Stop the presses! A retraction.......

[kingfisher]

OK, here goes. I started a thread a few months ago about how I resurrected a half-puck of Williams by grating it, adding glycerin, and then adding grapefruit essential oil. The soap lathered like a beast, made a gorgeous, thick lather, and shaved wonderfully. Smelled good, too. I was touting how the only thing wrong with Williams was that it didn’t have enough glycerin in it. I even joined into a thread about hating Williams, saying that if you just add some glycerine it will make a nice, rich lather.

Well, I take it all back!


Here’s the rest of the story..........I was almost out of that fantastic soap that I THOUGHT was simply tweaked modern Williams. I found another puck of modern Williams in my stash, so I decided it was time to tweak it before I ran out of the first soap. So, I did the exact same thing I did last time: grated the puck, added glycerin to wet all the pieces, added essential oils for scent (mostly tangerine, this time), then stirred it around, smashed it back together, and looked forward to another amazing puck of dirt-cheap shaving soap. After letting it set overnight, this morning I did a test lather with it. Not at all like what I had been getting. A thin, airy, dissipating lather typical of what people complain about when discussing modern Williams. What the puck?


Then I thought back to when I made that magical puck. I had found a half-puck of soap that I thought was modern Williams. I thought that based on the appearance and size of the puck, and that the scent was just a faint Williams scent. I remember even saying in the thread that I was “pretty sure” it was modern Williams.

However, I now know exactly what it was! It was half a puck of VINTAGE WILLIAMS!!!!! So, in essence, I took half a puck of vintage Williams, grated it, added some glycerin, and made it smell amazing and then had many fantastic shaves.

So, it is eat crow time. Vintage Williams is a nice soap, and it is made even nicer by the addition of a small amount of glycerine. Based upon my experiment yesterday and with the test lather this morning, MODERN Williams CANNOT be rescued and made into an awesome soap simply by grating it and adding glycerine.


All you Williams haters were right. And I was wrong. [frowny face emoji here]

 

[Chard52142]

Thanks for your update....very good to know.

 

[emwolf]

As an old newspaper man I can tell you that you forgot the line "and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

 

[ElonsMusk]

I've never even tried Williams but even I know based on forum discussion that modern Williams is absolute worthless junk

 

[luv2shave]

As an old newspaper man I can tell you that you forgot the line "and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

Any increased sales of Williams this may have caused

 

[SharpieB]

Any increased sales of Williams this may have caused

Exactly. People that bought a full twelve puck case of new Williams based on the OP are gonna be p!$$ed. That’s like a whole $11.88 down the drain.

 

[Scaramouche]

It works fine if you add a little bit of tallow, and some fragrance, and some glycerine, and some EDTA, and some coconut oil, and some sodium stearate, and some lauric acid, and some....

 

[pdieten]

I’ll be damned if I can figure out why so many people have so much trouble with the modern stuff, glycerin or no glycerin.

 

[KeenDogg]

I find it best to put it in a diner mug. Then I get as hot a water I can and fill the mug. Then I go shower. It seems to firm a nice sludge on the top of the puck after I dump the water into the sink. Then I proceed to whip it up vigorously with an Omega boar like Gordon Ramsay, calling it names and what not. Works out pretty well. Williams is better as a daily soap, it takes ample water.

 

[kingfisher]

I find it best to put it in a diner mug. Then I get as hot a water I can and fill the mug. Then I go shower. It seems to firm a nice sludge on the top of the puck after I dump the water into the sink. Then I proceed to whip it up vigorously with an Omega boar like Gordon Ramsay, calling it names and what not. Works out pretty well. Williams is better as a daily soap, it takes ample water.

Please bear in mind that I have not actually shaved with the Williams that I just tweaked. I only test lathered it. It was immediately clear that the first tweaked Williams was a puck of the vintage stuff.
Maybe I should try the new one to see how the shave turns out. I was only speaking of the appearance of the lather. Some people are insistent that because of the slickness, they get a good shave using Williams even though the lather appears suboptimal.
I'm such a lather snob. Maybe I think too much about what a lather looks like and not enough about the kind of shave it gives.

 

[KeenDogg]

Please bear in mind that I have not actually shaved with the Williams that I just tweaked. I only test lathered it. It was immediately clear that the first tweaked Williams was a puck of the vintage stuff.
Maybe I should try the new one to see how the shave turns out. I was only speaking of the appearance of the lather. Some people are insistent that because of the slickness, they get a good shave using Williams even though the lather appears suboptimal.
I'm such a lather snob. Maybe I think too much about what a lather looks like and not enough about the kind of shave it gives.

I totally get it. give it a good whooping and see how she goes. It is a highly contested topic! Hahaha. Good luck!

 

[muzichead]

Williams was the 1st have soap I'd ever used along with an Omega boar brush back in the 90's or so and was a daily shaver. I had yet to venture into the DE world at that point and had never been on a forum of any kind and no word of mouth from anyone to help me out so bare with me here....

I had success with Williams but it was due to never cleaning out my brush and just putting it back in the mug after the shave so when I wet the brush the next day prior to shaving I had so much lather still in the brush it didn't take long to whip up lather for my shave. I went through a boar brush about every puck and a half and thought I'd been doing it right the whole time until switching to a DE back in 2016 and finding B&B which taught me I was doing it all wrong!! Once I rinsed out the brush and went to use it the next day it was a very different lather than what I had been used to and the shaves weren't very good because of that...

Live and learn has never been a truer statement than at that moment!!

 

[thombrogan]

Appreciate the correction and I’m sorry it’s not working for you. I’ve read some people use the puck like a shave stick and have good luck, but no confirmation here.

There’s always Arko.

 

[H4nk]

Williams is my soap to add to shaving cream. Add lukewarm water to the mug while showering. Dump the water and then whip that rascal. Whip it like it burnt your dinner. Then jump into that scuttle with yesterday's AoS Peppermint cream and attack it. Go to it like you are the third monkey on the gangway to Noah's Ark and brother, it's startin' to rain. However much water you add to it is not enough.

 

[BigJ]

Thanks for the update! Vintage is definitely better for me too!

 

[lancre]

I find it best to put it in a diner mug. Then I get as hot a water I can and fill the mug. Then I go shower. It seems to firm a nice sludge on the top of the puck after I dump the water into the sink. Then I proceed to whip it up vigorously with an Omega boar like Gordon Ramsay, calling it names and what not. Works out pretty well. Williams is better as a daily soap, it takes ample water.

Modern Williams is the soap I learned on. It definitely works better in 3017-mode than in a large rotation. I put it in a Marvy mug (clumsy shower shaver and I don't want crockery shards around my feet), add water to about1" above the soap, and put an 830 or 10049 in to soak. At the end of my shower I dump the water, give the brush a single vertical shake, skip the verbal abuse, and load leisurely until the lather reaches the right consistency. Works a treat every time and doesn't dissipate.

 

[sarimento1]

how do you define "modern" Williams??
post-2010?
post-2000?
post-1990?

 

[kingfisher]

how do you define "modern" Williams??
post-2010?
post-2000?
post-1990?

Post-reformulation.

The puck I used this time around I just bought about two years ago, so I assume it was likely made after 2010.

 

[sarimento1]

Post-reformulation.

The puck I used this time around I just bought about two years ago, so I assume it was likely made after 2010.

so, was 2010 the reformulation year??

 

[luv2shave]

Modern Williams is the soap I learned on. It definitely works better in 3017-mode than in a large rotation. I put it in a Marvy mug (clumsy shower shaver and I don't want crockery shards around my feet), add water to about1" above the soap, and put an 830 or 10049 in to soak. At the end of my shower I dump the water, give the brush a single vertical shake, skip the verbal abuse, and load leisurely until the lather reaches the right consistency. Works a treat every time and doesn't dissipate.

This. 3017 Williams is the best way to use it. I don't submerge or bloom the soap at all after first few shaves. Initially the soap needs to hydrate and once I start using it daily (I put mine in a marvy mug too) - it dries but remains soft and ready to lather for the next day's shave.

I guess that is how it was meant to used in the first place and not in rotation with several dozen artisan soaps costing many times over!

That's how you made stuff back then. They expected us to choose a brand, get married and stay loyal !