I am finally ready to admit it- I hate Williams Mug Soap!

[BigD]

View attachment 1212406
I admit, there is a learning curve to using this soap, but it can give dense lather once you’ve figured it out. I used to use this with catridge razors back in college, and it was fairly decent back then

I find it just gets better with constant use.

 

[Shavetheman01]

I find it just gets better with constant use.

This soap does love to absorb water, and I have to start lathering with a brush that’s squeezed out.

I wouldn’t take this for traveling though. Because its not as convenient as a soap stick

 

[BigD]

Rockwell 6S Matte Black and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Rockwell 6S Matte Black (R6, R5, and R4)/Merkur Mustache and Eyebrow Razor
Blade: Lord Platinum (3)/Mustache and Eyebrow Blade (??)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Ice Blue (US)
ASB: Aqua Velva 5 in 1 (US)

Happy Sunday.

 

[BigD]

Rockwell 6S Matte Black and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva Musk.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Rockwell 6S Matte Black (R6, R5, R4, and R3)
Blade: Lord Platinum (4)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Musk

Monday is upon us. Make it Musky and fantastic!

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (1)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva (US in Eur Bottle)
ASB: Aqua Velva 5 in 1 (US)

Tuesday is upon us, eyes forward.

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva Musk.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (2)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Musk

Happy Williams Wednesday!

 

[Lord NSIC]

I read through this thread yesterday, and while I've had middling success with Williams, I realized I hadn't used a boar with it, so I pulled it out yesterday to do a test lather and noticed that the puck was loose in my OS mug. When I pulled it out, I noticed that the bottom of the puck was still moist and soft and pliable from the last time I used it ten days or more ago (I use an old canned frosting plastic lid over a late '70s OS mug to keep it from losing scent/drying out). I flipped the soap and pressed it back into the mug and without blooming, the test lather I got with a near dry boar brush resulted in nice thick lather both last night and this morning. I find that Williams, while maybe not a lather monster, is a very slick, protective soap that is very affordable with a classic scent.

 

[Tpach]

View attachment 1208977

Who says Williams doesn't lather? I brush the soap until most of the air bubbles disappear and start off with a squeezed out brush. I feel like this soap works best when used everyday. The more you soak the puck each day, the easier it becomes.

Not exactly a "yogurt" lather, but it becomes more of a white paste once you get it dense enough

Resembles my Williams soap bowl lol dollar store ramekin

I also get same type of lather

 

[skibik]

I saw this thread the other day but didn't read through it. I was in the drugstore store yesterday and since my Dad's birthday is coming up next month(he's been gone for just over 2 decades and this was the soap he used, old formula, his birthday will mark 100 years) and decided to give it another try so I bought a puck. I tried it when I was fairly new to DE shaving 5 years ago and ended up tossing it out. Since then I thought I have a lot of lathering under the belt and I thought I should give it a shot. So after work I grab my VDH mug and dropped it in, hot tap water on top and let it soak while I prepped the face. Broke out the synthetic since the last time I tried was with my Silvertip badger and that didn't work. The synthetic is soft and has nice backbone so I can crank on it if needed. Prep was done so I drained off the bloom, soap had a nice sticky layer on it so time to load the brush. I thought I rung out just about all the water. Foam explosion, threw out a most of that, kept loading for what seemed like well over a minute and just keep getting this airy foam. I squeezed all the foam out of the brush and started to reload for another minute or more. I can't get the brush to pull up a paste like any other soap I load for 20-30 seconds. I thought I had enough loaded, so now I have to face lather because both my scuttle and lather bowl have remnants of soap that I don't want to waste, especially the SV chunk. I begin to face lather and nothing, I go back to loading more soap, another minute. Back to face lathering and just get this bubbly foam that dissipates 10 seconds after I set the brush down. I load another 2 minutes worth and now have a somewhat thick paste on the brush and try to smear that on my face and even that dries up. Add a few drop of water and it goes from paste to foam and dries up. I literally loaded for another 2 minutes, back to face lathering and I get somewhat close to a lather that I can use. By this time I have face lathered so much my face is beginning to hurt. I managed to get my usual 2 1/2 passes done, ended up with a decent shave but my face is so irritated now even the AS stung bad. I come to clean the razor and the slots are plugged from the thicker lather. I have never plugged a razor with any other soap I have ever used.

Conclusion, I am with the OP and I can say right now I hate it. I have hard water and that might be the problem. Next month I will give it another shot on or around my Dad's birthday and will use my lather bowl to see if I can get a thicker lather that everyone that likes it seems to get. I just don't see me using it after next month since I can't see spending over 10 minutes to make a usable lather when I have 25 others that I can get there is less than 3 minutes.

kudos to those that can get this stuff to work. So far I can't.

 

[Chandu]

I saw this thread the other day but didn't read through it. I was in the drugstore store yesterday and since my Dad's birthday is coming up next month(he's been gone for just over 2 decades and this was the soap he used, old formula, his birthday will mark 100 years) and decided to give it another try so I bought a puck. I tried it when I was fairly new to DE shaving 5 years ago and ended up tossing it out. Since then I thought I have a lot of lathering under the belt and I thought I should give it a shot. So after work I grab my VDH mug and dropped it in, hot tap water on top and let it soak while I prepped the face. Broke out the synthetic since the last time I tried was with my Silvertip badger and that didn't work. The synthetic is soft and has nice backbone so I can crank on it if needed. Prep was done so I drained off the bloom, soap had a nice sticky layer on it so time to load the brush. I thought I rung out just about all the water. Foam explosion, threw out a most of that, kept loading for what seemed like well over a minute and just keep getting this airy foam. I squeezed all the foam out of the brush and started to reload for another minute or more. I can't get the brush to pull up a paste like any other soap I load for 20-30 seconds. I thought I had enough loaded, so now I have to face lather because both my scuttle and lather bowl have remnants of soap that I don't want to waste, especially the SV chunk. I begin to face lather and nothing, I go back to loading more soap, another minute. Back to face lathering and just get this bubbly foam that dissipates 10 seconds after I set the brush down. I load another 2 minutes worth and now have a somewhat thick paste on the brush and try to smear that on my face and even that dries up. Add a few drop of water and it goes from paste to foam and dries up. I literally loaded for another 2 minutes, back to face lathering and I get somewhat close to a lather that I can use. By this time I have face lathered so much my face is beginning to hurt. I managed to get my usual 2 1/2 passes done, ended up with a decent shave but my face is so irritated now even the AS stung bad. I come to clean the razor and the slots are plugged from the thicker lather. I have never plugged a razor with any other soap I have ever used.

Conclusion, I am with the OP and I can say right now I hate it. I have hard water and that might be the problem. Next month I will give it another shot on or around my Dad's birthday and will use my lather bowl to see if I can get a thicker lather that everyone that likes it seems to get. I just don't see me using it after next month since I can't see spending over 10 minutes to make a usable lather when I have 25 others that I can get there is less than 3 minutes.

kudos to those that can get this stuff to work. So far I can't.

Even the dissipating lather will shave me as it's slick, but it's too much work for what it is these days. The only thing that might improve your experience next time, is to keep the puck in a sealed container, but a little (teaspoon) water on top of it and seal until you use. Williams works best as a daily driver. Sealing it with some moisture will somewhat replicate that. Oh, also if you have access to some distilled or probably any bottled water, try that over your tap water.

It's sad Williams has come to this. And I know good and well, it could not cost more than pennies per puck for them to make a much better lathering soap. They deserve the bad press and eventual discontinuation of this soap. I like it for the nostalgia, but that is not strong enough to overcome poor quality.

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva Musk.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (3)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Musk

Have a Great Thursday!

 

[skibik]

Even the dissipating lather will shave me as it's slick, but it's too much work for what it is these days. The only thing that might improve your experience next time, is to keep the puck in a sealed container, but a little (teaspoon) water on top of it and seal until you use. Williams works best as a daily driver. Sealing it with some moisture will somewhat replicate that. Oh, also if you have access to some distilled or probably any bottled water, try that over your tap water.

It's sad Williams has come to this. And I know good and well, it could not cost more than pennies per puck for them to make a much better lathering soap. They deserve the bad press and eventual discontinuation of this soap. I like it for the nostalgia, but that is not strong enough to overcome poor quality.

I could try sealing it with some water but I would be afraid it would turn moldy if I did that. I think I still have some distilled water left I might try that. It was nostalgia that got me to buy it for a second time. I thought with 5 years of lathering since the last time I tried it I thought I could lather anything but I guess I was wrong. My scuttle will be free again in the next shave and will use that. My lather bowl will be tied up for a while, I cut a pretty good sized chunk of SV 70th anniversary and put in that(I cut or shave my hard soaps that way I don't need to get wet due to one I had getting black spots on it). I will not try a face lather again with this soap.

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (4)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Ice Blue
ASB: Aqua Velva 5 in 1

Friday is here!

 

[Chandu]

I could try sealing it with some water but I would be afraid it would turn moldy if I did that.

It won't. I'm not talking about making a swimming pool out of the container, just take a teaspoon of water and pour on the puck and seal it. That water will absorb into the puck over time. I do the same thing with my MWF soap to keep it from breaking apart and so that it's easier to get a lather with when I use it infrequently.

I would not suggest doing this with artisan soaps that are croaps, superfatted, lacking in preservatives etc, but for Williams, no issue.

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (5)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Ice Blue
ASB: Aqua Velva 5 in 1

Saturday is here!

 

[Egmont]

I went through a puck some years ago (3017 style) and found it usable but fussy. After the first week I loaded heavily then added a drop of KMF for the rest of the shaves with wms. When I finished the puck I shaved with the KMF and it was far better than wms alone or wms +KMF.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco Titan (6)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS: Aqua Velva Ice Blue
ASB: Aqua Velva 5 in 1

Happy Sunday!

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Vintage Williams is and has been my favorite for the last decade or so, followed closely by the new version. Been away for awhile but in previous discussions in the past it was believed that having a water softener helps with the new version, which I believe to be true. I have one and have no problem getting very good lather with minimal effort, my son on the other hand doesn't have one and had to work a lot harder at his house to get acceptable results.

 

[sexy beast]

Williams is one of my favorites at cost. Cella is too. I Soak some hot water in a mug with Williams and boar brush while taking a shower. By the time I’m prepared my razor, the soap is softened with a milk clouded of water. “I believe some call this bloom”. I pour out the water and whip up a very good creaming foam with a boar brush. Very effective when you have to do couple of passes with razor. You have plenty to work with. The leather stays warm in the process and you can add or take away “water” the density of the foam. I love it.

 

[BigD]

Alpha Outlaw and Modern Williams with Aqua Velva Musk.

Prep: Hot Shower
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Alpha Outlaw
Blade: Dorco ST-301 (1)
Brush: Zenith S series
AS/EdC: Aqua Velva Musk

Monday is here. Get on it!