man williams really shot themselves in the foot by changing their formula. the vintage stuf i got from '76, while it lost its scent, is lathers better than litterally any other soap ive had. it lathers different, feels different on the skin, paints on different, and i think its a pretty hard puck. im hopinh to make these pucks last but it works so good i dont know if ill have the self fortitude to not use it every day. it even kindalooks different. why? why has no one thought nto get the formula from 76 and dupe it?!
vintage 1976 williams soap (tallow based?)
- Thread starter Staggers and Jags
- Start date
I love the "this day in history" news posts. Amazing how much stuff happened after my kids were born.
That old formula stuff is great and lathers like a beast!
I picked up 2 pucks in a antique store and I have to restrain myself also. Fabulous soap.
Vintage Williams is excellent IME!!
all the williams pucks, i believe, have tallow and perform great.
Vintage wife, too.
I learned how to shave on what is now considered vintage Williams, Colgate, and Old Spice shaving soaps. In recent years here on B&B I would talk about how much I disliked modern Williams and I'd get scolded by the modern Williams faithful for not knowing how to properly lather Williams, usually followed by a link to one of the scores of threads offering Williams lathering tutorials and claims of "if you know what you're doing Williams has one of the best lathers around"..."if you can't get a good shave with modern Williams you are doing something wrong", Blah blah blah.
I can get a decent enough lather from modern Williams and have a few pucks stashed away. The reason I have always hated modern Williams is that I was keenly aware of what an excellent soap vintage Williams was because I had used it every day for years. Vintage Williams...in terms of latherability and quality of lather, was as good as the very best soaps offered today. IMHO. The now defunct modern Williams was garbage by comparison.
OK modern Williams faithful...bring on the pain. Its OK. I can take it.
I can get a decent enough lather from modern Williams and have a few pucks stashed away. The reason I have always hated modern Williams is that I was keenly aware of what an excellent soap vintage Williams was because I had used it every day for years. Vintage Williams...in terms of latherability and quality of lather, was as good as the very best soaps offered today. IMHO. The now defunct modern Williams was garbage by comparison.
OK modern Williams faithful...bring on the pain. Its OK. I can take it.
I agree! Until the 2005 reformulation, tallow-first Williams was a terrific shaving soap. Mug soap replaced Genuine Yankee Shaving Soap around 1905, but they both lather in spectacular fashion.
A couple of photos of some ancient Genuine Yankee soap in action:
Thank you for posting!
I've been collecting vintage shaving soap for many years, and I actually have quite a bit of Williams Mug soap, some going back to 1905. The older Williams Mug soap from 1905 up until the 1920s are very difficult to find, but the Yankee Shaving Soap is nearly impossible.
Have you tried any other vintage soaps? Yardley is fantastic, as is the original Seaforth, and you can't go wrong with vintage Colgate or Palmolive. If you can find some Old Spice at a reasonable price, that's another you should try out, if you already haven't done so.
Have you tried any other vintage soaps? Yardley is fantastic, as is the original Seaforth, and you can't go wrong with vintage Colgate or Palmolive. If you can find some Old Spice at a reasonable price, that's another you should try out, if you already haven't done so.
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I used Williams, Colgate, Palmolive and Old Spice soaps back in the late 60's and 70's as they were the most common shave soaps and they were all good; at least I don't remember anything bad about them. They also were available in kits with a brush and mug.
All of those seem to produce a similar quality lather: rich, thick, creamy and slick. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they're all tallow-first as well. I can actually get a decent shave using reformulated Williams. It's still pretty slick stuff, but the lather doesn't exhibit that stable, rich, creamy, luxurious quality that it used to possess prior to the reformulation.
Yep, they were all much the same except for the scents which were all mild. I'm not completely sold on the difference in tallow vs. other oils. Basically, mix lye and fat, you simply get soap. I've never been able to tell the difference.All of those seem to produce a similar quality lather: rich, thick, creamy and slick. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they're all tallow-first as well. I can actually get a decent shave using reformulated Williams. It's still pretty slick stuff, but the lather doesn't exhibit that stable, rich, creamy, luxurious quality that it used to possess prior to the reformulation.
In my opinion, there is more to this story, more just about a list of ingredients and proportions/ratio/percentage. I believe that processing the soap has something to do with its amazing performance.
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- #18
williams is the only vintage but id love to try yardley
and colgate
Yardley is definitely one heck of a vintage soap and if the price is right, you should pick some up and give it a whirl.
That was the year I was born, not surprised it was good. 
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