Dirty Bird Pottery - Brush Scuttle and Lather Bowl

Discussion in 'Shaving Bowl/Scuttle Reviews' started by bpope62, Oct 20, 2008.

  1. bpope62

    bpope62 New Member

    I contacted Julie Moore of Dirty Bird Pottery to see if she would be willing to make a compact scuttle with a cone-shaped chamber for the brush. The idea was for the brush to sit vertically in the ‘brush scuttle’, supported (and heated) on all sides. Lather would be made in a separate (and stackable) bowl.

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    The Brush Scuttle comes in two pieces: the Scuttle and the conical Insert. The Scuttle is approximately 4” tall by 4” wide. It narrows near the top to provide an easy grip. The Insert has an outside diameter of 4” across the top, matching the diameter of the Scuttle. The ‘brush chamber’ has a 2 ¾” diameter opening at the top that tapers down to a diameter of 1”. The brush chamber is 2 ¾” deep.

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    To fill the Brush Scuttle with hot water, put the scuttle in the sink, lift off the conical Insert and add hot water. Replace the conical insert – it is heavy enough to displace any excess water. The Brush Scuttle is now completely filled with hot water and there is no spout to allow heat to escape. The two-piece design of the Brush Scuttle allows for easy filling, emptying, and cleaning.

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    The lather bowl is a separate piece and has an inside diameter of 3 ¼” and is 1 ¾” deep. The bowl interior has spiral grooves that help create lather. It also has a slight bulge and a lip which work together to keep the lather in the bowl and directed to the bottom of the shaving brush.

    If you make lather on your face, the lather bowl could be used as a container for shaving soap – the large 3” diameter by 1” high pucks will fit in the bowl. Or you could get two lather bowls and use one for storing the soap and another for making lather – and stack everything for compact storage.

    Testing the Brush Scuttle
    I wanted to provide some hard numbers regarding the Scuttle’s performance so I used an infrared thermometer.

    With the Insert in place, the Scuttle holds about 10oz of hot water. For these tests, the ambient air temperature was 78 degrees and the water coming out of my faucet was a very hot 125 degrees.

    I filled the scuttle with 125 degree water and I let this sit for 2 minutes while I made lather in the lather bowl. For all these tests I used a Shavemac 177 with a 23mm knot. Temperature readings were made from the tip of the brush.


    Test 1 – Keeping a brush warm
    The scuttle heated the brush from 82 degrees F to 112 degrees F in two minutes. During the next 18 minutes, the brush peaked out at 118 degrees and never got below 110 degrees.

    To me, a 100 degree brush feels ‘warm’. 110 degrees feels ‘hot’, and 115+ degrees feels ‘very hot’.

    Test 2 – A ‘Real’ Shave
    This process takes into account that the Scuttle takes 2 minutes to heat itself, plus one minute to heat up a lathered brush. I wanted hot lather without adding time to my workday morning routine.

    • Add hot water to the Scuttle.
    • Place Insert on top.
    • Wet brush and make lather (taking 2 minutes while the Scuttle heats).
    • Brush tip is at 82 degrees after making lather.
    • Place brush in Scuttle.
    • Apply hot water to face (taking 1 minute while the Scuttle heats the brush)
    • Lather with brush at 118 degrees, replace brush in Scuttle, make 1st pass.
    • Five minutes later, lather with brush at 115 degrees, replace brush in Scuttle, make 2nd pass.
    • Five minutes later, lather with brush at 113 degrees, replace brush in Scuttle, make 3rd pass (I would be done after two or three passes).
    • Five minutes later, lather with brush at 109 degrees, replace brush in Scuttle, make 4th pass.

    Summary:

    Everything is extremely well made, compact, simple, and performs wonderfully. The two-piece design of the scuttle allows for easy filling and cleaning, and seems to hold in the heat efficiently.

    The Brush Scuttle and Lather Bowl are available separately – check here for more information:

    http://www.dirtybirdpottery.com/potteryandhoney.html

    Thanks,
    Bob Pope
     
  2. texbilly

    texbilly New Member

    Beautiful Pottery and Great Performance

    Overall, I echo Bob's assessment and am very happy with Julie's scuttle. She was kind enough to accommodate my request for brown glaze and I'm really happy with the look, as seen in my photo.

    I found my hot tap water was not hot enough to last multiple shave passes so I invested in an inexpensive hot pot and find that water heated on its lowest setting (initially around 140 degrees F) is just right to keep the scuttle toasty for my entire shave. I also discovered something interesting as I experimented with temperature and process. After following a similar process to Bob's and completing my first shave pass, I reached for the heating brush to lather up for a second pass and noticed the lather (Tabac soap in this case) had broken down - thin lather and a lot of bubbles in the bowl. On my face, although very warm, the lather remained thin if I "worked" the lather in a circular motion like we all do. Ugh! However, if I brushed the lather on, a VERY thick and wonderful lather is released from the interior of the brush. Nice! The lather in the bowl would probably not break down if I could maintain a slightly lower temperature, but I would rather have the warmer lather and the heat retention.

    Highly recommended! :D

    UPDATE: I rated the weight a little negatively because my only wish would be a little more mass, especially with the brush bowl (top). When applying lather, the top moves around a bit while floating in the hot water. Still a minor issue. ;)
     

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