What am I doing wrong? Wool Fat.... New to DE

I used MWF this evening and got a beautifully thick, creamy lather. I find it no harder than any other soap to be honest. I load a damp but not dripping brush for 30 seconds, apply to face then gradually paint in water similar to how Cris (anothercutabove) on YouTube does it (MWF can take a fair bit of water) then splay the brush. I'm hoping you can stick with it as it is a wonderful soap with amazing post shave properties (for me anyway).
 
NeilJ said:
I used MWF this evening and got a beautifully thick, creamy lather. I find it no harder than any other soap to be honest. I load a damp but not dripping brush for 30 seconds, apply to face then gradually paint in water similar to how Cris (anothercutabove) on YouTube does it (MWF can take a fair bit of water) then splay the brush. I'm hoping you can stick with it as it is a wonderful soap with amazing post shave properties (for me anyway).
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See now this is the problem with MWF. You have to resort to asking the Internet for tips on how to get the best out of it. And you'll come up against two conflicting stories.

A. Hardly any water.
B. Lots and lots of water. Also soak the hell out of the soap.

I have tried B and partially to some degree A. But I can still use less, and dry the brush off more before loading.

I want to get down with MWF but this is really starting to wind me up when simply getting the Taylor's cream out takes 10s to get into a great lather without thinking about, straight to face and feels good.
 
I don't have a huge collection of soaps/creams, about 7 creams, 1 croap and MWF is the only hard soap I have.

I get much better results from creams, I enjoy using creams, so why do I even insist on using MWF? It's only because it's got a god-like status. If I'd never been on a shaving forum I'd have never heard of it and been very happy with other products. I say use what makes you smile, shaving shouldn't be complicated. My MWF probably won't be replaced when I finish it, it's ok, but it's just a bit of soap.
 
You are bang on the money. MWF has only been elevated to god like status through internet forums. But at the same time, you now see as many people speaking about how much of a stupid pain in the arse it is now as well.
 
Creams are always going to be easier to use than hard soaps, the downside being that they don't last as long and are less tolerant of getting wet, hence a lot of people scooping out of the tub rather than loading from it.

One thing I have noticed with MWF is that the lather looks ready before it is, when you think it's done paint in a bit more water and work it some more with the brush. You can get away with adding quite a lot before you kill it. Other than that I've never found it harder to use than any other hard soap, but it does give me the best lather of anything out there and lots of it.
 
So ‘the fat' is turning out to be a bit of a rum go eh? Personally, I've found that boar works the best on a hard soap.
The hairs are solid, and ‘pointy', perfect for digging up little chunks of soap that work up a proper lather.
Make sure that the brush your using doesn't have too much ‘loft', or it will be ‘floppy'. Try and find one with a bigger knot
and a shorter loft, for a ‘ scritchier' brush. Also handle length isn't important since your'e loading your brush on the soap.
And like some of the wiser gents already articulated, always soak your brush for at least 10-15 minutes.
A decent scuttle will help too, by breaking down the big bubbles, and thereby removing air from your cream.
If you use a scuttle, you will want a longer handle so your fingers won't come in contact with the soap, and get slippery.
So stay calm and keep shaving!
 
Like I said at the start of this thread, why spend so much effort trying to get this soap to perform when just about any other soap just works straight off the bat. Plus most other soaps don't smell like Granny's knicker drawer.

Everyone has their own opinions and experience with soaps so I can only speak from my own experience, however I don't think there's ever been another shaving soap that so much time has been spent on discussing how to lather it. That alone is a red flag for me.

Good news is that once you've tried MWF you should have a much easier time with nearly any other soap.

The other problem latherers which I've tried and would recommend you give a wide berth to are Wilkinson's blue in the plastic dish and Trumpers Eucris hard-soap (not the cream which is great). I've also found that every "unknown" artisan shaving soap bought at an event/market has been a disaster - basically they seem to be just bath soap.
 
Well I shaved this morning and tried something different. After the boar brush had been soaking for a good 10 minutes, I squeezed and shook more water out that I usually would so the brush was only damp, rather than ‘wet'. This made for a much drier load which must have picked up more soap. I then proceeded to face lather, only dipping the tips twice to get what I'd call a decent lather, but still nothing like a good cream.

I'm being persistent hear because I really like the smooth slick lanolin feeling.
 
Sounds like you are getting there Tom. Keep experimenting and see what works for you. I hope you can get on with it as it is a superb soap in my opinion but worse case scenario is if you can't you can relegate it to bath soap, good luck.
 
chris.hale said:
Creams are always going to be easier to use than hard soaps, the downside being that they don't last as long and are less tolerant of getting wet, hence a lot of people scooping out of the tub rather than loading from it.

One thing I have noticed with MWF is that the lather looks ready before it is, when you think it's done paint in a bit more water and work it some more with the brush. You can get away with adding quite a lot before you kill it. Other than that I've never found it harder to use than any other hard soap, but it does give me the best lather of anything out there and lots of it.
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Spot on.
 
chris.hale said:
I only soak boars and only for a couple of minutes. Badger hair doesn't absorb water and neither do synths.
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Badger hair doesn't absorb water? I've got a Simpson capt.2 in best, not only does it absorb water
it will absorb most of the water. When I take my brush out of the water, I squeeze it about halfway up the knot
And water pours out. That's why they are such lather hogs. Now boar does not absorb water, (that's) why they don't
retain heat as well. A cursory glance at a shave video will show you the absorption properties of badger.
What say the members who own a badger brush?
 
The situational shaver said:
So ‘the fat' is turning out to be a bit of a rum go eh? Personally, I've found that boar works the best on a hard soap.
The hairs are solid, and ‘pointy', perfect for digging up little chunks of soap that work up a proper lather.
Make sure that the brush your using doesn't have too much ‘loft', or it will be ‘floppy'. Try and find one with a bigger knot
and a shorter loft, for a ‘ scritchier' brush. Also handle length isn't important since your'e loading your brush on the soap.
And like some of the wiser gents already articulated, always soak your brush for at least 10-15 minutes.
A decent scuttle will help too, by breaking down the big bubbles, and thereby removing air from your cream.
If you use a scuttle, you will want a longer handle so your fingers won't come in contact with the soap, and get slippery.
So stay calm and keep shaving!
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Or you could get a synth with sufficient backbone and avoid soaking altogether; and get consistently good lathers when you've worked out your technique.
 
Scotshave said:
Or you could get a synth with sufficient backbone and avoid soaking altogether; and get consistently good lathers when you've worked out your technique.
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Well played sir, came right up to the net on that one, didn't you! Scotshave makes an excellent point. One of the
benefits of a synth brush is that you don't have to soak it, just run it under some water, and your ready to load your
brush. In point of fact, I use a synth brush when I do a single pass shave before I go to work.
The other benefit of synth is that, unless you live in an extremely humid environment, it will dry faster, and you can
basically use it every day. That is why they are so popular as ‘travel' brushes.
Now, when I use my synth, I use it to bowl lather a soft tube cream. So I don't have the experience with a hard soap
that the gentleman from Edinburgh has, but as he alluded to, if you get one with a sufficient backbone, and I would
presume a decent knot diameter, I don't know why it wouldn't work.
Having said that, I still feel for a multi pass shave the badger still retains heat in a superior manor. However
if you use the synth in conjunction with a warm scuttle, it may work just the same.
What say you, Scotshave ?
 
The situational shaver said:
Well played sir, came right up to the net on that one, didn't you! Scotshave makes an excellent point. One of the
benefits of a synth brush is that you don't have to soak it, just run it under some water, and your ready to load your
brush. In point of fact, I use a synth brush when I do a single pass shave before I go to work.
The other benefit of synth is that, unless you live in an extremely humid environment, it will dry faster, and you can
basically use it every day. That is why they are so popular as ‘travel' brushes.
Now, when I use my synth, I use it to bowl lather a soft tube cream. So I don't have the experience with a hard soap
that the gentleman from Edinburgh has, but as he alluded to, if you get one with a sufficient backbone, and I would
presume a decent knot diameter, I don't know why it wouldn't work.
Having said that, I still feel for a multi pass shave the badger still retains heat in a superior manor. However
if you use the synth in conjunction with a warm scuttle, it may work just the same.
What say you, Scotshave ?
Click to expand...
I tend to be one of those cold water shavers, with a penchant for face lathering; but I dare say the synthetic bristles will have good thermal retention. I've found them very good in bowls too.
 
I've got a Parker silver tip badger, a couple of omega boar and a simpsons chubby 2 synthetic. The synthetic is great but I've mainly been using the boar with MWF as it's stiffer so picks up more soap.

Is all this heat retention lark REALLY that important or just internet bull? At the end of the day it's hot water and a brush. You could probably use a paint brush and get the same results.
 
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