Shaving Mug

Discussion in 'General Shaving Talk' started by Robert1955, Mar 19, 2019.

  1. Primotenore

    Primotenore missed opera tunity

    Article Team
    Excellent post, well thought out and makes sense.
     
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  2. Primotenore

    Primotenore missed opera tunity

    Article Team
    Back then, a guy had one soap. He built the lather on the puck and it makes total sense that the hole(s) in the bottom of the bowl were to allow the soap to drain. I can't argue with @Shaver X and his logic. There wasn't even hot running water when these shaving mugs were first manufactured. It makes much more sense that the reservoir at the bottom simply held the drainage. MAYBE, but I don't think so, the shaver stored his brush in the opening, but that doesn't really make sense, as the brush would be constantly wet.
     
  3. Shaver X

    Shaver X Well-Known Member

    The hole is to allow water to drain, and the bowl is to hold shaving soap. For the scuttles with rounded bottoms in the bowl, there are shaving soaps with one side rounded to match. Soaps that are flat on both sides can usually be made to work, too. Crabtree & Evelyn used to sell some beautiful scuttles back in the 1990s, along with soap refills. Several vendors still sell scuttles today.

    https://www.truefittandhill.com/collections/stands-mugs/products/cream-shaving-mug-with-free-refill

    https://www.shaving-shack.com/progress-vulfix-shaving-scuttle.html

    https://www.classicshaving.com/products/classic-shaving-soap-2-5-scuttle

    To use the soap in a scuttle, saturate your brush with water, and then shake nearly all the water out, so that the brush is damp but not dripping. Now load the brush by swirling it around on the soap. Once the brush is loaded, face lather. Add a little water to the brush as needed. That's it, you are ready to shave.

    I found both those videos to be quite odd, and rather useless. Both make things needlessly complicated and one is just inaccurate guesswork. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but why jump through hoops to do so?
     
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  4. brit

    brit in a box

    maybe they boiled water for a shave, like bath water..
     
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  5. Primotenore

    Primotenore missed opera tunity

    Article Team
    Mos def.
     
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  6. wchnu

    wchnu Duck Season!

    Williams started making cakes of soap in 1840. I read somewhere the scuttle came after. This is not me saying that just something I read.
     
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  7. wchnu

    wchnu Duck Season!

    That is what I have always thought. You use the water in the scuttle to shave...keep the soapy water from your wash basin. That is how I use mine in videos I make. Soak the brush in the scuttle shake dry and build lather for face lathering. It works good.
     
  8. Robert1955

    Robert1955 Well-Known Member

    Some of you may find this of interest...I do not have the space unfortunately :)

     
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  9. brit

    brit in a box

    very cool ..
     
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  10. oldjoe

    oldjoe Well-Known Member

    Love the video!
     
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  11. CrustyCat

    CrustyCat Well-Known Member

    His own personal collection?
     
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  12. Shaver X

    Shaver X Well-Known Member

    It appears to be so. At one point, he refers to a part of the collection that is still in London. He also says that the bottom reservoir in a very old scuttle was used to hold hot water.

    This book, written by two experts, also states that scuttle shaving mugs were designed to hold hot water.

    https://books.google.com/books?id=d0XuDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

    The book can be purchased on Amazon.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01FUBJ8PQ

    Does anybody know the identity of the gentleman in the video? I wonder if he is one of the authors.
     
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  13. NTR

    NTR Well-Known Member

    Folks, any issues with Stirling Silver shaving bowls? Since silver can tarnish I’m wondering if any type of reaction is possible with your skin?
     
    brit likes this.
  14. brit

    brit in a box

    i would't think so.early gillette de razors were silver plated as is a lot of high end cutlery..
     
  15. Carson West

    Carson West Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
    I bought a Q-Shave scuttle from Amazon for $22, and I love the thing. There are no holes in the upper chamber, just ridges to aid agitation. You remove the cork from the spout, fill the lower chamber with hot water, and replace the cork. I go ahead and fill the upper chamber too, and leave the scuttle to warm up as I take a shower. When I get out, the scuttle is warmer and the water cooler, so I pour all that out and replace it with fresh hot water from the tap. I load my brush as the scuttle gets warmer yet, then when the brush is loaded, I pour out the water from the upper chamber (the cork keeps the water in the lower one) and make my lather.

    You keep your brush in the upper part with the lather when using your razor. The rising heat of the water keeps them both warm for the duration of the shave.

    To me, a shave is to a great extent about sense-pleasure, a time to pamper ourselves and take our minds off our stupid little troubles, and relax.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2019
  16. Robert1955

    Robert1955 Well-Known Member

    Judging by your avatar...you seem to like it
     
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  17. RyX

    RyX DoH!

    I'm not a You Tuber so after blumbling around on the video uploaders page I didn't see any way to contact them. There are a couple UK based shave forums that might have a clue.
     
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  18. beemers

    beemers New Member

    People did’t have running hot water , but they kept a cast iron tea kettle on a coal or wood stove.Lady of the house needed instant hot water through the day. Hope that may help.
     
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  19. RyX

    RyX DoH!

    I've got one of those now. Use it often in the winter for hot tea. Could fashion up a make shift scuttle but I prefer a cool water lather 11-1/2 months of the year. Sometimes it drops below 40 degrees F here on the Gulf Coast.
     
  20. BlueShaver

    BlueShaver Premature Latheration Sufferer

    Original patent for hard soap shaving mug:

    https://patents.google.com/patent/US66788A/en


    I think the type you have is NOT for soap. The basin is too shallow. Yours is for a brush rest when using shaving creams (popular in victorian times).
     

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