I have shed loads of other soap and creams to use as well.............
 
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