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Williams Mug Shaving Soap

I read a few threads on this and saw that this is a rather polarizing soap. I normally have used soaps that cost around the 20 dollar mark cold water soap works comes to mind. I recently tried colonel conk around the 12 dollar mark. The other day I was down to my last shard of shave soap. I happened to go to the store for groceries and they had William's mug for 1.92 per puck. I bought all they had (2) because I figured what the heck, I need soap and its an emergency. I figured if it didn't work well I would only be out two dollars. I came home and read on it, and saw that some liked it and some hated it because they said it was hard to build up a lather.

I threw it in the shave bowl and filled the shave bowl with water. I also made sure my shave brush was wet. I built a lather in the bowl immediately and it was one of the nicest lathers I have ever had. the soap was really thick, and because I soaked it in hot water it felt really nice on my face. The thing that stuck out to me about the after effect. My face felt "refreshed" from the soap.

I will admit I built the lather on the puck and that was one reason it was easy for me, but at the same time this was two dollar soap, and it produced one of the nicest shave experiences I have ever had.
 
Williams has one of the greatest price to performance ratios available in wetshaving as it's just about the slickest soap ever made... Which is all you really need for a good shave. I agree with the suggestion that you should grate it and press it into a container of your choice. It produces a fine lather...just takes a few seconds longer to lather. Use plenty of water. I have no idea why some people can't get it to lather. Hard water gets blamed a lot but I live in a "moderately hard" PPM area and never had an issue. Mind you my WMS is vintage though.
 
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Add these words to the end of your thread title; "is being discontinued". Its been a while since we had one of those. :c9:
You know people keep saying that it was discontinued, but I found it on amazon and everywhere else, so I think you are either innocently misinformed or have some other purpose for making your comment.
 
You know people keep saying that it was discontinued, but I found it on amazon and everywhere else, so I think you are either innocently misinformed or have some other purpose for making your comment.

Correct, my “other purpose” was a light hearted attempt at humor. 😬 Williams is a popular product and threads about it being discontinued appear with surprising regularity yet they are never accurate.
 
I found that if you treat Williams like a normal soap and come at it with a little too much water in the brush, then it bubbles up very quickly and tends to stay thin for quite a while and requires a good bit of work to have it settled back down into a nice creamy lather. And so I think it kind of fools most people.

(Sent from mobile)
 
There is a difference in the vintage Williams and the New. The formula has changed slightly to where the old first ingredient was sodium tallowate and the new has tallowate as the 2nd ingredient, what difference that makes,I don't know. Since I first started shaving with Williams in '61, (did try other soaps) I have noticed a change in the way I have to work the lather. The vintage, as we call it today seemed to have a richer longer lasting lather and easier to use. Out of the 12 I bought, I have 4 left.
 
Williams may be the greatest bargain in the wet shaving world. I first tried it a couple of months ago and find it a good performer. I haven't mastered it, but get decent enough lather out of it. The lather seems to dissipate during the shave. I haven't quite figured that out yet. It's definitely worth the price of admission.....light scent and superb sickness. Goes well with Williams Aqua Velva aftershave.
 
There is a difference in the vintage Williams and the New. The formula has changed slightly to where the old first ingredient was sodium tallowate and the new has tallowate as the 2nd ingredient, what difference that makes,I don't know. Since I first started shaving with Williams in '61, (did try other soaps) I have noticed a change in the way I have to work the lather. The vintage, as we call it today seemed to have a richer longer lasting lather and easier to use. Out of the 12 I bought, I have 4 left.

I have also compared Williams Mug Soap to Arko Stick (shaved & bowl pressed) And find Arko is a much better lathering soap than Williams, Using on the puck lathering method with both soaps, Arko is allot easier and faster to build a long lasting lather, just as slick as Williams. Both have the citrus soap scent only Arko scent is stronger. Pricing per Dozen: Williams: $18.21, $1.52 for ea. 1.75 oz. puck, Arko Stick: $14.82 , $1.24 for ea. 2.6 oz. stick.
MPO, Other than discontinued Old Spice shave soap, the old Williams was once my go to soap, but now days I think I'll retire Williams to Memory Lane , along with some other great soaps like Palmolive and Old Spice.
 
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