is the way we expect the lather to look. Maybe it is just me, and granted I have nor used many soaps but the lather does not seem to have to be very thick. Are the issues people had with it the way the lather looks or did it actually have terrible performance. On my third to fourth time using I must say it is rather easy to lather up.
Face lathering is recommended because that way you can build up a creamy dense lather and then MWF will look like any other lather. The thin foamy lathermeans you haven't hit the sweet spot.
MWF and Williams - very similar beasts in that they can be difficult to get a decent lather on a consistent basis.
Yogurt thick. Fluffy to me means too much air in the lather. Its harder to obtain yogurt moist thick with MWF bowl lathering but I 'm sure it can be done by getting a large amount of the wet slurry off the puck but face lathering means avoiding the fluffy lather and working up a dense lather on the face.
I'm pretty lazy when it comes to building a lather, MWF lathers very easy. I don't try to build enough lather for 3passes. I swirl the brush on the puck for each pass, my last pass I'll squeeze the lather from the brush and hand lather.
I really only do two passes tops. Usually it is one with touch up as I pretty much shave my growth in a diagonal pattern , ATG and XTG combined direction on my face. The only issue is my neck which is only WTG. Anyways that is off topic and because I only do a minimum amount of passes this stuff should last a very long time.
Ah you beat me to it. I was thinking the very same thing this morning. Even when I hand-applied the bubbly extra lather that was overflowing from the bowl after loading had a tremendous amount of slickness and cushion. If it was Arko it would just dissipate into nothing and have no slickness and cushion. The MWF lather looks bubbly and puffy but still works as good as Arko.
I believe a lot of soaps would dissipate at that stage though. However I am trying to get a thicker lather from now on. I will say though it has wonderful glide and cushion.
Mark I recently finished a spell of about 4 months wherein I used only the Mitchell's - from a fresh puck to nada - and it lasted 121 shaves/lathers for me. I'm a 2 pass guy myself and the Mitchell's loaded enough soap onto a boar brush in 8 or 10 seconds to make more than enough lather for my needs. So yes, I can say that the 125g Mitchell's puck can indeed last quite a long time. Which, of course, is not to say that it'll do for everyone. And like others I too found the Mitchell's to be extremely easy to lather and also that it made, for me, a very consistent lather as well. The relative thinness/bubbliness you've observed may be the result of simply not developing the lather enough. Mitchell's needs a fair bit of water it's true, and establishing the right balance of product to water (and then consistently replicating that balance) is definitely a key to success with it, but this also means that, for bowl lathering at least, it will be fairly thin and watery at first. Just keep whipping and reincorporating the lather and you'll push the extra air out of the lather and have a beautifully thick, rich and wonderfully protective lather in the end. I'd say 60 seconds or so does the trick for me. Then again, if you're getting good results with the thin lather then no worries. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a thin lather per se, it's all just a matter of personal preferences. Good luck!
Its recommended to use boars with Mitchells because boar bristle is stiff and bites into the puck and picks up the soap. If you want to experiment you can pick up a Omega from $12 to $15 and see if it works differently from the horse. A horse/badger is stiff enough but the brown horse hair brush type is to soft.
Possibly. I have entertained the idea but I rather like my Vie-Long brush. I understand that you would want a stiffer brush for soaps, but I rather like the horse hair.
I find that the best brushes for lathering in a bowl are the worst brushes for applying the lather to your face. My brother actually uses 2 brushes, one to build the lather and one to apply to his face.
I would use a synthetic. Best of both worlds- softness and backbone. Boars pick up a lot of product but it just disappears- they don't produce as much lather. To clarify, they consume a lot of soap for the relatively small amount of lather they use. With the synthetic I am using now I use between 1/3rd-1/2 the product to make the same amount of lather.
I don't have any horse hair brushes but I suspect they'll do fine with the Mitchell's too. Maybe just experiment a bit with how wet/dry the brush is before you start loading. Personally I like to load with a drier brush and then add water to the Mitchell's in the bowl. As to the "lather hog" syndrome - I haven't found this to be the case, and my preference for boar bristles goes back some 35 years now. But I tend to prefer smaller brushes than a lot of folks these days. The really BIG boar brushes like the Omega 48 &49 and some of their "Big Bruisers" pro-style brushes seem to very popular, and I could see them possibly eating up a bunch of lather, but I associate a lack of flow through with really big & dense knots. I do have an Omega 10104 which I bought with the idea of eventually resetting the knot in some old handle resto or other, but I've used it a few times as is and found no problems with it sucking up too much lather. And it's definitely what I would consider to be a big knot at 27mm, though the loft is a bit lower than most brushes that size at 55mm. That 11126 looks like a good 'un too. This hasn't been my experience at all. I haven't tried the new synthetics yet (Pur-Tec?), but they definitely sound intriguing from what I've read.
I have thought about getting a synthetic. I have spent way to much money this year already and plan on not spending anymore.
Mark, do yourself a favor. Soak the MWF puck in your sink overnight,(upside down if yours is in a tub or bowl) and then make your lather the following morning. See what you think then. I believe I've got this "hard to lather" mystery solved. I've got some pictures of my experiments and a write-up to finish. When my work slows down again I'll get it put together and posted.
I am content with it. I do not like soaking my Fat. I tried this and the lather gets very bubbly and airy. I'd rather start with a dryer lather and gradually add water. Methinks I pretty much have it nailed down. And in less than a week. I have to be honest though the first night I test lathered it a few times.
I get great results with MWF and my HIS synthetic and my Plisson Synthetic. They have no trouble whipping up thick lather. With synthetics I like to start with them just damp and slowly add water as needed. I don't soak the puck, but I seal it with a little bit of water after each use so it doesn't dry out. Ymmv
