Williams Mug Shaving Soap 63¢ or less locally

[Little Joe from Mexico]

Yes, I know it's the cheapest soap around........ No, it's not going out of production or anything like that, just that....

I e-mailed Combe Inc. and told them how much I and some of us here at B&B enjoy this shaving soap and hope it will continue to be easily available to us for a long time to come (sorry, but I pluralized). I also mentioned that some of us here just plain Hate It!

They sent me a letter that reads as follows:

Dear Mr. (Little Joe):

Thank you for contacting us concerning Williams Mug Soap. It is always a pleasure to receive positive feedback about our products from our consumers.

We value you as a consumer. Please use the enclosed towards your future purchase of Williams Mug Soap.

We appreciate your continued interest in Williams Mug Soap. We hope others will be influenced by your enthusiasm for the product.

Sincerely,

(Consumer Resources Consultant)

Included were 6 (save 55¢) Manufacturer's Coupons.

I'm gonna use them.

 

[Topgumby]

In before the bash.

 

[VR6ofpain]

In before the bash.

Hahahahahhahaha

 

[akokandy]

That's quite a deal. Even people that don't like Williams need to get in on this one, even if just to save money on shower soap.

 

[michiganlover]

In before the bash.

Ok, I'll start!!

A crappy useless soap is no less crappy regardless of price. Even if it were free, it would be a worthless soap in my hands.

 

[chrking]

Its still better than Colonel Conk IMHO. I think that is truly the worst stuff on earth. It was like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip to get good lather out of that Conk puck. Yuck.

Ok, I'll start!!

A crappy useless soap is no less crappy regardless of price. Even if it were free, it would be a worthless soap in my hands.

 

[insomniac]

I used Williams today and got a nice shave

 

[SliceOfLife]

Reply to them and suggest they slightly reduce the amount of coconut oil in their soap and replace it with tallow to make the soap much, much better.

 

[mblakele]

Even if it were free, it would be a worthless soap in my hands.

I am very willing to agree with this. In wine there is the concept of a "noble grape". Essentially a noble grape produces good wine in many soils and climates. For example, Merlot is generally accepted as noble: no matter where or how it is grown, the wine tends to be acceptable and often it is excellent. At the other extreme, there are grapes which can only produce good wine when presented with exactly the right climate and exactly the right soil. I will place an obscure Italian white grape called Cortese in this category.

In my opinion, most of the argument on soaps centers around whether a particular soap is "noble" or not. There are also soaps for which, as HoratioCaine says, "Your mileage should not vary" - they are "noble". I would place PSGT in this category, others might mention Yardleys.

So here it my (latest) attempt to reconcile the Williams users with the Williams haters. Williams is not a noble soap: my intuition is that it does not lather well for something like 50% of the persons on this forum. It does lather well for me, but that's somewhat like saying that I enjoyed a particular bottle of Cortese wine. Tastes and circumstances vary.

 

[Seraphim]

55 cent coupons?


Isn't your dignity worth more than that?

 

[rickboone1]

Their servers will crash tomorrow with all the emails flooding in.

 

[buyandhold2018]

I used my puck the other day and also got a nice shave. It takes a little longer to get a nice creamy lather but value-4-money, Williams is a very good soap. It's nice to hear about the 'Old-School' companies that really value their customers, remind me of the Zippo company.

 

[coolbluewater]

It's like getting discount coupons to be used toward frustration.

 

[Topgumby]

Ok, I'll start!!

A crappy useless soap is no less crappy regardless of price. Even if it were free, it would be a worthless soap in my hands.

A finely tuned, match grade custom M1911A1 is a noisemaker in the hands of an inept marksman.

Is lowly Williams a finely tuned, high grade soap? Not even close. But, in the hands of somebody who "gets" how to make it work it's a decent performer. It's a bargain for those who can master it, and I'm glad to see some customer service from it's current caretaker.

Mblakele hits home with his post. When Satchmo said "If you have to ask, you'll never know" he could have been describing Williams instead of Jazz.

 

[Little Joe from Mexico]

A finely tuned, match grade custom M1911A1 is a noisemaker in the hands of an inept marksman.

Is lowly Williams a finely tuned, high grade soap? Not even close. But, in the hands of somebody who "gets" how to make it work it's a decent performer. It's a bargain for those who can master it, and I'm glad to see some customer service from it's current caretaker.

Mblakele hits home with his post. When Satchmo said "If you have to ask, you'll never know" he could have been describing Williams instead of Jazz.

 

[Tekka]

I bought my first brush and a puck of Williams shaving soap several weeks ago. I'm new to this whole wet shaving thing, but Williams shaving soap works well and smells great. It's pretty cool that they sent you a bunch of coupons for their product. That's a sign that a company wants you to enjoy their product.

 

[faster_than_u]

Just got a puck of vintage williams a few weeks ago and after using that I tossed out all the new williams i had. Bring back the good old soap for the same price then I will buy some again.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Used Williams this morning for the first time in awhile with a 1912 GEM Junior. Put a few drops of Aqua Velva in it and had a very nice shave with plenty of lather. I do have very soft water which probably helps.

 

[michiganlover]

Just got a puck of vintage williams a few weeks ago and after using that I tossed out all the new williams i had. Bring back the good old soap for the same price then I will buy some again.

+1,000,000

Once you try the Vintage Williams, you will quickly realize just how crapified the current product really is. The vintage was at least the equivalent to Tabac (and it had to be it competed with Yardley ,and Old Spice).

I recently tried the variation of Williams right before the most recent re-formulation, and while nowhere near as good as the really vintage stuff, it was still eons better than the current formula (which for me is 100% unusable.).

I love the Vintage Williams so much, I now have 8 pucks of it in my shave den.

 

[BurkDarkpatches]

When a person can't get a good shave from a Fusion, we blame the razor and not the person. When he can't get a good shave from a DE, we blame the user not the product. The truth lies in-between for both scenarios.

The same goes for Williams. Multiple people say they can get good lather from it. What one man can do, so can another... under the right circumstances.

I started out a Williams hater (dis-liker). That was when using boar and badger brushes (VDH and C&E BBB). Ended up in the shower. After discovering high-end vintage nylon brushes and finding them to be the true Lather Kings, I tried Williams again and was able to make fine usable lather. I use it several times a week nowadays, though often as a tallow combo-punch with Arko stick.

Steve