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The 2nd Annual Williams Mug Soap 3017 Challenge!

I've noticed that when I do the finger trick to keep the AS from spilling, that sometimes when you take your finger away it doesn't drip and you have to tilt or shake it to get it to come out. It's not necessarily a intended design feature..... it's just physics.
 
Spider said:
I've noticed that when I do the finger trick to keep the AS from spilling, that sometimes when you take your finger away it doesn't drip and you have to tilt or shake it to get it to come out. It's not necessarily a intended design feature..... it's just physics.
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Yeah, but I’d argue that it is a design element that takes advantage of the physics (it’s designed to keep the aftershave in until you tilt or shake the bottle rather than having it spill all over your hands/sink in an uncontrolled way). For example, the plastic AV bottle didn’t do it and if I took the average liquor bottle (which arguably contains a similar liquid) and tried this trick, most of them would just dump the contents out into my glass. Though maybe I’m wrong and should probably call on the Cadre to pour some drinks tonight to test this out 🤔
 
Spider said:
I get a better lather from my synth.
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It's my great understanding (i.e. guess) that Williams was most recently reformulated around 2004-2005(ish). Obviously they had great insight into the future of shaving brushes and have engineered the current formula to be perfectly matched to the generation of synthetic knots which will be produced in 2073.
 
12 February
Williams Day 11

Played a bit today with the lather. Left the boar brush and puck to soak while I showered. Dumped all the water from the bowl and squeezed the water out of the brush as well to dry a drier load than I’ve been doing. Started to load and was amazed, had what looked like thick yoghurty lather after 90 seconds! Excited by this discovery, I promptly went straight to my face with this lather and it was going on thick, but not as creamy as it had looked in the bowl. Started to disappear as well. Decided to set the faucet to drip, and started to drip water into the base of the brush and then face lather. Well, after a short time doing this, I wound up with a very nice lather. Thicker than what I’d been getting previously but still very slick. Shave was a nice two passes and fished everything off with the more mature and mellow Spanish Aqua Velva. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon shave.
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It would appear from sources around the web, that WIlliams has been discontinued. Probably why a couple of you could not find a puck locally. I'd suggest for those of you who do enjoy using it, to go out and look at your local grocery stores and drug stores and buy all you can to stock up before it disappears!
 
Feels like the rumor of Williams being discontinued floats around every once in a while - will be interesting to see if this is truly the time it is actually killed off, or it's just some broader supply chain issue and it pops back up in a little bit.

My Canadian Puck is going strong, 15 shaves in and averaging 1.8g per shave. Will give up the ghost right around the end of the month if the usage continues to hold.

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So I thought I would show you how I build the lather that everyone should be getting out of Williams.

Here's my set up...

Pre war British tech with a Wilkinson Sword blade (extra long handle frankensteined together)
Vintage Williams puck in a Monkey-approved mug
Every Ready C-40 badger brush
Hammered Turkish tin plated lather bowl

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Soak puck and brush while I shower...

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Drain off water from brush, squeeze and give one good shake to remove excess water. Drain mug. Start to load brush....

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This is after about 60 seconds. Lots of brush coverage. Its ready to build into a proper lather....

Back in the 80's and 90's I used to face lather but since discovering the lather bowl, I'm all about building my lather in one of these bowls....

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This is after about 2 minutes of vigorous whipping and occasional pumping of the brush. The best way to describe it is to push all the lather to the bottom of the bowl, push the brush down into the middle and pump the brush up and down a few times. I'm not sure why it works but it does. I think it may be forcing some of the air that is in the lather out because each time I do it, the lather increases its thickness. I never have to add water. Just the residual water from the brush and maybe a drop or two left in the bottom of the bowl after draining. And the lather stays this thick and fluffy through out the duration of my shave. I usually have enough to do two full passes. The lather never gets thin or dissipates. I know this is more than a few minutes worth of work to get a lather but its always worth it for the shave you'll get with the time you put in.

I hope that helps the guys that are having trouble with Williams. Stick with it. I don't want anyone to come away with a negative reaction to it. Its been around since 1840 and you'd have to assume that if it was so bad, that it wouldn't have lasted more than a few years.
 
I finally got a glimpse of a nice lather with yesterday's shave. I took the same approach as my last shave: very dry brush, bloomed puck, longer load time. Yesterday I switched out my Stirling Synth for the slightly larger Tech Hive Synth and may have gone a bit dryer with the brush than last time. The lather application before my first pass was just a step or two below what I typically get with a modern soap like Stirling or WSP. Not quite there but noticeably improved. It then degraded with each subsequent application. Not sure what I'll try to get the quality to extend with each application next time. I'm thinking instead of rinsing my face after each pass I'll just reapply directly so as to not add any additional water. 5 shaves in so far...
 
Fightingillini22 said:
Feels like the rumor of Williams being discontinued floats around every once in a while
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The last big scare was in 2015. Someone had emailed Combe's customer service and they replied that it was on it's way to being discontinued. We started a small email campaign and within a month or so, they replied that it was not being discontinued.

Now, someone has emailed them and asked them again, and they said it has been discontinued. None of their normal online suppliers (listed on their website) has any in stock. I fear this time it is for real. I've emailed them to confirm for myself.

If anyone wants to contact them and give a final plea...... Williams Mug Soap - Williams Mug Soap
 
heysi said:
So I thought I would show you how I build the lather that everyone should be getting out of Williams.
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I'm not getting it..... could you do a video?

heysi said:
Its been around since 1840 and you'd have to assume that if it was so bad, that it wouldn't have lasted more than a few years.
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From 1840 to 2004, Williams was an Amazing soap. It wasn't until Combe bought the Williams brand in 2004 and reformulated it that it fell to what most people describe as mediocrity. They reduced the amount of tallow in the soap, which made it harder to lather and stay stable. You used to be able to lather it and shave without a second thought. The modern stuff, for most people, requires a bit more attention to get an acceptable lather.... especially now since we are comparing it to modern artisan soaps.
 
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