Review (5/5): An excellent soap, and much less tempermental than I thought it would be
I've been trying out new shaving soaps, and this was the latest one after trying Tabac (really loved that one too). From all of the reviews I've seen here I thought it would be tempermental to work with, but it wasn't that bad at all. In fact, if you can get a good lather out of Williams shaving soap (and yes, it can be done), then lathering with Mitchell's Wool Fat is a snap by comparison.
The big thing to remember is that just like Williams and Tabac, this is a hard-milled, tallow-based soap, and unlike the glycerin-based soaps of Van Der Hagen or Colonel Conk, a tallow soap needs to be used with lots of water, and the hotter you can get that water, the better the lather and cushion will be.
The big secret to getting great lather when I use this soap-or any other tallow soap-is to fill the bowl it's in with boiling hot water until it's about 1/2inch over the soap and let it soak for at least 5 minutes before lathering. After that the soap is properly hydrated and will work very well with whatever brush you use in your daily routine, just be sure to dump out the water before you lather up.
Some people have compared the scent to Williams, and it definitely has a "clean" scent, but it's not nearly as "cleaning product-y" to my nose. My wife REALLY likes the scent a lot, too, so it's a winner in my book. Will definitely buy again.