Lather bowl

Just found this on the internet and couldn’t resist from buying it.
What is everyone’s thoughts?

Looks great!

That's very attractive. There has been discussion and disagreement about whether or not the inner texturing of bowls like this can be harmful to a brush. I used a Japanese suribachi (textured grinding bowl) for a little while but became concerned about its effect on my vintage brushes, so I sold it. I now have a lathering bowl from Sara Bonnyman that has subtle spiral texturing that I think it probably safe.

That's a nice looking bowl Kev.may.  It is hard to tell by looking whether the textured interior might harm your brushes.  I use a Helen’s Asian Kitchen Suribachi Bowl.  Like churchilllafemme, I considered the possibility of brush damage, and I think you should too.  But as it happens, I am not worried about brush damage with my particular bowls.  (I now own two of them, one for each of two locations.)  They are very highly textured bowls, but they are always smooth to the touch, no matter how I rub my fingers over them.  That would be my key test:  Rub your fingers over the bowl from every direction and see if it is always smooth to the touch.

Good luck, and enjoy your lovely bowl.

I didn’t realise this could damage your brush, I will do the test that you have mention HighSpeed and i will report any feed back on this page, fingers crossed it should be here Wednesday/Thursday.

I agree with HighSpeed about the finger test. I have two plastic (Timeless and PAA), glass (Fire King) and Marble which are all smooth to the touch. I have finger tested some "shaving bowls" which were ceramic and did have minor sharp edges in the interior ridges. I recently purchased the Helen's Suribachi Bowl with an interior texture. I do not feel that this particular bowl can damage a brush, IMHO. Let us know how your new beautiful bowl works out.

Nice lather bowl.

On the subject of texture and brush damage, I use the captain’s choice bowl with its raised rings most of the time now and my brushes seem ok. I used to use either the Sara bonnyman or Dirty Bird scuttles that have more aggressive textures. I found that the more aggressive textures broke my boar brushes in beautifully and quickly. I don’t use those scuttles with my best badger brushes.
That’s best, badger brushes not best badger brushes although some of my badger brushes are best badger others are not. Confused?

I didn’t realise this could damage your brush, I will do the test that you have mention HighSpeed and i will report any feed back on this page, fingers crossed it should be here Wednesday/Thursday.

I think you are wise to be prudent and check, but remember that (again quoting churchilllafemme) there has been "discussion and disagreement" about this.  I have not been party to that particular discussion.  Instead, I formed my own opinion.  So it was heartening for me to read Captainjonny's post.  IIRC Captainjonny and I have never discussed this, but we reached the same conclusion about the same bowl.  I have another bowl that looks like this:



I stopped using that bowl because the abruptness of the surface changes concerned me.  Like many things in shaving, the best information we have stops short of the best science can do.  So at the end of the day, you have to use your own judgement.  Good luck whatever you decide.

Looking at that bowl is making me wonder what it's original purpose was. Those look like vines of grapes running along the upper portion of the inside of the bowl. I wonder if it is a bowl that is used when tasting wines where you don't swallow the wine and are merely assessing the taste profile of various wines. Those raised impressions don't look like they would be all that abrasive to me. I do feel that the topic of adverse brush wear is a legitimate concern. I have a ceramic hand thrown bowl that was made for me and the swirls on the bottom are pretty pronounced, a little more than I would have liked. Ideally they should be smoothed. Mine aren't sharp but they aren't smooth either. As a result, the bowl doesn't see a lot of use. It is a large bowl so I typically only use it with my large brushes. But the brush that sees the most use with this bowl is my Omega Pro 49 which has been slow to break in. And I really don't see much difference in working up a lather between a totally smooth bowl and one with ridges. Takes about the same amount of time for me and the end result is no different.