Found a use for williams soap...

Well since I now own 4 boars and soon to be 5 with the semogue SOC coming in, I figured I need a way to speed up the break in process. Early in my DE shaving career I bought a cake of williams and after smelling it, I never even wanted to use it (and still haven't). With all these boars now, I needed a way to break them in without trying to use them all as that would take a long time. I like to let my brushes dry for 2 days before using again.

My strategy has now become to alternate days using a badger and a boar. However on my boar days I use one of the brushes for shaving, and the other 3 I have been just working up a bowl lather with Williams. Allowing 2 days to dry, I figure I can now get 15 days of break-in each month for each of my boars for the cost of a williams puck. I may even have to buy a williams puck again

Just thought I would share my strategy for breaking in a number of boars when it is impossible to get them all a fair share of use.

Good idea.......

I did that as well with a puck of Williams. Got bored with seeing cruddy lather and tossed it. I'll find me some of the old Williams someday and give that a try.

Myself what I use for breaking in my brushes is Van Der Hagen Glycerin soap.

kooshman7 said:

I did that as well with a puck of Williams. Got bored with seeing cruddy lather and tossed it. I'll find me some of the old Williams someday and give that a try.

Myself what I use for breaking in my brushes is Van Der Hagen Glycerin soap.

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lol, that is my next one. Once the williams is gone I'm going to use the puck of VDH I have

Strong work Harvitz

Fozz7769 said:

Strong work Harvitz

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I know some people have used a hair dryer to speed up the process as well. I just worry about the extreme heat these things can give off and would rather let the hairs dry naturally. Although I guess millions of people use hair dryers on their own hair with no troubles (the fact that I don't own a hair dryer and my SWMBO is back at grad school probably also has something to do with it)

This is same thing I use Tabac for.

I actually have a mug or two of "Rejects" I use to break in boars and wash new brushes and just lather for the hell of it now and then. There's a puck or two of bath soaps that were sold as shaving soaps, I tossed the ends of a few decent soaps I didn't feel like chasing around the bowl, and some good "tester" soaps I did that were unscented or made too hard to load easily. A couple samples I've gotten that didn't suit me found there way in there too. Even a vintage or two that didn't impress me.

Harvitz81 said:

I know some people have used a hair dryer to speed up the process as well. I just worry about the extreme heat these things can give off and would rather let the hairs dry naturally. Although I guess millions of people use hair dryers on their own hair with no troubles (the fact that I don't own a hair dryer and my SWMBO is back at grad school probably also has something to do with it)

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I have used the old hair dryer trick before, with good effect. I did not dry it until there was smoke coming off it though