Williams Institute for Shaving Excellence (WISE)

[Tanuki]

Leaning towards leaving as is and amending with others.

Keeps your options open. I transfer almost all my hard soaps into containers, so I can easily mix while face lathering.

I have 't been mixing in my tube creams with anything. Thanks for the idea. It's my route to menthol Williams, which I never saw for sale in retail in spite of using Williams primarily for 5 decades.

 

[Hawkeye_90]

I actually did something similar because my scuttle has some arko in it and I wanted to test out another soap. I put it in a small lock and lock container and found that to be the greatest shaving bowl ever.

 

[Lane101]

I'm currently in the middle of a Williams challenge. Since it's unobtanium now, we're trying to see how long we can make our pucks last. Today was shave 113, with about half of my puck remaining.

Happy New Year! How did your Williams challenge conclude? How many total shaves?

I'm currently using Williams as part of my Van Der Williams (VDH Deluxe, Williams, Arko, Dove, Proraso & Ivory) blend noted in my post above where Williams is roughly a quarter of the total mix. Rotating this with a few other soaps.

Will likely add a puck of straight Williams from my reserve stock to the rotation later this year once I 3017 a current soap or two.

Anyone else here still using Williams as part of their regular or occasional rotation?

 

[krause99]

Yes. Still only using Williams..

 

[Tanuki]

Williams is still in my rotation. I have it in a mug, but usually use it grated into a stick (a very frugal way to ration it out). As a sentimental favorite, it gets more than its fair share of my shaves.

Given the size of my shaving stick assortment, I have Williams for life.

 

[TheVez2]

Happy New Year! How did your Williams challenge conclude? How many total shaves?

Conclude? It's still going. 320 shaves on my puck (and Personna blade) thus far.

 

[Lane101]

Conclude? It's still going. 320 shaves on my puck (and Personna blade) thus far.
View attachment 1777400

Impressive!

 

[abw11365]

Is this group still active? My wife & I are collectors of vintage JB Williams items. Pic of some of our collection attached. Currently the University of Connecticut has a display of our items in their library, It is open thru March should any of you want to see it. The Williams family sold the company in 1957 and it moved out of Glastonbury in 1960. I only collect items from Glastonbury. You can read UConn's blog on the display here:

There’s Something About an Aqua Velva Man: the J.B. Williams Company, Connecticut’s Maker of Men’s Toiletries

An exhibit of historical records and items manufactured by the J.B. Williams Company, shown on the Plaza Level of Homer Babbidge Library through March 2024. The exhibit shows photographs, advertise…

blogs.lib.uconn.edu

WISE
Boyd Williams (no relation to JB)
Franklin, TN

 

[abw11365]

Nor me! Lol... Case & point:


WISE men and women.... I have something to share once again. You've met my small trial size bottle of original Williams Aqua Velva before.

Now meet its baby brother:

View attachment 637965
View attachment 637967

And the baby brother's baby brother. I have quite a few different vintage AV bottles, but I think 2 of your 3 I do NOT have. Very nice!

 

[Lane101]

Is this group still active? My wife & I are collectors of vintage JB Williams items. Pic of some of our collection attached. Currently the University of Connecticut has a display of our items in their library, It is open thru March should any of you want to see it. The Williams family sold the company in 1957 and it moved out of Glastonbury in 1960. I only collect items from Glastonbury. You can read UConn's blog on the display here:

There’s Something About an Aqua Velva Man: the J.B. Williams Company, Connecticut’s Maker of Men’s Toiletries

An exhibit of historical records and items manufactured by the J.B. Williams Company, shown on the Plaza Level of Homer Babbidge Library through March 2024. The exhibit shows photographs, advertise…

blogs.lib.uconn.edu

I have some duplicates to trade if you have anything we need!

WISE
Boyd Williams (no relation to JB)
Franklin, TN

Hi Boyd and again welcome to B&B. Impressive collection. This group is still active though at a much slower rate since Combe discontinued Williams Shave Soap back in February of 2022. Williams was a great shaving soap that was available in our local supermarket for 99 cents a puck until just before that time. It was my first shaving soap when I returned to DE shaving 4+ years ago.

We now see Williams listed for $35+ per puck on Amazon and just a few days ago one of our B&B members purchased 5 pucks for $20 each on ebay. For me there are better shaving soap options out there at those prices though I'm still happy to have some Williams pucks left over.

Now the few of us who still occasionally post here are those who still have a few pucks of reserve stock or those who desire to reminisce about Williams. Many post in other threads in the main shaving soap or general shaving forum.

 

[WThomas0814]

Hoping for some advice.

I have several “modern” Williams pucks (sodium tallowate as #2 ingredient). Using the techniques in the intro, they work well for me. I’m looking at some TRUE vintage specimens (tallow as #1 ingredient) on eBay. Sellers are 100% rated with several hundred ratings. Prices are $20-23 per puck, which is roughly the same as the modern pucks.

Would you buy them, or would it be redundant? I honestly don’t remember the quality of my Williams shaves in the 70s and 80s, so, are the vintage pucks dramatically better? I’m asking because I already own enough soap to last until my 7 year old grandson is close to retirement age.

 

[Breen]

Here's some shots of my collection

an unused shaving stick

...and a holiday set "for the man who shaves himself" from 1910* (as best as I was able to track down)

 

[abw11365]

Here's some shots of my collection

View attachment 1782679
View attachment 1782680

an unused shaving stick

View attachment 1782681

...and a holiday set "for the man who shaves himself" from 1910* (as best as I was able to track down)

View attachment 1782683
View attachment 1782686

Very nice! I had seen all the items in the set in their stainless cases, but had never seen the box. Love it!

 

[AnimalCatcher]

Is this group still active? My wife & I are collectors of vintage JB Williams items. Pic of some of our collection attached. Currently the University of Connecticut has a display of our items in their library, It is open thru March should any of you want to see it. The Williams family sold the company in 1957 and it moved out of Glastonbury in 1960. I only collect items from Glastonbury. You can read UConn's blog on the display here:

There’s Something About an Aqua Velva Man: the J.B. Williams Company, Connecticut’s Maker of Men’s Toiletries

An exhibit of historical records and items manufactured by the J.B. Williams Company, shown on the Plaza Level of Homer Babbidge Library through March 2024. The exhibit shows photographs, advertise…

blogs.lib.uconn.edu

I have some duplicates to trade if you have anything we need!

WISE
Boyd Williams (no relation to JB)
Franklin, TN

Thank you for sharing your wonderful collection. Here are a few pics of some of my Williams collectibles.

 

[abw11365]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful collection. Here are a few pics of some of my Williams collectibles. View attachment 1782716View attachment 1782717View attachment 1782718View attachment 1782719View attachment 1782720View attachment 1782721View attachment 1782722View attachment 1782723

Man that is a nice collection! I see you only go after the stuff in top notch condition! That Swiss Violet Shaving Cream bowl is da bomb! The blue label Aqua Velva bottle is in pristine condition!

So I have a question about the small Williams and Brothers tile. I also have one of those. Mine has a magnet on the back which may or may not be original to the piece. It looks old, but I have serious doubts about it being from the 1840s which is when the company was called Williams & Brothers and in Manchester. I am wondering if maybe they didn't make them in the 1940s as a 100th of the company memento.... or something even later. Does yours have a magnet on the back. Do you have any info on it?

 

[AnimalCatcher]

Thank you for the kind words. The Swiss Violet Shaving Cream pot still has its original paper band around it (the only one I've ever seen). It looks like the individual who bought the pot used a knife instead of just ripping the paper off.

I think those small tiles with the magnets are freebees that were given away at pharmacies where Williams shaving soap was being sold. Williams continued to use the original Williams & Brothers logo on their products for many years after the company had been renamed. I have not come across any Williams advertisements that depict this logo after 1903, so they're probably still quite old.

Here's a photo with 3 of those tiny tiles alongside 2 pucks of Williams Genuine Yankee Shaving Soap. These pucks were manufactured between 1885-1903, but the wrappers still use the original logo from the 1840s. By the way.... I only use this soap once a year, on my birthday, and it lathers as well or better than any other soap that I have ever used, vintage or modern.

 

[abw11365]

Sadly, I bid on this and lost. Quite pricy (it's Civil War era), but I was looking forward to storing my vintage pucks in it. Such is life.
View attachment 638287

Here's the same box after the company moved to Glastonbury. I do not own an example of either box.

 

[abw11365]

I believe it was introduced in 1957: LIFE - http://books.google.com/books?id=Mz8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51 (LIFE magazine) has an advert that makes it sound like a new product. There were canned, lather, and brushless versions. The color was artificial, I think, but intended to reinforce the "cream of lanonlin" idea somehow. The style of the 1957 ad seems just a bit different than your example, so I would guess yours is from the 1960s.

Apparently production continued until at least 1978. There was also a version for the India market, and perhaps for Argentina too.

Williams Golden Lather was in production by 1956. See attached shot from JB Williams 1956 annual report.

 

[Jopo]

Thought you fellows might take heart that the William's name lives on outside of America-

CHILE:

William's Shaving Cream
Red: Lanolin & Aloe Vera Green: Menthol & Vit E

FRANCE:

William's Savane Vert Sauvage Aftershave (used to be branded as Aqua Velva)




FRANCE/NETHERLANDS:

William's Menthol Shaving Cream (this stuff is superb)

William's Sensitive Shaving Cream


SPAIN (note: previously there was different creams for France/Netherlands vs Spain. That may have changed, France/NL version now has Spanish text)

William's Ice Blue shaving cream


And for the true Aqua Velva Ice Blue fans -

Williams Ice Blue deodorant stick, and roller version

William's Sport Cologne




RECENTLY DISCONTINUED:

There was a rose fragrance William's shave stick for South Africa. Unfortunately it was discontinued, less than 10 years ago.

Argentina also had William's products, discontinued in the 2010's:

William's Aqua Velva Yellow Aftershave (they had Ice Blue and Sport too)

Shaving Cream


And of then there's also currently William's Aqua Velva aftershave version for Spain and one for Italy/France (And also non-William's branded Aqua Velva for Chile as well as two for South Africa, though not sure if South African is still in production)

 

[abw11365]

WISE Men, I wanted to share this here. There are pictures from the UConn Archives. They are mostly drug store window displays of J.B. Williams Company products. It looks like at the time they were really pushing their Glider brushless (sorry, I know that's frowned upon here) shaving cream. I couldn't find a single mug shaving puck in any of the pictures. I believe the pictures are circa 1930, but maybe one of you more knowledgeable WISE men will have different ideas of the time frame. I love the Americana feel of these displays. I love the car, too! I have a few more Glider displays of the same ilk as these. If anyone wants to see them, I'll post them as well.