Oldest shave soap ?

I recently brought an old spice shaving soap, I'm guessing it's from the 70s, I haven't done anything with it yet, that's the oldest I've got and I'm not sure how potent it is.

What's the oldest soap you used and how good was it ?

Old Spice from about the same time period as yours. It was awesome soap to use. But only had a faint sent to it.

I think this soap is from the 50's or 60's. Not sure. It still has its scent -- kind of like Old Spice. I keep meaning to try it, but the imprinted Seaforth logo on the surface of the soap looks too cool that I hate to mess it up.

When Alexander the Great ordered us to shave our beards and cut our hair before the Seize of Gaza, we used the fat renderings of goats preceded by an olive oil pre-shave. He believed it gave us an advantage by limiting what our enemies could grab in close combat.

It did not have a name.

August West said:

It did not have a name.

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Alexander's Wool Fat maybe?

Edit: Oh wait, you said goat, not sheep...

OkieStubble said:

Alexander's Wool Fat maybe?

Edit: Oh wait, you said goat, not sheep...

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Close enough.

Very good, Tony. Gave me a good laugh.

BSAGuy said:

Very good, Tony. Gave me a good laugh.

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I wish I knew. I have some Vintage Williams but there's no date on it.

Not sure what my oldest would be. I have a vintage Williams, and two Colgate Cup Soaps, and five pucks of Old Spice. I know all of the Old Spice pucks are the newer ones (relatively speaking), based on the packaging.

I've got one puck of williams from the 70's that I rarely use due to the lack of scent, and old tallow odor. It's really a great performer but not worth using when I have so many other nicer smelling and performing soaps.

My oldest soap that was purchased new by me is my tabac that I've had at least 5 years or so. I've used maybe a half inch of the puck, and it's very frequently used, very long lasting and great soap. Scent is still very good, maybe mellowed a little which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I have a puck of something from probably the 30's or 40's, judging by the condition before re-hydrating. The words "Zanvl shaving soap" were impressed in the soap before I started using it. Scent wise, it's just tallow at this point, but the lather from this puck is nothing short of amazing. Easy to load. Easy to lather. Very slick. The foam is not as dense as Valobra/Czech and Speake/TAOS tallow soaps. But, the Zanvl's lather is just as slick and nourishing as anything. Post-shave falls just shy of Mitchell's Wool Fat, but it exceeds The Fat's properties in all other respects, in my opinion. I've not been able to find any information on where it came from, nor any better way to date it.

But I digress. Old soaps? Yeah, they still work.

For me boat load of vintage Canadian Williams and Barbershop soap from the 80-90`s. I`m so glad to have saran wrapped them all in order to keep in the scent.

August West said:

When Alexander the Great ordered us to shave our beards and cut our hair before the Seize of Gaza, we used the fat renderings of goats preceded by an olive oil pre-shave. He believed it gave us an advantage by limiting what our enemies could grab in close combat.

It did not have a name.


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LOL!!!!

Lots interesting comments, I may break into my old spice soap and see how it performs, the cool thing is, it comes with its own old spice shaving mug.

Some names were mentioned that I haven't heard of before

OkieStubble said:

Alexander's Wool Fat maybe?

Edit: Oh wait, you said goat, not sheep...

Click to expand...

Coffee went up my nose this AM!

I scored this really nice 2nd generation Hull Pottery Old Spice mug from the 1940's. It came with a vintage Ever Ready brush and a crusty old puck of shaving soap. No idea what brand but I'm guessing Williams or Colgate.

I washed the crust off of the puck and decided to shave with it. The lather was amazing! Super rich and slick. I have shaved with it a few times already.

Unfortunately there is no soap scent left. I guess the fragrance has faded away. Now it just smells like that giant bar of Fels-Naptha soap that was always in the outdoor sink at my grandma's house.

Amazing how many have said the lather is still good or better than expected when using old soaps, o wonder of there is any victorian shave soaps still about in someone's attic waiting to be discovered.

I have some old (1970's) Williams Tonsorial soap and some Colgate Tonsorial, I think the Colgate might be older (late 60's but i wouldn't be surprised if they were even older) both are amazing performers with a classic old scent that cant be beat. They take on scent easily if you want to soak them with Aqua Velva or some Essential oil (Lavender works nice). I also have some old Yardley in a wood bowl, incredible stuff. The old/vintage tallow soaps you find in wood bowls are mostly good performers (a few dogs) but none have any smell left. The Old spice in the cup might not have much if any scent but it is still going to be a good soap. If you must have the scent you can float some old spice on the puck, let it soak in (and the alcohol evaporate off) and you will get some scent for a while.

In my book the old stuff is some of the best you will ever shave with. I like the "old" smell that comes with that half used soap in a worn wooden bowl from 50-60 years ago. Poke around, thevez2 has made (or added to) a list of all the old vintage tallow soaps that are out there. Some are highly sought after treasures and some are just old junk.
[MENTION=111674]Britshaver[/MENTION] I suspect you might be able to find some old Yardley hiding in an attic, that would be a fantastic find for sure.