Appreciate this feedback. I don’t for sure it’s the tallow in Williams that made it work for, so am willing to try other things. I have just ordered a Razorock puck and one of the Stirlings with tallow, to get me started..
Who Still Uses Williams Shaving Soap? What Have you Settled on as a Replacement? Thoughts on other Commercial Shaving Soaps as Alternatives?
- Thread starter Lane101
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- #82
Good choices. The Razorock What-the-Puck soaps are a regular part of my rotation and are excellent. Great value too!
Note that I also use the Cyril R. Salter soap recommended above. Excellent tallow based soap at a reasonable price with a nice scent.
Which Razorock puck did you order?
Razorock’s “What the puck.”
I'm lucky to have 2 antique and 2 modern williams. They are in a monthly rotation. The older Williams shines above the newer by a long shot. But I enjoy both.
Surprised no one has reversed engineered Williams and made a clone Soap.
I wish they would. But presumably a pretty small market.
Got my Razorock puck in the mail today. I guess I was thinking, for some reason, that it was made with tallow, but looking now more closely at the ingredients I see that it is not. But I am certainly willing to give it a try.
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- #88
While I'm also a tallow shaving soap fan the Razorock pucks are excellent with ingredients that are the same or similar as soaps that cost many times as much. See post #62 on the thread linked below for details.
Which puck did you get? I've had great results and enjoy the scents from the fougere (Black), barbershop (Blue) and Green label. Let us know how well your new soap works for you.
razorock what the puck triple milled shave soaps - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/razorock-what-the-puck-triple-milled-shave-soaps.621130/page-4#post-11738208
P.S. Razorock calls these pucks "What-the-Puck" (WTP). While they took the WTP off the soap labels, most likely due to complaints from some, it is still called WTP on the Italian Barber web site.
I got the black label WTP soap. Certainly a good price!
Tried out the Razorock puck tonight. I like it! Not quite as good to my mind as Williams, but pretty close. One thing I noticed is that my skin burned a little more when I put aftershave on..
Fwiw, I tried today one of the Stirling sheep tallow pucks. It did not lather up especially well but okay I guess. The shave itself was pretty good though. A bit too “slick” of a feeling from the lather for my taste. Also I don’t particularly like the smell of the soap. Not strong but not esp pleasant- honestly it sort of smelled like sheep to me..
Was sifting through my stash the other day and came across two pucks of Williams, purchased around 2013-2018. I don’t have any idea if and when I’ll use them. They just remind me of my Dad since that’s what he used when I was a kid.
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- #93
The nostalgia from Williams was one of its best parts. Plus until 2022 one could buy a puck from our local grocery store for under $1.
When I returned to DE shaving five years ago I started with just Williams as it reminded me of my grandfather who used a similar puck, that I believe was Colgate, in a mug with a boar brush. I'm roughly a couple weeks away from 3017ing the blends (one-third Williams) in one of my apothecary mugs and plan to break out a Williams puck from my inventory in its place. It always works best in a mug where you can build lather directly on the puck.
Enjoy the nostalgia either as a collectable or Way-back Machine shaving experience!
When I first got into wetshaving an artisan who is no longer in business tried to reverse engineer a vintage Williams. I think she called it Walters Brothers. I got two of the pucks and they weren't bad.
I am sure that someone has already mentioned it, but VDH Deluxe is a also a great value when purchased from Walgreens or VDH. The quality of the lather is good and the product seems to have a good deal of moisturizer in it for good post-shave. The scent is very mild. I would agree that WTP is a little nicer, but VDH is definitely worth $3.
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- #96
It is a good value, especially when Walgreens runs various sales that can drop the price to under $2 per 2.5 oz. puck on occasion. I've a few of these in inventory.
I've also found that VDH Deluxe makes a great ingredient to my Van Der Williams (or Arko) soap blends. It makes the blend easier to lather and, as a melt and pour soap, acts as a great binder to hold all the other grated soap ingredients together. Note that the VDH Luxury (larger 3.5 oz puck for $4-5) is even better with added glycerine that provides enhanced slickness.
Note that Walgreens has been out-of-stock on VDH Deluxe for a while though it is still listed on their web site. VDH Luxury can often be found on various store/supermarket shelves.
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- #97
@poppi , @lancre , @Opolar , @GaryTha , I'm a couple of shaves away from 3017ing the custom Williams blend noted in my OP above. Will finally introduce a straight puck of Williams into my regular soap rotation. Will shave first with my boar, that historically worked best with Williams, and then see if I can get great Williams lather with my synthetics. It's been well over a year since I used a straight Williams puck.
Good Luck. Williams can give a great shave. Think I'll use it tomorrow for a Williams Wednesday.
Once Tabactober is over I would like to use my Canadian tallow first ingredient Williams soap to shave with. Normally if I want shaving stick style shaving I’d just rub the whole puck along my face. However to make it more legit I made my Williams soap into a shaving stick. I’m looking forward to be shaving with my Williams shave soap stick!
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I have several pucks of Williams but they are relatively recent (the boxes all have a web site address listed on them). These pucks don't lather hardly at all and (at least for me) are just not good to shave with.
Based on the accolades WMS has received through the years, though, I am guessing that vintage Williams is much better for shaving than the pucks I have.
Based on the accolades WMS has received through the years, though, I am guessing that vintage Williams is much better for shaving than the pucks I have.
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