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Mitchells Wool Fat

Pjotr

Pjotr

Cultured Philistine
Moderator
2016 Sabbatical
What's MWF like? A lot of people list it as their top soap. Does it desrve this praise or is it the usual fanboyism. I'd grate it in to a stick container or two. Next to other tallow based products such as Speick, Valobra and (a definite future purchase of) Tabac or Irish Moos is there anything it can offer that's different or outstandingly better?
 
Like you, only heard the hype.

I'm unlikely to bother with it, as it contains lanolin, and so does Musgo which didn't agree with me. Could be a fragrance thing, but I doubt the exercise would be worth it.

It also gets a rep as a finnicky latherer. But so long as you don't buy the bowl with it, it's not expensive to try.
 
Even less if you get the rebranded pucks of it. And you get a good brush into the bargain.
 
I've already got too much gear. I almost placed what would have been the winning e-bay bid on a lot consisting of 2 Euro Palmolive sticks with 5 different drugstore boar brushes. I declined for Drubbings sake. He'd have to do 5 reviews.
 
You're too kind.

What with monsta threatening to send me the Camilla Special, and you turning up duelling banjo boars from all corners of the globe, I'm privileged to be spared such trouble.

I'd actually try the Camilla though.
 
Just bought a 125gr refill puck for $11 delivered off the bay.
 
The only tallow based soaps I have tried is tabac and MWF. So I can't really compare it to much.
It is a bit finicky, but if you get it right, it's better than tabac.

Besides that I've only used proraso, T&H luxury and eshave lavender.

Out of all them my favourites are MWF and eshave.

You may as well bought that pokey boar brush and the soap in the bowl for ~$22 though.
You'd get the soap and bowl for not much more, then have another brush to send to drubbing....
 
I'll send you some to play around with. I've heard it can be awkward but I'm sure your new found toy, the now famous Drooling Banjo, will make mincemeat of it. Talking of new found toys, howz the Chubby?
 
Pjotr said:
I'll send you some to play around with. I've heard it can be awkward but I'm sure your new found toy, the now famous Drooling Banjo, will make mincemeat of it. Talking of new found toys, howz the Chubby?
Click to expand...

I've been working up some thoughts, and initially they weren't good, but...
 
I've been using MWF exclusively for the last week and a bit. Really really love it. I've been face lathering using (crazy youtube man) mantic's method. Works really really well.
 
$qwuzzy said:
I've been using MWF exclusively for the last week and a bit. Really really love it. I've been face lathering using (crazy youtube man) mantic's method. Works really really well.
Click to expand...

Good! I'll be making it in to, and using it as a shaving stick.
 
I find as long as your brush is clean, MWF works well. Hard water makes it more challenging but if you can control the water a bit then you will be rewarded.

Biggest tip is crema all over the face first, THEN add water. And make sure you cleanse well before lathering, hard water + skin oils will kill your lather every time
 
In the very unlikely event that I happen to have no choice in the matter, I'll try puck/bowl loading the brush and I'm sure those tips will come in handy. But I've never had any problems using a stick. This is my theory on lathering. Let me know if you disagree. But I've never seen it talked about in these terms.

I'm sure we can all load a brush using creams but lathering from a hard soap more than anything else (as far as I can tell) is largely about increasing the surface to volume ratio. With a cream this has already been done. The other day a saw an old advert for shaving powder. The same principle. The more you increase the ratio the more lather you'll have. Hence all the instructions on swirling the brush twenty times to the left and fifteen times to the right whilst clenching your buttocks and looking at the full moon. And adding three drops of water in between or putting water on the puck beforehand to soften the soap so it breaks up easier etc etc. I'm sure you've all got your own techniques to add to this. Mine is simple. Rub a stick of really hard soap (it similarly makes it easier to heat it up beforehand) on your face and you'll increase the surface to volume ratio massively. And you can regulate pretty accurately how much product through for instance only doing three quarters of your face with one particular soap or do your whole face with the other. In any case you'll never have any problem creating more than enough lather. Also as you're lathering on a rough surface (your stubble) you'll get a beautifully aerated slick product. Also (there's more) as you've effectively got the first pass on your face, you only need a couple more in your brush and even the Wee Scot can handle this easily. Also (yes, there's even more) there is less mess to clear up. It's a complete win-win-win-win scenario. Of course it's a different matter if you like collecting and using sexy puck and shaving bowls.

In any case I'm looking forward to usng what is considerd a tricky lathering soap to test my theory further.
 
Had the first shave with MWF. Very nice I have to say. In terms of lather I'd easily put it up there with Speick, my reference soap. Of course no problem at all lathering it up using the "stick" method. The scent is sort of nothing really. Soapy but then it's soap, so what are you supposed to smell.
 
Pjotr said:
Had the first shave with MWF. Very nice I have to say. In terms of lather I'd easily put it up there with Speick, my reference soap. Of course no problem at all lathering it up using the "stick" method. The scent is sort of nothing really. Soapy but then it's soap, so what are you supposed to smell.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's just a soapy soap. Which is good as it can't conflict with any cologne or aftershave you put on afterwards.
 
It is a very good lather. Stick making wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Made one that looks more like a thick sausage. But it works. I'll plonk a bit in your letterbox, Drubbing.
 
m351ef2840001_1_15929.jpg
 
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