Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
There is a lot of nostalgia for classic and vintage in the shave world, in the case of Vintage Wms vs Modern Wms, it's warranted.
You keep that up and they won't let you write any more ad copy for the next drop! LOL
Williams Mug Soap, perfectly fine.... don’t hit me.
- Thread starter Retroman1969
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You keep that up and they won't let you write any more ad copy for the next drop! LOL
I can.
You gotta soak the William's in hot water for about 10 minutes before shaving. Easy enough as it is mug soap.
Why do so many people have to make it more complicated?
Why do so many people have to make it more complicated?
My Williams puck fits neatly into a plastic ramekin. Before use I simply put 5 drops of distilled water atop the puck. By the time my brush is soaked & wrung out to lightly damp, it's ready to load onto the brush. About 100 swirls & then onto my bowl, where a few drops of water at a time is added until it bursts into a dense & slick lather.
Only kids & newbies need to "bloom" it before use.
Turns out that what most people mean when they use the word "blooming" is putting water atop the soap prior to lathering.
Yep, I bloom with water on top, but to be fair, I still didn't get great results from Modern Williams, and the guys I knew who liked it said that the trick was exactly what 99% of the proponents are saying in this thread. Keep it wet or do a heavy soak... as in fully submerged puck for 10 mins before use. Also blooming, but a more extreme form.
The guys putting a touch of water on top while they prep are doing what most of us do with every soap, including Williams. For most people that isn't enough to get great lather with it though (that's not saying you can't get lather, but not the quality lather people expect when compared to stuff like high performance artisans, Tabac, MdC, and yes, pre 2005 Williams).
The guys putting a touch of water on top while they prep are doing what most of us do with every soap, including Williams. For most people that isn't enough to get great lather with it though (that's not saying you can't get lather, but not the quality lather people expect when compared to stuff like high performance artisans, Tabac, MdC, and yes, pre 2005 Williams).
I don't soak my puck. I don't use it every day. I load heavily, but not excitedly with a drier brush ( maybe 2X as long as I do other soaps but with far less vigor and excitement) and create a thick, almost paste-like pre lather on the brush. Then I apply that to my face and dip the brush tips into water to add moisture as I build the lather on my face. I get a great result every time. Long lasting and thick protective lather that doesn't have the airiness that results from my typical soap lathering routine if used on Williams. I lathered up last night with it and got a smooth comfy BBS on about a 5 day growth of whiskers.
I chew through a puck faster that way, but that doesn't bother me since a puck is barely $1 at my local grocery store.
I chew through a puck faster that way, but that doesn't bother me since a puck is barely $1 at my local grocery store.
I did get lucky in being able to try Vintage Williams. It truly is a different soap that what is sold now ... like night and day.
Absolutely. The soap's not that bad. It's better than a lot of soaps I've seen people praise and at the price, the techniques that improve it's lather (often by using more soap) aren't problematic the way they'd be with something like C&S or MdC. What I don't like about it is that it used to be the best shaving soap on Earth, in my opinion. And now it doesn't even make the grade for me.
I think we can all agree that coca cola post reformulation isn't the same product as pre. Plenty of people drink it... heck some like it... but you can bet most of them would rather be drinking the original.
No, we can't all agree about Coke. They didn't stay reformulated. New Coke was an advertising trick that worked. It stopped Pepsi cold (pun intended) in their "Take the Pepsi taste test" campaign. You can find the whole story in the book Pre-suasion.
I was referring to 1903.
New Coke was actually better. Even the man who organized a national organization to get the 'classic' Coke back chose New Coke in a blind taste test.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
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Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
I have some modern Williams and the secret to using it IMO is just use it in a more paste form lather and don't get it to wet so it will not dissipate. Works OK that way for myself. Nothing special about it scent wise.
Had a shave with my completed "Sporty Willy" soap project this morning. Two pucks modern Williams grated into a jar with a bottle of AV Ice Sport poured in. The combined ingredients are about a 50/50 blend. Left to brew for 3 days and then a week with the lid off.
I have to say, I keep a puck of the vintage formula in an Old Spice mug and thoroughly enjoy it. Because of this I have not swirled on a "modern" formula puck in many months. The additional glycerin and the act of grating the soap seemed to give me a lather very similar to the vintage. IMHO this is too many hoops to jump through on a regular basis but it helped me thin down my stash of stuff in the bathroom at no (new) cost.
My shaving journey started with Williams pucks bought at the local supermarket and it has a special place in my heart. If I'm being honest I have too many soaps at the moment to use the modern Williams as a daily driver; but if it's all I had I could do better than just getting by with it. I think the biggest factor in successful lathering is technique and water softness - I am blessed with soft water where I live and God knows I spent months getting my lather to where it is now.
I have to say, I keep a puck of the vintage formula in an Old Spice mug and thoroughly enjoy it. Because of this I have not swirled on a "modern" formula puck in many months. The additional glycerin and the act of grating the soap seemed to give me a lather very similar to the vintage. IMHO this is too many hoops to jump through on a regular basis but it helped me thin down my stash of stuff in the bathroom at no (new) cost.
My shaving journey started with Williams pucks bought at the local supermarket and it has a special place in my heart. If I'm being honest I have too many soaps at the moment to use the modern Williams as a daily driver; but if it's all I had I could do better than just getting by with it. I think the biggest factor in successful lathering is technique and water softness - I am blessed with soft water where I live and God knows I spent months getting my lather to where it is now.
@MikeTbass and how is the Sporty Willy scent? I've yet to soak any of my grated Williams pucks with a splash but now am thinking that a soak in my AV/Osage blend is up on the docket when my current Williams is done.
It's actually pretty nice - the Ice Sport scent is maybe reminiscent of Cool Water/GIT with a more "sporty" modern twang. I wear GIT nearly daily so it has a nice familiar smell. The addition of vitamin E and glycerin to the soap is welcome as well. I would recommend you do what I did - brew the mixture for a few days with the container lid on before you allow the AS splash to evaporate off. My finished product smells of nothing but Ice Sport! My pucks were rather old and although I enjoy the scent of Williams my preference would be to have the splash dictate the fragrance of the soap.
- Thread starter
- #198
I’m developing a greater and greater affinity for Arko pucks as a simple wet brush and a few drops of water in the mug whips up a nice thick lather in seconds with virtually no effort. There is a value in that, especially on mornings when I’m in a rush.
Since it has been sitting in my open mug for days, the strong questionable scent is nearly gone.
After this puck is gone, I will revisit Willams for a fresh perspective.
Although Arko is still a few dollars more than Williams, at the moment I’m holding it up as the better experience on the cheap end of shaving soaps. It performs very similarly to the much more expensive Tabac.
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Since it has been sitting in my open mug for days, the strong questionable scent is nearly gone.
After this puck is gone, I will revisit Willams for a fresh perspective.
Although Arko is still a few dollars more than Williams, at the moment I’m holding it up as the better experience on the cheap end of shaving soaps. It performs very similarly to the much more expensive Tabac.
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Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I do agree. I have a few finicky soaps that are fun because they take some time and talent to "get it right". That can be satisfying, but sometimes you just need to get it done. In that case Arko or Palmolive get it done and quickly.
