In this pic you can see the lather is dried out from the boiling water. This pic I am using tap water from my bathroom sink to warm lather (much better) I had a friend who was bragging to me that he bought a scuttle for $20 on Ebay from an artisan. He told me that he was greatly impressed by it. I have wanted a scuttle ever since I started wet shaving, but was unwilling to pay $65. At 20 bucks, I was willing to take the risk. A little about the seller: Robert Becker has been doing ceramics for over 20 years. He is located in San Antonio, Texas and can be reached via email @ rbecker13@att.net. I asked him if his scuttles were and hand thrown and he replied with "My scuttles are not hand thrown. I make them using different molds and combining as needed to make the finished product. The spout is hand made from clay and attached and the handles are made from a mold and attached during assembly." At this point he is not taking custom orders for specific sizes, but he is learning to hand throw and will hopefully be able to do this in the future. *Before I write this review, I think it is important to note that I had serious doubts about scuttles in general. I have tried floating my lather bowl in hot water during my shave and various other tricks and it never worked out for me. I had good hot lather for 2 passes, but not for the 3rd and touch ups. It always seemed that after that second pass the temp would drop drastically for my lather.* SIZE: The actual part where you make the lather and store the brush measure 4 inches across and 3 1/4 deep. This turned out to be the perfect size for me. I say this because I use a 20mm brush and I have just enough room to swirl around and make lather with no room to spare. Becker does make a larger inside bowl that is 5-6 inches in diameter. This scuttle is also high enough where no lather spills over the sides. Becker stated that he has 2 other styles that I have come up with which are different from the one I got. One is deeper and smaller in dimension and the second has about the same size lather bowl but the sides are straight up and down. HEAT RETENTION: This obviously is the most important aspect of any scuttle. One of the greatest highlights of wet shaving is the use of hot lather. No one can dispute the claim that hot lather feels excellent and beats the hell out of cold lather. Test 1 My tap water at its hottest is scalding. You can’t stick your hand under the water without discomfort. I filled the scuttle up and bowl with hot water to warm the cold ceramic. I used the boiling water and filled the scuttle. I used Musgo Real shaving cream for this test. I had very hot lather for 22 minutes, and could have gone longer, but had some work to do. I was tremendously impressed to say the least. The one problem I found is that boiling water is actually too hot and dries the lather out. It was horrible drying, it just wasn’t the way I like my lather. This scuttle is not meant to take boiling water. Test 2 This time I switched it up to Sweet Almond Oil shaving cream and put the scuttle in the microwave this time for 1.5 minutes. This worked perfectly. It got the water hot, but not too hot to dry out the lather. I got another 3 pass shave plus touch ups in 20 minutes this time. Hot lather to the end!!! Test 3 I warmed the scuttle up to heat the cold ceramics with hot water from the sink. I dumped the water out and filled the scuttle up with water from my bathroom sink. I was unsure and afraid that the lather wouldn’t be hot for the entire 20minutes I take to shave. I was wrong. I used Tabac shaving soap and and perfectly hot lather the whole time and no drying. The microwave is a pain in the butt because I have to run downstairs before I shave to heat the scuttle up. Using the kitchen sink is the preferred way for me to use this scuttle. 4 weeks later I have used the scuttle every shave. Water from the bathroom sink works like a charm. I am very pleased with my purchase and have no regrets in buying the scuttle. I feel like the warm lather has really knocked my shaving experience up a notch. Aesthetics: As you can see, this thing is beautiful. On the inside, where the swirls are, they have been engraved into the scuttle. They do a great job helping create lather. I believe the other scuttle have raised swirls from the other potters. In this case, it is purely cosmetic as to what you prefer. I would rather have this for 18 than raised swirls for 60. On the very bottom, the maker engraved his initials and date. Quality: I gave this a 7 on the rating chart just because for a good bit more money you can get a "nicer" product" from dirtybird. If you drop any of the artisans scuttles on the market on the tile floor they are going to break. In conclusion, I would highly recommend this scuttle to anyone. It does what it was designed to do, while still being a beautiful piece of artwork. These are highly affordable for any wet shaver and worth every penny. Mr. Becker was a pleasant guy to do business with, and I will be buying another one if I drop it
RAB Scuttle - Medium I got the RAB Scuttle because I saw a few folks on TSD using them daily. I broke my Redneck Scuttle (RNS) twice and figured that since I was using it on a daily basis I could justify another $15.00 on top of the $5.00 price for the RNS. For a price of $20.00, the RAB scuttle is hard to beat, IMHO. You can spend more money and get a hand thrown scuttle if you like, but I think the main difference in mice is going to be limited to whether or not you are getting a hand thrown piece, or a molded piece like the RAB. I figure if a mass produced molded mug is acceptable for shaving, then I do not need a handcrafted scuttle. I emailed Robert and asked if he had colors available other than his stock colors on Ebay. I told Robert my favorite color is purple and he provided two different purples to choose from. Like the other posters, I have found that boiling water dries out my lather. My scalding hot tap water does just fine, although I do from time to time add just a touch of boiling water from my $4.00 electric kettle, just to fortify the heat a little. The grooves in the bottom and sides provide surface area to assist in lather building, and both creams and soaps work equally well. My biggest brush is a Rubberset with a 24mm TGN Silver Tip knot in it and I have just enough room that nothing spills over. Any of my other smaller brushes have plenty of room. I got medium scuttle for $20.00, but you can spend a few extra dollars and get a bigger one, or a few dollars less and get a smaller one. For a few dollars on top of any of the scuttles, Robert will send you a cover and a spout plug. I needed neither of them. I added a patch of foam rubber feet to the bottom of the scuttle to keep it stable on the counter and hopefully provide some traction so I do not knock on the floor. If my RAB scuttle ever does break, I will buy another!
