Arko usage

[andromeda673]

Well here is my final report for Williams, looks like I got about 16 shaves or so out of a puck of Williams and that's with really hard water.

12/31/2021	Williams
1/1/2022	Williams
1/2/2022	Williams
1/3/2022	Williams
1/7/2022	Williams
1/8/2022	Williams
1/10/2022	Williams
1/11/2022	Williams
1/12/2022	Williams
1/16/2022	Williams
1/24/2022	Williams
1/28/2022	Williams
1/29/2022	Williams
1/31/2022	Williams
2/1/2022	Williams
2/2/2022	Williams

 

[GaryTha]

Wow! One puck lasted me all of 2022, and I'm still using it. I get about 180-200 shaves per puck. How many shaves do you get from Arko? Maybe you should buy a gallon of filtered water for making lather.

 

[jmd]

Insisting on the water's hardness feels like a tell, like this is some sort of long con. But you are right, I don't know. Like I simply don't know how someone gets 47 comfortable shaves out of a Feather blade.

If you were a full-body shaving sasquatch whose tap water was the slurry of a calcium mine, the difficult thing to comprehend would not be that sasquatch exists, that he lives in an apartment, is a frequent shaver, a body groomer, and bowl lathers. The mind-bender would be the consumption rate.

So, thanks for sharing. Arko is fantastic and blends well with Williams and others, it plays nice. You might also consider some inexpensive Italian soaps available in bulk and investigate their performance characteristics.

 

[Multum in parvo]

Could you do some pics of your setup, the loaded brush and the final amount of lather? I’m still confounded by your numbers…

 

[bluesman 7]

I spend under 3 cents on the filtered water that I use for shaving everyday. An ARKO stick lasts me 9-10 months.

 

[andromeda673]

I've posted a ton of pics in my daily shave pictures that are posted in the daily shave forum. I load Williams till there is no air bubbles, just like many others, do I load more then others here, maybe maybe not, I don't have a ton to go on with it to be honest.

Here's what I do know, it's a $1.28 for me or so, depending on where I get it, if I can get 25 to 30 shaves out of it, that's over a month, and that's just fine with me, I do this to use up what I have not get 300 shaves from a $1.00 puck of shave soap. Kudos to the guys that are getting that sort of mileage out of their pucks, but that's just not me. I did get more shaves per puck when I was staying with my Grandma, she is on well water and everything loaded super easy and very nicely.

 

[FarmerTan]

I've posted a ton of pics in my daily shave pictures that are posted in the daily shave forum. I load Williams till there is no air bubbles, just like many others, do I load more then others here, maybe maybe not, I don't have a ton to go on with it to be honest.

Here's what I do know, it's a $1.28 for me or so, depending on where I get it, if I can get 25 to 30 shaves out of it, that's over a month, and that's just fine with me, I do this to use up what I have not get 300 shaves from a $1.00 puck of shave soap. Kudos to the guys that are getting that sort of mileage out of their pucks, but that's just not me. I did get more shaves per puck when I was staying with my Grandma, she is on well water and everything loaded super easy and very nicely.

Dude. Seriously, ignore number of shaves, especially from people like me that are so tight that I squeak when I walk!

You need to go into the "International Sale of Williams Soap" business on a few places I know of on the interwebs!

 

[GaryTha]

I've posted a ton of pics in my daily shave pictures that are posted in the daily shave forum. I load Williams till there is no air bubbles, just like many others, do I load more then others here, maybe maybe not, I don't have a ton to go on with it to be honest.

Here's what I do know, it's a $1.28 for me or so, depending on where I get it, if I can get 25 to 30 shaves out of it, that's over a month, and that's just fine with me, I do this to use up what I have not get 300 shaves from a $1.00 puck of shave soap. Kudos to the guys that are getting that sort of mileage out of their pucks, but that's just not me. I did get more shaves per puck when I was staying with my Grandma, she is on well water and everything loaded super easy and very nicely.

A single puck of WMS is $7.95 on Amazon now.

Scratch that. It's unavailable now. It's time for the seven-year "Williams is going out of business" rumor.

 

[andromeda673]

I might go to my local grocery store then and stock up then.

 

[Lane101]

I've posted a ton of pics in my daily shave pictures that are posted in the daily shave forum. I load Williams till there is no air bubbles, just like many others, do I load more then others here, maybe maybe not, I don't have a ton to go on with it to be honest.

Here's what I do know, it's a $1.28 for me or so, depending on where I get it, if I can get 25 to 30 shaves out of it, that's over a month, and that's just fine with me, I do this to use up what I have not get 300 shaves from a $1.00 puck of shave soap. Kudos to the guys that are getting that sort of mileage out of their pucks, but that's just not me. I did get more shaves per puck when I was staying with my Grandma, she is on well water and everything loaded super easy and very nicely.

Hi andromeda673, Thank you for the update.

With 16 shaves you are using just over 3.1 grams per shave. Similar to the 3.0 grams per shave you achieved from the Arko shave stick. Roughly twice the 1 -2 gram average many report for their soap usage. The beauty of these soaps is that at a buck or so per puck we can use as much as we want. Williams is still 99 cents at our local grocery store. My favorite part of the DE shaving process is building and applying piles of lather.

What I first came back to DE shaving over 2 years ago I started with Williams alone and got 2 and a half months out of a puck. With better technique and equipment (large 26mm boar brush) I'm now getting about a month and a half's worth of shaves with much better lather. I lather directly on the puck to build initial lather and then complete the lather build via face lathering. Have found that with my current technique/equipment that the best results are achieved with a moister brush at the start of the lathering process.

P.S. Just looked at Amazon and Williams has almost disappeared from the site with just one seller offering the product for $9.95. At that price Williams is not worth it. 4+ ounces of Mitchell's Wool Fat, at under $15, is a much better value. Wonder what is happening with Williams as Walgreens has been out of stock on-line (not sold in stores) since last November. Will post separately on this.

 

[GaryTha]

Just looked at Amazon and Williams has almost disappeared from the site with just one seller offering the product for $9.95

A single puck of WMS is $7.95 on Amazon now.

Scratch that. It's unavailable now. It's time for the seven-year "Williams is going out of business" rumor.

As the cost of labor goes up, it doesn't pay a business to stock inexpensive products. In my opinion, most of the inexpensive shaving soaps will disappear.

Razors and blades may disappear because they are "unsafe." Think of the children. They may be classified as deadly weapons, and we may have to get a license and pay registration fees.

The cost of shaving may become so high, it may become a means of distinguishing the rich from the worker bees.

There may be $10.00 DE blades in our future, and I don't mean per 100.

Disclaimer: I'm good at predicting; not so good at being right.

 

[Ivo4u2]

Wondering what your sewer pipes are going to look like after a daily 3g tallow hit.
I tend to clean mine preventative every 6 months to prevent issues.

 

[Cal]

Disclaimer: I'm good at predicting; not so good at being right.

 

[GaryTha]

Arko is going up, too. So are other inexpensive soaps. And I only have 24 pucks of Williams and 3 pucks of Van Der Hagan left.

Luckily I ordered 200 Astra SP blades and 200 Wilkinson (Indian) Sword blades just before the 10 year Sabbatical. (I hadn't made up my mind yet.) I have another 70 Astra and about 30 Wilkinson.

I better stock up on pens. I only have about 80 left. I go through one a month. Luckily, I like the inexpensive BIC rounds. I have 120 empty notebooks I'm working on. I go through one every ten days.

Oh, the humanity. I'm off to Walmart.

 

[thombrogan]

Arko is going up

ARKO! is going on. It’s going on the whiskers and then down the drain.

 

[bluesman 7]

Arko is going up, too. So are other inexpensive soaps. And I only have 24 pucks of Williams and 3 pucks of Van Der Hagan left.

Luckily I ordered 200 Astra SP blades and 200 Wilkinson (Indian) Sword blades just before the 10 year Sabbatical. (I hadn't made up my mind yet.) I have another 70 Astra and about 30 Wilkinson.

I better stock up on pens. I only have about 80 left. I go through one a month. Luckily, I like the inexpensive BIC rounds. I have 120 empty notebooks I'm working on. I go through one every ten days.

Oh, the humanity. I'm off to Walmart.

"I don't even buy green bananas anymore" George Burns

 

[andromeda673]

I’ll stop at my local grocery store on Tuesday and see what they have for Williams shave soap. If they have some available, I’ll buy a few pucks this time. I’m sure like all things in this world it’s a supply chain problem.

 

[Wilkinsmooth]

here in the U.K. ARKO is £6.99 for 12 sticks(900g) on Amazon. 90g Pucks are £4-£5 each or nearly £10 for 3.

 

[Sabres_Edge]

Paid $14 for 12 Arko sticks last year on Amazon.ca. Today, the cheapest 12 pack with free shipping is $50.

3017'd the first stick with only face loading/lathering and got 11 months (90-ish shaves). Mashed the 2nd stick and now loading from a bowl which doesn't seem as efficient. Might *only* get 8 months from it.

 

[steveclarkus]

$18 on Amazon w/ free shipping.