I use arko, More for you, and Jurokyen shaving soap, and DERBY. Derby seems to do really well in those tubs.
Who Still Uses Williams Shaving Soap? What Have you Settled on as a Replacement? Thoughts on other Commercial Shaving Soaps as Alternatives?
- Thread starter Lane101
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I think one did. BUT they no longer are making it as far as I know. Tonsorial shaving soap by CBL. Somewhere I read it was a vintage Williams clone and tried it. Simply a stellar. One puck left and it says: tallow, SA, CO, KOH, NaOH, and fragrance. How they got it to be so yogurt/thick creamy lather like is beyond me.
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- #103
Williams works well with a good boar brush in a mug where you can build the lather right on the puck. Some also pre-moisten the puck for a couple of minutes (pour in water, dump out when ready to start building lather) prior to shaving. I haven't found that last step necessary. If you haven't tried Williams with the above give it another go and it may surprise you. I'll spend 45 seconds to a minute building lather on the puck. Build a bit further via face lathering.
On another topic I just 3017'd the blended soap in my apothecary mug today. Tomorrows shave will be with Williams (final blend purchased in the past few years).
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- #104
Arko is the best alternative for Williams once it runs out. It does lather more easily as it's a bit softer. Derby is another good alternative (I have a couple sticks), more similar to Williams as it's harder than Arko. Unfortunately it appears that Derby shaving sticks have also been discontinued. Haven't seen one for sale at a normal price for over two years.
I don't have a boar brush, but I do have a synthetic Razorock brush that works well with every other soap I have tried. The recent vintage Williams pucks I have are very hard. I've tried lathering directly on the puck and just can't seem to get a decent lather. I'll try soaking the puck for a few minutes first to see if that improves it; thanks for the tip.
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- #106
Of my three brushes two are Razorock plissofts (26mm knot Monster & Big Bruce) and one a Blondie boar (rebranded Zenith 80N). The boar was always what worked best with Williams for me. Always starting with a dry puck. The two plissofts were less than ideal on the dry puck so soaking the puck first may do the trick with those as others have reported. Like yours my plissofts work well with every other one of my soaps.
Note that the other key thing with Williams is to build lather on the puck, ideally in a mug with a few inches of vertical space. This is how the soap was designed to be used. The key to Williams is loading enough product from what is the hardest soap in my rotation from a relatively small diameter puck.
Funny, when I first used Mitchell's Wool Fat (MWF) I thought it would be as hard as Williams to load given all the reports and similar ingredients. Found that my boar pulls too much product off of a MWF puck (2 grams from a 45-60 second loading) and that it works easily with my plissofts. My best guess is that while MWF just as hard a puck as Williams it's a lot larger making the loading process more productive with my 26mm knot brushes.
I'll post on how tomorrow's Williams shave goes with my boar. Look forward to hearing about yours.
I have been using derby in the tub and I have found it to be excellent.
I’ve decided to add about 20 grams more to my Williams shave stick for a grand total of about 60 grams in total for my tallow first ingredients Canadian Williams puck soap. My previous photo from a few days ago it was around 40 grams (whole puck) but I felt it could use 50 % more soap. So all in all about 60 grams total. I’ll smoothen out the ridges using my whiskers as I shave with it. Looking forward to next month in using my vintage tallow William soap!
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- #109
Interesting that the Canadian Williams at 42 grams/1.5 oz. is smaller than 50 gram/1.75 oz. pucks that were sold in the U.S.
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- #110
@StewB and @Opolar , I had shaved with the new Williams puck today. Used my 26mm boar brush that worked like a charm to produce excellent lather and a perfect BBS shave. Details in the post linked below:
What did you use today? +Rate the shave 1-10 (10 best) - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/what-did-you-use-today-rate-the-shave-1-10-10-best.568241/page-3955#post-12866520
Let us know how your Williams shaves go. I'll try it with one of my synthetics tomorrow.
What did you use today? +Rate the shave 1-10 (10 best) - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/what-did-you-use-today-rate-the-shave-1-10-10-best.568241/page-3955#post-12866520
Let us know how your Williams shaves go. I'll try it with one of my synthetics tomorrow.
Combs bought Williams from Smithkline Beecham and closed the Williams soap factory in Montreal Canada around 2001. So the Canadian factory made 42 gram size soap but the American one made 50 gram ones. Once the Canadian factory closed down in 2001 Combs imported into Canada the American size ones.
I guess it was cheaper to do this route? There once was a South African Williams too that made Williams shave stick but it wasn`t a tallow soap unfortunately gone about 15 years ago.
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I have no problems using tallow first ingredients Williams or the tallow second Combs Williams. Williams is a good working man’s no thrills soap. I like it because there’s plenty of slickness and there’s no need for a heavy thick lather but just a thin runny straight razor type will do. When I shave there’s no special techniques of soaking my puck or no need to use a good back bone brush. No dryness and easy to rinse off. I know some do not like it and I’m glad it works for me.
I have two pucks of williams, but I can't seem to bring myself to use them. Maybe I will after I run out of derby. I have three tubs of derby, 36 sticks of arko, and 36 sticks of another Turkish soap.
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- #114
Just posted my second Williams shave with the new puck today (link below with pictures). Worked surprisingly well with my synthetic. Difference was a really wet brush.
www.badgerandblade.com
What did you use today? +Rate the shave 1-10 (10 best)
Pre-Shave: scalding shower with B&M Paganini's Violin soap Bowl/Scuttle: PAA Spacescape Lather Scuttle 4.0 Soap: Declaration Grooming - Massacre of the Innocents Brush: Parker Premium Handmade, 3-Band Pure Badger with Rosewood Handle Razor: Rockwell 6C Blade: Voshkod (3) Post-Shave: Declaration...
www.badgerandblade.com
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- #115
Understandable. My inventory is a little more balanced with roughly a couple dozen Williams pucks so it was easier for me to put one to use. Of course with Amazon pricing pushing $50 each we should probably sell them
. I also picked up three 12 stick boxes of Arko since Williams was discontinued. Purchased in light of all the recent soap discontinuations and low price.Wonder if anyone is actually paying those Williams prices on Amazon? @Chandu recently listed a few (including some vintage) for a very reasonable price that was a fraction of the Amazon price with no takers. The much more valuable and larger tallow Mitchell's Wool Fat pucks have been selling for a fraction of what Williams is listed for.
For now Williams is simultaneously my cheapest (99 cent purchase price) and most expensive shaving soap (Amazon price).
I agree. I was buying it for 92 cents at the grocery store before it disappearedUnderstandable. My inventory is a little more balanced with roughly a couple dozen Williams pucks so it was easier for me to put one to use. Of course with Amazon pricing pushing $50 each we should probably sell them
Wonder if anyone is actually paying those Williams prices on Amazon? @Chandu recently listed a few (including some vintage) for a very reasonable price that was a fraction of the Amazon price with no takers. The much more valuable and larger tallow Mitchell's Wool Fat pucks have been selling for a fraction of what Williams is listed for.
For now Williams is simultaneously my cheapest (99 cent purchase price) and most expensive shaving soap (Amazon price).
I thought you guys would find this interesting.
I live in a county that was declared a disaster site by FEMA following Helene. We have a donation center for all the stuff sent to us from all over the country. I was moving stuff to the soap aisle and spotted a pile of Williams shaving soap. No idea where it came from or why it is here but there it was.
I live in a county that was declared a disaster site by FEMA following Helene. We have a donation center for all the stuff sent to us from all over the country. I was moving stuff to the soap aisle and spotted a pile of Williams shaving soap. No idea where it came from or why it is here but there it was.
I basically survived on Williams in the 70, 80s, 90, as it was all they had on the grocery shelves and it was before I was aware shaving was a hobby and there were products galore on the interweb. In the 2010s, I bought so many soaps--soap so much better than Williams--that my stockpile sits unused. Gaining value I guess, though I can't believe it someone thinks it's worth $50. It was a 99 cent soap that punched above it's price. Period.
I have 4 pucks of Williams left in the vault and I'm just holding onto them for history's sake....someday I will use them I guess but I have so many other soaps to use i don't pay the 4 pucks any mind as they sit in a cigar box.
Larry
Larry
Nobody really thinks it's worth $50, because nobody's buying it at that price.
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