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Lathering Modern Williams Mug - Pretty Easy!

I started out shaving in '63 with Williams, it was a fast lathering great soap, loved this old now vintage soap. I do use the new Williams in my rotation but only when I want to take the time to build a good lather, it does give me a slick long lasting lather but not as great as the vintage. I have some vintage Williams that I've been comparing to the modern Williams. Modern gives a good lather but Vintage wins every time
1963 for me as well, and the exact same story !!!
 
1963 for me as well, and the exact same story !!!

I bought a dozen of Williams Mug soap and figured it needed help if to be used as a daily soap. So I mixed it with Dove bath soap by grating one puck of Williams and half bar of Dove and mixing both together and pressing it into my bowl. Williams/Dove mix gives a great long lasting, hydrating, slick soap. So far I've tried Shea Butter, Tangerine and Cucumber. When on vacation I had forgotten my regular shave soap so I used the hotel supplied soap that was Dove, not the best shave soap but was quick to lather and slick. I think the new Williams and Dove compliment each other. Yes I know, Mixing Williams is a no no.
 
Williams is actually not hard to lather once the puck starts softening.

The issue I have with it is the crazy amount of soap scum I got on my razor. But that could be because I was using the full-sink method. If you are going to use it, rinse the razor in clean water.
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
I bought a dozen of Williams Mug soap and figured it needed help if to be used as a daily soap. So I mixed it with Dove bath soap by grating one puck of Williams and half bar of Dove and mixing both together and pressing it into my bowl. Williams/Dove mix gives a great long lasting, hydrating, slick soap. So far I've tried Shea Butter, Tangerine and Cucumber. When on vacation I had forgotten my regular shave soap so I used the hotel supplied soap that was Dove, not the best shave soap but was quick to lather and slick. I think the new Williams and Dove compliment each other. Yes I know, Mixing Williams is a no no.
Yes, that is why I would never advocate mixing Williams with Arko to get Wilko, or just using a dab of Cremo to get the Williams started. I only bought 10 pucks of Williams, I wanted to leave one on the shelf for the next guy.
 
Yes, that is why I would never advocate mixing Williams with Arko to get Wilko, or just using a dab of Cremo to get the Williams started. I only bought 10 pucks of Williams, I wanted to leave one on the shelf for the next guy.

Must be tired. Saw this and wondered what we'd have to add to make Roger Wilko.
 
Yes, that is why I would never advocate mixing Williams with Arko to get Wilko, or just using a dab of Cremo to get the Williams started. I only bought 10 pucks of Williams, I wanted to leave one on the shelf for the next guy.

Arko never needs to be mixed. One of my favorite soaps

Even though Williams gives a good lather, it's not the soap that it once was. Mixing a Half bar of Dove Bath soap with Williams makes it the soap it once was.
 
I’ve been reading here about the modern Williams being hard to lather and overall quite sucky for a few years now. So tonight I tried it. And I gotta say.....it’s pretty darn easy to lather! Damp brush, lots of soap, aggressive face lather. Plenty of lather for 2 shaves. Smooth shave. Pleasant scent. For the price it is easily a top preforming soap in my book.

See for yourself!

It is easy to lather. I will from time to time I will put a dab of OC Bigalow cream in the bowl to enhance the lather.
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
Arko never needs to be mixed. One of my favorite soaps

Even though Williams gives a good lather, it's not the soap that it once was. Mixing a Half bar of Dove Bath soap with Williams makes it the soap it once was.
I agree that Arko is great on it's own, but it does mix well with Williams. I have been using MWF for the last two weeks, and just used Williams on it's own tonight with my Cremo horse hair brush, and got a very nice shave. Tomorrow Arko!
 
Bought a puck the other day, this is the third time I've done this. The first two times I gave up on it, but this time I grated it into a bowl and added a little water so it would pack nicely. 2nd shave today and 2nd spectacular lather and shave. Maybe it just needed to be hydrated a bit but the lather is creamy and slick and doesn't dissipate.

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Williams is actually not hard to lather once the puck starts softening.

The issue I have with it is the crazy amount of soap scum I got on my razor. But that could be because I was using the full-sink method. If you are going to use it, rinse the razor in clean water.
This was my experience this week. I let the puck sit for about 5 days because I was bowl lathering some Proraso Blue and that first time back to the Williams puck took extra water and about an extra 45 seconds to a minute to get the soap loaded onto my brush. It worked great still, but I could see that being irritating to a new shaver that didn't know that about Williams. I used the puck again today and it lathered great, so I think that the top layer dries out fairly quickly and that has to be broken through to get an easy use out of this soap. Again, everyone loads and uses soap differently, so each person is going to have different experiences, but I find that Williams has a small Window of awesome that has to be found with different techniques for the water, brush, and what not everyone has. That's my experience so far. Hope yours are great though.
 
Used Williams this morning with a synthetic brush and my father's lather method: wet the brush and make the lather in the mug. The mug was the short one Old Spice came out with in the 1970s, and the lather will come out if you don't watch it. Today some ended up on the handle. Had plenty and didn't bother wiping it off while I shaved.

Applied to my face with a circular motion. Did a bit of face lathering. Nice slickness but the lather went away, but the lather on the brush didn't. Two more passes Just because. Each time the lather on my face vanished, but the lather remained on the brush itself, including the lather on the handle. Not sure what that means, unless I needed more water in the mix and the lather on the brush handle had sufficient water.
 
Used Williams this morning with a synthetic brush and my father's lather method: wet the brush and make the lather in the mug. The mug was the short one Old Spice came out with in the 1970s, and the lather will come out if you don't watch it. Today some ended up on the handle. Had plenty and didn't bother wiping it off while I shaved.

Applied to my face with a circular motion. Did a bit of face lathering. Nice slickness but the lather went away, but the lather on the brush didn't. Two more passes Just because. Each time the lather on my face vanished, but the lather remained on the brush itself, including the lather on the handle. Not sure what that means, unless I needed more water in the mix and the lather on the brush handle had sufficient water.

You definitely have to experiment with the water to soap ratio with Williams.

Make sure the brush and your face are well hydrated. If your face is dry, that tends to destroy the lather.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Used Williams this morning with a synthetic brush and my father's lather method: wet the brush and make the lather in the mug. The mug was the short one Old Spice came out with in the 1970s, and the lather will come out if you don't watch it. Today some ended up on the handle. Had plenty and didn't bother wiping it off while I shaved.

Applied to my face with a circular motion. Did a bit of face lathering. Nice slickness but the lather went away, but the lather on the brush didn't. Two more passes Just because. Each time the lather on my face vanished, but the lather remained on the brush itself, including the lather on the handle. Not sure what that means, unless I needed more water in the mix and the lather on the brush handle had sufficient water.
If you’re anything like me your will just call it garbage and throw it away. :letterk1:
 
Used Williams this morning with a synthetic brush and my father's lather method: wet the brush and make the lather in the mug. The mug was the short one Old Spice came out with in the 1970s, and the lather will come out if you don't watch it. Today some ended up on the handle. Had plenty and didn't bother wiping it off while I shaved.

Applied to my face with a circular motion. Did a bit of face lathering. Nice slickness but the lather went away, but the lather on the brush didn't. Two more passes Just because. Each time the lather on my face vanished, but the lather remained on the brush itself, including the lather on the handle. Not sure what that means, unless I needed more water in the mix and the lather on the brush handle had sufficient water.
I really over load the brush. Here are two photo of how much I put into my boar brush this morning before face lathering (I ran the brush on the puck for 2-3 minutes and added water a few times):
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-6.JPG
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-7.JPG


Here is what the brush looked like after face lathering for around 3-4 minute maybe and adding water maybe 10-12 times (I just flick the tips of the brush through running water real quick to add more water to my face):
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-8.JPG
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-9.JPG


Here is the kind of lather left on the brush after doing three full passes and one clean up pass I had to add water each time I went to re-apply lather to my face, and I left my face dripping wet after rinsing each pass as well:
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-10.JPG
Karatsu_TFAshaverOmegaThird-11.JPG


I tend to start with a paste like application on the first lathering and then get to a good peaking lather by adding the water. Hope this helps at all. I also hope you don't give up on the Williams just yet. Try using it again tomorrow. I found that after a day or two of use the soap starts to load much quicker and much better. I also found that if I let the soap sit for more than a few days it go hard, and the first day back required a longer and wetter first loading for the first pass. Good LUCK!
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
I took the advice of @Tallships and grated some Dove soap with a puck of Williams. The first day was not impressive, so I let it sit for a week and tried it again. What a difference a week made. After soaking my Omega 290 in hot water while I showered, I gave the brush a few shakes over my lather bowl, about 2 tablespoons of water. Then I did about 60 swirls to load the brush on the puck. The brush was pretty damp and I only loaded it for about 10-15 seconds then started plunging it in the water in my bowl. In about 2 minutes I had enough lather for 3 passes without adding water.

I didn't take any pictures of the lather, but it was a really nice shave with my Game Changer 84 and a Gillette Platinum(8).

20191106_191333[1].jpg
 
As water hardness can play a significant role in how a shaving soap performs, I try to avoid commenting on a soap or cream until I have tried it both with soft and hard water.

I have found that some soaps adapt well to different degrees of water hardness and some are rather finicky.
(Incidentally, much beloved Mitchells Wool Fat shaving soap seems to fall in the latter category and is therefore no longer part of my rotation.)
By comparison, creams generally seem to handle hard water quite well.

With regard to the product that the original poster mentioned; in the more than a dozen years that I have been shaving daily with brush and safety or straight razor, I have seen so many (heated) debates over the merits or faults of this particular product that I am hard-pressed to imagine anything new can be said.
Hence I now refrain from commenting on this particular product as I honestly believe that little can be gained from any further discussions (as long as newbies know how to research this product in the archives).



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