Ashamed

That is ashamed to admit I may have been wrong about my dismal view of the North American Williams shave soap puck. Over the years tried many times to get a good lather from it and failed.

For whatever reason decided to give it a go yesterday by trying to bloom it which I never do with a hard puck of shave soap. I covered the puck with water last night before bed, poured the water out this morning, loaded it like I hated it with my Omega boar brush, wet my face and lathered up. Wouldn't you know it, it made a good lather that was slick and stable enough to allow my an excellent 4 pass shave with my straight razor. Left my skin feeling pretty good too. I am going to use for a few days straight to make sure this result is repeatable and not just a fluke. Feeling a little better now having done my mea culpa.

On the up side, I have often thought and said that if a person is having a problem with shaving the culprit is likely staring back at them from the mirror. In this case I just may have been right.

Bob

I too enjoy Williams, Bob.
Soaking the puck is something my barber friend has told me to do many times. It works.!

Williams is Williams, it can't be compared with anything, but itself. You love it, or hate it. Though the vintage was better/ easier to lather. :tu

I still do not think too much of a hard shaving soap puck that needs to be bloomed before it works. You are right about the vintage being better/easier to lather. It lathers well without having to be bloomed.

Bob

Excellent advice! I've got a soap that doesn't lather in a split second, though I don't mind, I like knowing the tricks. This Williams I've never used, maybe I'll get my hands on some.

Good point! In just about everything in life, user error/technique is the reason for success and failure.
If this were not true, then how are others doing it?
This is what I tell myself instead of making excuses.

Thanks for the soaking suggestion!

Bob, I have used Williams since I started straight shaving
I put the puck in an Old Spice mug and leave it there. when I want to use it, I run the water hot from the tap, throw my brush in & strop my razor .
Just a minute or two later, my brush is hydrated and I dump the water out and without shaking my brush out, go to town making lather.
Works up a hell of a froth. If i leave it sit a minute, it thickens to a really great lather.
YMMV of course but this works for me
Mike

While i haven't used Williams in a few years I used it exclusively for 7 years. Soak the brush, bloom the soap. I don't bloom my other soaps but it is not a big deal.

I make it a practice to bloom nearly every soap except the softest soaps, croaps and creams. I put 1 Tablespoon of hot water in the container. I bloom most soaps for about 2 minutes. For hard pucks, I bloom even longer. After blooming, the bloom water goes into my lather bowl. If I face lathered, I would still save the bloom water for wetting my face.

Some soaps are very thirsty and need the water to be introduced slowly. By blooming the soap up front, it seems to me that the soap accepts water more quickly. After blooming, I can load most soaps in 15-30 seconds and generate enough lather for a 3-4 pass shave. Some hard pucks will take up to a minute. With softer soaps, I can generate a lather in about 30 seconds; with hard pucks loading might take a minute or so. If it takes much longer than that, I do not consider the soap to be worthy of remaining in my den.

I love the performance of MWF (excellent slickness, excellent cushion and excellent post-shave), but getting it to lather in my hard water just took too much work, even after blooming. I mailed it to a friend who uses MWF as his daily lather.

Williams is difficult to lather and it does not contain much in the way of ingredients to moisturize and condition my skin after the shave, so it does not hold a spot in my soap rotation. I used to use the vintage version many years ago when I lived in a community that had very soft water. The water is harder where I live now, so I use soaps that have been formulated to work in hard-water.

A drop of Glycerin in the lather, or as a post shave will take care of your skin, Ray. :tu

:D

The Williams solution if you actually like the stuff and want to make it easy

Grate it with a Cheese Grater, press it all back in a tub and move on with life :p


I keep an old coffee cup with a couple of pucks of Williams in there, every now and then I just want to have the nostalgia of when Pops used to shave in the morning..

The Clickity Click of him making lather with either an Old Spice puck or Williams in a mug..

That's the ticket, Bob. I fill the Willie mug with hot water before I strop my razor.
I expect cold would take overnight.

Problem with Williams is we are conditioned to make our stuff last as long as possible.
With Williams, you have to try to use it up all at once!
Hey! It's Cheap! It's great! Get it on! :)

Love Williams Mug shave soap. I have lots of it in stock. With a little glycerin and aloe vera gel, it makes great lather and delivers a consistent shave.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in love with modern Williams Mug shaving soap. I am trying to think of another consumer product that users would abide if you had to add a little of this and a little of that and treat it just so in order for it to perform the way it should without having to do all that. Especially when competing products do not require all that messing about to get the job done. It is a puzzle but I am usually dazed and confused anyway.

Bob

As long as I give it some softening-up, it works just fine.
Just like Arko, I think.

Yea, looks like all I have to do is bloom Modern Williams Mug soap for it to work. I still far and away prefer Arko lather and I have never had to bloom that just load and lather away.

Bob

Not the same thing, but I have taken to to putting 1/4 inch of hot water in a mug and standing my stick up in it while I strop my razor. Makes my Arko go on really easy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

Not the same thing, but I have taken to to putting 1/4 inch of hot water in a mug and standing my stick up in it while I strop my razor. Makes my Arko go on really easy.

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That must hurt putting your stick in hot water. ;) Couldn't pass that yp

Bob

GAAAA! :eek:

My ARKO stick, Bob! ARKO stick! :rofl2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

GAAAA! :eek:

My ARKO stick, Bob! ARKO stick! :rofl2:

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Ooooooooh


Bob

damn Tom, your a tougher man than me,, i dont like hot water on my stick

i have used Williams in the past,, it like old spice wa what was available. like many it will do the job, but then again so will Ivory soap bars. this i will say, if i have to add anything to a soap let it sit around in water, or anything other than load my brush and lather, then i,m sorry if this offends but it wont be in the shave den. if it needs glycerin, then buy a soap with enough in it. and its nothing to do with it being a cheap soap,, i can lather Arko without doing that. if you like it then thats great, too me i dont use soaps to play with them, i just lather and shave, and the ones i use today dont take any effort, even in the crap water in New Mexico, or elsewhere. besides there are better soaps for the same money, just saying. Tc

So reading through all of this gave me an idea. I grated some of the arko stick and blended it with grated williams mug soap, added some coconut oil, glycerin, aloe vera gel. heated it in a pan until was nice and soft. Made some almost cream out of it. Going to try this tomorrow and see how it works!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tcrideshd

damn Tom, your a tougher man than me,, i dont like hot water on my stick

i have used Williams in the past,, it like old spice wa what was available. like many it will do the job, but then again so will Ivory soap bars. this i will say, if i have to add anything to a soap let it sit around in water, or anything other than load my brush and lather, then i,m sorry if this offends but it wont be in the shave den. if it needs glycerin, then buy a soap with enough in it. and its nothing to do with it being a cheap soap,, i can lather Arko without doing that. if you like it then thats great, too me i dont use soaps to play with them, i just lather and shave, and the ones i use today dont take any effort, even in the crap water in New Mexico, or elsewhere. besides there are better soaps for the same money, just saying. Tc

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Oh-Oh, knocking the pure waters of New Mexico again.

The next time you come here we're gonna tie you to a log and float you down the Pecos in Roswell and by the time the log passes Carlsbad you will have long dissolved.

Har har.

There are so many great soaps at great prices why even bother with a handicapped soap to begin with?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Oh-Oh, knocking the pure waters of New Mexico again.

There are so many great soaps at great prices why even bother with a handicapped soap to begin with?

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You are correct. There are great soaps at great prices and I use them. However, the williams and arko were gifts (FREE) so I'll make do with them and thus not offend the buyer (Wife Unit). Win / Win

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johntoad57

So reading through all of this gave me an idea. I grated some of the arko stick and blended it with grated williams mug soap, added some coconut oil, glycerin, aloe vera gel. heated it in a pan until was nice and soft. Made some almost cream out of it. Going to try this tomorrow and see how it works!

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You are making your own soap!

If it works call it Artisan and charge $100 USD for it.....;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Oh-Oh, knocking the pure waters of New Mexico again.

The next time you come here we're gonna tie you to a log and float you down the Pecos in Roswell and by the time the log passes Carlsbad you will have long dissolved.

Har har.

There are so many great soaps at great prices why even bother with a handicapped soap to begin with?

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depends on which time of the year if there is enough water in the Pecos.. i know down around Mentone there aint enough to float a log on!

i will admit to purchasing a puck of williams every couple of years or so just for the fun of it.. i do fully whip up the lather in the mug with the soap in it. it's an alright shave, i mostly enjoy the scent, and always finish with a splash of aqua velva.

i'll typically finish the puck by using it as body soap in the shower. then i forget about it for another year or two.

I recently got a new brush and this brush acts very different to the soaps than the ones that I used previously.

I am starting to think that some of these differences with the soaps are the brushes that are used.:shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 32t

I am starting to think that some of these differences with the soaps are the brushes that are used.:shrug:

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IME this is huge.

Ive found that a brush changes drastically after broken in. A brush can make a difference in soap performance.

Yes, different brushes do perform differently, even if they are the same type of knot material. It's when you can't get any of them to lather a particular soap you really have to wonder. Especially if you have no trouble using them to lather up other soaps.

Bob

I havent used Williams as a shave soap in quite a long time.. Since I shaved about 18hrs ago i decided before i go to bed im going to give it my review.. Set up as normal and wrung out my brush and went to the bar for a 2 passer.. 15min later and i have finished... Well, I dont like to give bad reviews on soaps because i know that shaving soaps really can be different strokes for different folks.. But!! Its really amazing how fast the lather of Williams just dissapears right before your eyes :).. I lathered half my face and was ok with it and i looked down, grabbed my razor, got the blade wet and when i looked in the mirror the lather was almost gone!! Now the ok thing was the slickness and a tiny layer if protection i was able to slowly and with utmost attention made a 2 pass shave to pretty decent result.... Would i use Williams over any other in my cabinet? Only the few that irritate and a few soaps that i need to dispose of because of smelling like too much fat (tallow) or maybe a couple hot summers broke the fat down.... Anyway all is not lost for Williams... I found that used as a preshave it has been awesome!! Out of the shower, splash face with warm water, rub said Williams in palms and lather quite wet onto face, get blade, shave soap/cream, towels, bowl/mug in place and ready for shave.. I run 1 palm full of warm water on to face rinsing most of the Williams off and then onto my SR shave of the morning... Ive found the $1.09 puck of Williams has been my best pre-shave for a nice, comfortable and slick shave, has cut down on little nicks and weepers too... Thnx, SMW