Has William's been discontinued? How could I have missed this? I was a faithful Williams user for years. If it is no longer in production then it is the end of an era. Has a national holiday been declared yet?
Did I miss the memo?
- Thread starter Rusty Blade
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Yup it's gone. Lots of discussion in this thread -
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Post #657 Combe Email Confirming Williams Mug Shave Soap Discontinued
Never got to try it.
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Actually Williams shave soap appears to be more highly valued now than it was before Combe discontinued it. Just look at the prices on Amazon that are approaching $20 per puck. I'm surprised we haven't seen it in the BST since it was discontinued. YMMV on Williams, I find it to be an excellent soap when lathered correctly with a stiff boar brush.
Often when products are discontinued a lot of people who were never particularly interested suddenly start to chase after and hoard them as if they were Picassos, and they are suddenly lauded as the best things ever made, even though they weren’t liked enough for it to be worth the manufacturers still making them.
Haven’t noticed any of that with Williams soap. It seems like most people are genuinely glad it’s gone. So for the few who enjoyed it, maybe they can find some still and it won’t be expensive.
Haven’t noticed any of that with Williams soap. It seems like most people are genuinely glad it’s gone. So for the few who enjoyed it, maybe they can find some still and it won’t be expensive.
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I used William's for decades. It was a fine soap, but then I discovered newer soaps and I haven't used William's in 6 or 7 years. Fortunately I still have a few pucks of William's, so I can show them to my kids. Sorry to hear it's gone. It was/is a legend.
Williams was the only shave soap I could find when I started wet shaving. I liked it then and it has been my main soap since. Used it today. I am sad it's gone but there are certainly worthy replacements. I like Arko (cheap) and Mitchell's Wool Fat (a puck lasts a long time). I have my fair share of artisan soaps but none that I would use daily. Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.
I traveled 45 miles to get some Williams soap, and another forum member had to travel over 60 miles. You are correct to say YMMV.
I am just glad that I got my hands on some of the Fine Accoutrements classic pucks when I found out that they were being discontinued.
Williams was my first soap upon returning to wet DE shaving three years ago as it was the most similar product to what I recall my grandfather using. We could buy it for 99 cents at our local supermarket before discontinuation. It's remained a key part of my rotation since then.
While having plenty of Williams I decided to stock up on Arko and Mitchells Wool Fat after Williams was discontinued as, as you have found, they perform very well. For me Mitchell's is the closest to Williams in core shaving performance with the added benefits of a mild pleasing aroma and a bit better post shave feel. Arko is slightly softer enabling easier lather generation and one of the best values out there now.
Surprisingly, when purchased from Connaught Shaving Mitchell's is only around $6 U.S. (5.25 GBP ex. VAT) for its 4.4 oz. puck thanks to a recent drop in exchange rates. That comes to only around $2.40 U.S. for the 1.75 oz. in a Williams puck that ranged from $1-$2 before it was discontinued. At that price Mitchell's is a bargain and one of the best alternatives to Williams. Since it can store for years I recently picked up around a dozen pucks over two different orders.
Yeah. End of an era. I have several pucks of Williams I bought a while ago. Palmolive lather cream also discontinued (that was years ago)…I have a few tubes if that as well.
The Palmolive stick is gone but the creams (Classic, Sensitive, Menthol) are still kicking, at least in Europe.
Williams was my main soap for years as it was cheaper than Old Spice and back then was reasonably easy to lather. I had not used it for years and bought one of the new pucks and just really struggled to make lather. I stumbled onto on of the old ones when cleaning out a bathroom drawer when moving, and behold it behaved as I remembered.
YMMV, but as I posted earlier, in my opinion, when Williams was discontinued, it wasn't worth having.
I do enjoy MWF, but I can hardly equate it to Williams. Once I got the hang of lathering MWF, it was as easy as lathering Tabac.
Anyway, I won't miss Williams.
YMMV, but as I posted earlier, in my opinion, when Williams was discontinued, it wasn't worth having.
I do enjoy MWF, but I can hardly equate it to Williams. Once I got the hang of lathering MWF, it was as easy as lathering Tabac.
Anyway, I won't miss Williams.
There are a number of Palmolive variants still around. I am referring to the formula in my avatar, which I believe was discontinued many years ago.
I enjoy MWF as well. I’ve never had any issues getting a good lather from it. I definitely wouldn’t try to equate the most recent formula of Williams to MWF but not sure about some of the older formulas though. Need to get a new puck of MWF soon
With Williams gone, B Pure from the Dollar Tree may be the alternative, inexpensive soap.
I realize everything here is a YMMV thing, but everything people seem to complain about I like. I love the smell of Arko, I love the smell of The Veg, and I think Williams made a wonderful lather.
"Lathered correctly" is the key proviso. I found it doable if I used the puck every day, but if it sat for a while, it dried out and then required some patience and/or effort to get it going again. When I finally got the lather going, the shave was good, and so, surprisingly, was the post-shave feel. But I found the citronella scent cheap and unpleasant, and there are soaps with wonderful mild scents that lather almost immediately and give fine shaves, so for me, Williams wasn't needed. Also, Combe concentrates on new product development and apparently bought the Williams line just to bring in a consistent income stream while they try to develop those new products. My guess is the historic Williams brand will disappear entirely soon enough.
Hi Mozartman, What kind of brush did you use and what is your typical lathering technique? Regarding the scent, that's a personal preference though in an open mug my frustration was that the scent almost completely disappeared in a week to 10 days.
Williams is actually pretty simple, you just need to build the lather directly on the dry puck with a boar brush. For me Mitchell's Wool Fat (MWF) work well the same way. Suspect these really hard triple milled old school pucks were designed for that approach. While agree YMMV I suspect where many run into problems with the really hard pucks (defined as so hard they are not malleable like say Arko is and will crumble before reshaping to fit a container) is they try to use them like softer croap like soaps where you can often load in 10 - 15 seconds.
Posted in detail on this a while back. MWF is my only other soap that is as hard as Williams (same top three ingredients). All my other soaps, while still typically triple milled, are slightly softer and maleable. This includes soaps such as Razorock What the Puck, Arko, and new formula Tabac. Am able to easily lather those with my synthetic brushes. The same with my custom Van Der Williams Blends. Wonder if one of the objectives with all the new formulations was to create a slightly softer puck for easier lathering so as to better compete with the often croap-like artisan soaps that load in seconds.
The Secret to Easy Williams Mug Soap Thick Lather: A Good Quality/Low Cost Boar Brush
Hi Everyone. My new quality Blondie boar brush easily produces excellent lather from a puck of Williams Mug shave soap. Details as follows: Background: I've been a fan of Williams Mug Shave Soap since my return to DE shaving a couple years ago thanks to its glide and slickness. Also it is the...
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I agree with all of that. Williams was a classic hard soap, the other side of the spectrum from the now also discontinued tallow Tabac (I haven't gotten to new formula Tabac yet). But I found if I gradually added the right amount of water to Williams, I got a good result, especially if I used it every day, and the type of brush didn't much matter. It was just more time consuming. I've been using another classic tallow soap, Cella, that is more or less in the middle. It is harder than Tabac and needs more water, but not nearly as much as Williams. It doesn't sound like MWF is for me, but I'll probably give it a try at some point.Hi Mozartman, What kind of brush did you use and what is your typical lathering technique? Regarding the scent, that's a personal preference though in an open mug my frustration was that the scent almost completely disappeared in a week to 10 days.
Williams is actually pretty simple, you just need to build the lather directly on the dry puck with a boar brush. For me Mitchell's Wool Fat (MWF) work well the same way. Suspect these really hard triple milled old school pucks were designed for that approach. While agree YMMV I suspect where many run into problems with the really hard pucks (defined as so hard they are not malleable like say Arko is and will crumble before reshaping to fit a container) is they try to use them like softer croap like soaps where you can often load in 10 - 15 seconds.
Posted in detail on this a while back. MWF is my only other soap that is as hard as Williams (same top three ingredients). All my other soaps, while still typically triple milled, are slightly softer and maleable. This includes soaps such as Razorock What the Puck, Arko, and new formula Tabac. Am able to easily lather those with my synthetic brushes. The same with my custom Van Der Williams Blends. Wonder if one of the objectives with all the new formulations was to create a slightly softer puck for easier lathering so as to better compete with the often croap-like artisan soaps that load in seconds.
The Secret to Easy Williams Mug Soap Thick Lather: A Good Quality/Low Cost Boar Brush
Hi Everyone. My new quality Blondie boar brush easily produces excellent lather from a puck of Williams Mug shave soap. Details as follows: Background: I've been a fan of Williams Mug Shave Soap since my return to DE shaving a couple years ago thanks to its glide and slickness. Also it is the...
