A Better Soap Bowl

First, a disclaimer; I am not condemning my present containers or expecting perfection. This morning shave began with the adulation of my soap groupies crying KAV! KAV! pick me! I looked at the packaging; bright or filled with old world gravitas and charm, wood, aluminum, plastic, open and lidded. Goldilocks had three choices. I felt like Indiana Jones staring at dozens of grails. Did Jesus really use some humble coconut looking cup? I doubt it. As carpenter wouldn't there be some decorative carving, his initials like a personal coffeecup at the shop? Real Archaeologists think of these details.
All shared one commonality-left over lather. It's clogging the threaded lids, dripping down the sides and obscuring if not dissolving paper labels. 
Truly, I do clean up as best one can. I saw one soap approaching that thin crescent requiring assimilation into a new puck and the odd regret  my Pre de Provence birds are fading like ancient murals. 
I finished and began writing a grocery list for Wednesday. DAMN! my fountain pen is dry. I began refilling from the Waterman bottle tipped sideways to pump the last refill. It doesn't work perfectly either. I must go on EBAY for a new bottle, maybe venture into fancy collectable inkstands I can't afford.  I look at shaving bowls and scuttles again. I figure a BIG bowl most efficient for lathering without mess and grating soap into. It can have a lid or not. I look at hand hammered copper affairs from Turkey, burlwood from some Colorado studio ( probably still listening to John Denver) and elegant copies of Ming Dynasty ceramics. My wishlist grows huge along with fancy inkbottles. I pause, look at the cash involved. AM I
NUTS? I can wipe out a whole shelf at Phil's if I had that much cash.
I go back into the bathroom, I fight the bond of soap to reopen the Brutalt Bra lid. I wake up, not smelling the roses; but seeing the forest for the trees.
I need to find something to get that last drop of fountain pen ink though.

Yeah.  You're pretty much nuts. 





But in a good way.

Chris, shave-sticks eliminate this problem, quite conveniently, and they might work for ink, as well, but I highly doubt it.

Perhaps shaving moratorium in lieu of new materials?

(05-30-2016, 08:23 AM)kav Wrote: I need to find something to get that last drop of fountain pen ink though.

Go to your local pharmacy and ask for the longest thickest needle/syringe they have.

3 Options:

1. Czech & Speake - No threaded lids, and no dissolvable labels on their top of the line (but very expensive) aluminum containers.

2. Soap Commander and Barrister & Mann - Plastic containers, but the soap is deep enough in them when new, that you shouldn't make a mess outside of the container unless you are lathering while loading like an epileptic madman.

3. Use creams. Problem solved.

(05-30-2016, 08:23 AM)kav Wrote: I look at shaving bowls and scuttles again. I figure a BIG bowl most efficient for lathering without mess and grating soap into. It can have a lid or not. I look at hand hammered copper affairs from Turkey, burlwood from some Colorado studio ( probably still listening to John Denver) and elegant copies of Ming Dynasty ceramics. My wishlist grows huge along with fancy inkbottles. I pause, look at the cash involved.

Luminarc E5607 Stackable Glass Bowl 4" (between $1.50 and $2.00 at my local Ace Hardware; probably more on Amazon.com).  Larger 4.75" and 5.5" sizes also available.  The smaller 3.5" Luminarc rests neatly and perfectly (rim ridge preventing it falling in) into a standard  [font=有澤太楷書]こぶ志焼 [/font](Kobushiyaki) ceramic mug that is full of very hot water, to make a poor man’s scuttle.  

If you need a lid for the 4" Luminarc, a 4.25" lid from a Ziploc Twist 'n Loc Container fits loosely atop the Luminarc bowl, not tightly enough ever to get stuck, but prevents excessive evaporation and allows limited stacking of puck-filled bowls.  

As an interim measure while you seek out the ultimate ink bottle for your fountain pen, the Uni-ball Signo UM-153 model gel ink pen lays down a very bold, but crisp and non-feathering, line very much like the line a proper broad nib fountain pen lays down but with no print-through.  With practice, one also can make a UM-153 lay down a raised line.   The UM-153 is not generally distributed in the United States — more’s the pity — but may be purchased from JetPens on-line at the same time as you are ordering your Uni-ball Vision Elite BLX 0.8 liquid ink pens in purple black.

I can't help you on the inkstands, but I bet you could find a local potter or someone on Etsy would could make you a soap dish to your desired specs.

I personally prefer them to be wide and shallow (to avoid brush clanging), like the one pictured here.




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(05-31-2016, 08:38 PM)Watson15 Wrote: I can't help you on the inkstands, but I bet you could find a local potter or someone on Etsy would could make you a soap dish to your desired specs.

I personally prefer them to be wide and shallow (to avoid brush clanging), like the one pictured here.

My, that is a lovely dish! It seems like you have just finished making a pancake in an iron skillet.

Ha! I should clarify that it is not mine, but one I saw online. I'm not sure I'd go for black, but the dimensions seem practical.

Personally, I plan to put your shave stick suggestion into practice when I need to restock on soap next.





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What? Fountain pen. I would have thought you wrote with a quill.

Geese are my animal spirit guide. I cannot use quills.

(05-31-2016, 09:18 PM)Watson15 Wrote: Ha! I should clarify that it is not mine, but one I saw online. I'm not sure I'd go for black, but the dimensions seem practical.

Personally, I plan to put your shave stick suggestion into practice when I need to restock on soap next.

Good luck with the shave-sticks, then.

If you rub to sticks together, will they burst into lather?

(06-01-2016, 06:21 AM)kav Wrote: If you rub to sticks together, will they burst into lather?

Chris, you need to incorporate a brush for that.