Repent Williams bashers, repent!

[jcs266]

I just ordered another 5 pucks also

 

[Bookworm]

Ordered? You can't get them locally?

 

[jcs266]

Ordered? You can't get them locally?

I haven't seen it in my local drug stores - they do have VDH though and I buy that locally. Plus I live 35+ miles from the nearest drug store, so Amazon is my friend

 

[Bookworm]

Ah - I get it from the grocery store. Fiesta (In Texas) has them on the shelf for $1.19 a puck, as I recall. You might check some of the smaller grocery stores, especially ones aimed for the Hispanic population. (That's what Fiesta is)

 

[Jwwsac]

I had a less than mediocre experience with Williams way back when and I tossed it. Then I saw this thread and especially Seraphim's post ( his postings on sharpening SRs with lapping films got me started down the SR Rabbit Hole from which I still haven't recovered from) I thought I'd give the old puck another try. After couple of failed attempts and re-reading the posts again, I also found the magic formula. LOTS of water! Way more than what I usually use for my other soaps. The results are exactly as posted. Thick, rich and long-lasting lather. It's a bit less slick than Tabac but it actually works better with my current tool of choice (IBC Shavette with Feather DE blade).

 

[TheVez2]

Congrats!

 

[Guitar10]

I dont have to repent, I used it and it works for me.

 

[SGWB]

Ah - I get it from the grocery store. Fiesta (In Texas) has them on the shelf for $1.19 a puck, as I recall. You might check some of the smaller grocery stores, especially ones aimed for the Hispanic population. (That's what Fiesta is)

You never know where you will find it. Here in NE Ohio I thought it was unobtainable locally. Then last month I spotted it in a Heinen's, which is a local higher-end grocery chain, at the cheap enough price of $1.29.

 

[ColonelHogan]

I've heard that Pharmapacks is the best buy online if you want to buy Williams in bulk.

 

[Big Jim]

I shaved with my hybrid Williams / SFIC combination again today and found it most pleasant. I won't be throwing this away.

 

[Rusty Blade]

I shaved with Williams exclusively for 40 years before I discovered the forums and online shopping. It is an awesome soap if you use it regularly. It is a thirsty soap and it is the one soap that if used infrequently needs to be bloomed. Everyone goes on about vintage Williams being great...and yea, it was, but new Williams is a fine soap as well. I always keep an extra half dozen pucks in my soap drawer on reserve for when the Shaveapocalypse starts.

 

[Disburden]

Eh.. that's the thing with Williams, the lather is quite unstable for me. It works but I can't take too much time.


I can shave with Williams just fine, but many artisans have given me far better performance.

If you're losing the lather because it's unstable then you gotta work at it more. It shouldn't dissolve on you.

 

[Guitar10]

Here's the lather I get from Williams(modern) all the time. Just a slick, cushion stable lather who doesn't disapear.

 

[Guitar10]

Everybody seems to have their own recipe for getting Williams to work. For me it works best when starting with a shaken out brush and load till it begins to stick to the puck and then add a few drops more. This way I don't get all the bubbles (and don't need a lot of time and action to get rid of them again) with only little more loading time than with Tabac . I face-lather with slowly adding more water by dipping the tips in hot water every now and then till I get the lather that I want. Time contributes to a good Williams lather and the lather for the second and third pass are even better. I never get disappearing lather and it doesn't dry out either.

I do the same thing but me I bowl lather, when I bloom my puck I put very hot water over my puck(about 1/2" over the puck) for about 5 to 10 min and the results are just great

 

[psfred]

Williams lathers up just fine, but it takes more work to get there. Using it every day, especially if you deposit the excess lather on top of it and leave it for the next day will soften it up and allow you to get good lather in less time.

 

[vespergo]

The one thing that I've noticed with Williams is that even if the lather doesn't look legit, it's still very slick.

 

[bobskins]

i put my Williams in my Turkish copper bowl, get a great lather; however, nothing like the ones pictured here, just get a good start to face lather for my 2 passes.

there's always a plan B.

 

[vespergo]

I think I might try it as a preshave this week, just to throw down some nice slickness on some soaps that lack it.

 

[jcs266]

I bloom the soap in my Old Spice mug with hot water as my brush soaks. It takes maybe 20 seconds to load the brush. I face lather for 10 seconds and do a two pass shave.

 

[Guitar10]

So, feeling vindicated, those Europeans have some sort of damn specail water over there or some such..... I went to clean up this sorry mess.

I whipped the brush around in the bowl for a bit to see if it would come back to life.

It didn't.

So, I squeezed out most of the lather(?) from the brush, and deposited it atop the puck to allow it to ferment, and hopefully soften up that damn waxy puck for next time.

Then, for kicks, I ran the brush under the faucet, and then furiously beat the bejeebers out of it in my lather bowl (I haven't bowl lathered in a couple of years, BTW, but it's the best way to generate lather for pics).
Note: the bowl had also already been rinsed out.

Whoah.....whoooooooAAAH!.........WOOOOOOOOAAAH! What to my wondering eyes should appear? A mereingue like thick creamy lather! What the puck? It was 11pm, and I wasn't believing my own eyes. But indeed, a copius lather was building right there. I had not reloaded the brush, as I said, I had actually UN-loaded it prior to this second whipping, and ran the brush under the faucet in a slap-dash manner after that.

OK, fine. But the accursed Williams lather has a half life of about 5 minutes at best right? Especially with what would appear to be an overhydrated condition I had concocted.

Up is now down.

Black is white.

See for yourself. Even after 20 minutes of sitting on the sink.

I need a drink!

To my experience I never any problem whit modern Williams, but exept maybe a year ago that it seem that the only lather I got from it was a bublely lather. So at that time I did used my puck for shower use, my method whit Williams(modern) is a pre soak for 5 to 10 min in very hot water and I get very good thick slick and cushion lather. For some reason this new puck that I use right now did the same thing(bubbly lather) so I decided to do the same thing has you did. WOW the results where amazing, the lather was to my opinion as good as the vintage Williams. Not just the shave but the post shave was just amazing, thank's for the tip. Gino