Thread: 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.

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.

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


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!