I think you have the right idea in looking for an inexpensive scuttle first. Find out if you like using them. I made the mistake of purchasing a Dirty Bird scuttle for about $75 and ended up selling it. When I bowl-lather, I prefer using a $25 Aesop SS bowl.
Yea I bought a George Town pottery G20 Scuttle an also ended up selling mine. Found out I like Face Lathering Better. YMMV. Then a few weeks ago I found this on PAA. This thing is awesome keeps my shave brush Warm in between Passes. Sent from my iPhoneXR using Tapatalk
Well, you can do what most of us did, starting out. You walk down to your kitchen and find a shaving bowl sized bowl. Then you find a bigger one that it fits onto (but not into). You want the rim of the smaller bowl to sit on the rim of the bigger bowl. Fill the space between the bowls with hot water. Lather as normal. Or you buy something called a scuttle to perform the exact same routine. In addition to that brush scuttle in an earlier post, PAA also has a plastic travel scuttle. https://phoenixartisanaccoutrements.com/products/the-crown-king-shatterproof-travel-scuttle For me, scuttles are a toss up. On the one hand, I like the warmth of the lather. On the other hand, I tend to rush my shave when using a scuttle because the heat dries out the lather if I take too long. This doesn't tend to be an issue with brush scuttles, since the lather isn't made in those.
Primo, I've read that you shouldn't put boiling water in a scuttle, as it does what you say. I've been using one for a couple years now, I'm just using the hot water from my bathroom sink, and it's never degraded any of the soaps or creams I use. If I find a soap in the future that is degraded by the warm water, I'll be back here telling the world. And this is for Jaro. The way I use my Q-Shave scuttle is to first fill the water chamber (the bottom one) with hot sink-water. I let it run in there for a minute, and the mug gets warmer and warmer. Then I fill the upper chamber, the one you mix your lather in, the same way. Then I take my shower. The mug warms up as the water gets cooler. When I get out of the shower, I empty the mug, refill it with fresh hot water, make my lather and put the brush inside. The scuttle keeps the lather and brush warm for the duration of your shave. I'll put a hot-towel on my face three times right before lathering up, as the whiskers get stiff again a moment after showering. Then I apply the still-warm lather and go to town.
Never used 212˚ water, but my hot water was 140˚ and if I remember correctly, Mystic Water broke down. It's been so long that I don't remember if any other soaps degraded at that temperature.
Go to Walmart and buy a self watering violet pot, AKA redneck scuttle. I used that setup for a year or so before I bought a Robert Becker Feats Of Clay scuttle. Then I moved on to face lathering and have been a face lathering fiend for years.
Warm lather is spectacular. However my georgetown pottery scuttle now sits idle. I now face lather. Using it added more work to my shave ritual Warm the scuttle,soak brush, load brush, lather in scuttle, clean scuttle, drain scuttle, drip dry scuttle, not to mention taking up room in small bathroom.
It depends on what you are looking for. Traditional scuttles are shaving soap holders, and were invented in 1867. They also have a water reservoir in the bottom that was used to hold hot water for the shave. Nowadays, the it is not used, as we can get hot water immediately from the tap. Always-on residential hot water heaters were only introduced after WW II, so this was a handy feature to have. A Moss scuttle is a lathering bowl that also serves as a lather warming device. It was invented by Dr. Chris Moss around 2005, and the first examples were made by Sara Bonnyman pottery. Other potteries jumped on the bandwagon, and they are now widely available. Unlike the traditional scuttle, the water in the Moss scuttle reservoir contacts the bowl. That is how it warms the lather. For a traditional scuttle, I recommend going to eBay and searching on 'crabtree & evelyn shaving mug' or 'shaving scuttle'. You will find many fine examples there at reasonable prices. Some of them have rounded bottom bowls, while others have a flat bottom. The ones with a rounded bottom use soaps with a rounded bottom, but should work well with most other soaps, too. To use a traditional scuttle, soak the brush under the faucet and shake the brush until most of the water is out. Load the tips of the damp brush with soap, and then face lather, adding water to the brush as needed. This video shows how to use a traditional scuttle: Googling on the terms 'shaving scuttle' will return results that are mostly Moss scuttles. This video shows how to use a Moss scuttle: Here is an article on Sharpologist showing the difference between mugs, scuttles and Moss scuttles: https://sharpologist.com/2018/09/shaving-mugs-bowls-scuttles.html
You can get one of those ceramic ones if you like but you'll only have it until you decide to drop it and break it into millions of shards of broken kiln fired pottery. Or you can buy a Crown King Travel Scuttle and you'll have it forever, even if you're a complete and total klutz.
