My first shave with Williams was in 1964. My best friend (my dad) used it and I have used it ever since. I know it has gone through reformulations, but it is still my favorite soap and will be in rotation until I can no longer shave, the more things change-the more they are the same.
I find William's just as good a soap to shave with than others. Not saying that some artisan soaps do less than Willians. I, personally, like lanolin soaps the best but William's is a very viable, cheap soap that doesn't disappoint. I don't bloom the soap. I got out of that habit a long time ago. I just start with a well shaken brush and lather well. Add water when needed and go to town. The soap has proven to me it's worth by a straight razor shave and I had no problems. Budget friendly and doesn't have an unpleasant smell. It'll stay in my den. I have six picks on standby.
That's been my experience too. Never had a problem with it. I don't soak it or anything. I just treat it like any other hard puck. Load it like it wants to date my daughter. The lather is awesome. Every time. And so is the shave. I will always have it around.
I picked up a puck of Williams last month to finish out my soap rotation. That was my first proper shave soap.
That might have been the same guy who said "I don't like this soap" right into his video. That statement'll get a lot sold!!!!
Williams being my first "real" shave soap (prior to that I'd used an artisan puck with Bentonite clay in the formula but didn't really get good results with it), I have wondered why so many people complain about it. For getting it to lather, it's about as tricky as figuring out a Derby or Arko shave stick, but once you learn and adapt to its quirks, it performs as well as many artisan soaps. This isn't to say that one can't experiment with it; when both my Williams and my Van Der Hagen luxury pucks were getting worn down, I melted them together in the microwave to get couple of months out of the combined soap. The results were actually pretty decent. But on its own, again, once you learn and adapt to Williams' quirks, it's a good inexpensive soap to shave with and I recommend that everyone starting out wet shaving pick up a puck. If you can master Williams, you can master just about any shave soap.
Bull Feathers...you can not melt Williams..or other tallow soaps in the microwave. I am not the only one that will tell you that. There are threads here at TSD and on other forums that will tell you the same thing. Just do a search. You want to get a video and prove me wrong I am watching.
Can't say Fuzzy is wrong on this matter. Tallow doesn't work in the mic like a glycerin based soap does. When I was new and didn't know any better, the puck of William's I did try to mic, rest in peace, ended up doing like those 4th of July snakes. It erupted in a coil of soap from the middle out. Just doesn't work. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Not so, for I did it and the soap emerged in a usable state. Unfortunately, as I used it all up a while ago, I cannot show proof thereof, but I did do it. I only nuked them for about fifteen or so seconds, but it did work. I wouldn't do it again now that I have a decent-sized rotation and therefore am in no danger of running out of shave soap any time soon, but it can be done. Mind you, what you might find usable and what I find usable are probably two different things.
Mind you, the Van Der Hagen luxury puck is, if I'm not mistaken, glycerin-based. I could be wrong on that, though.
My first larger with Williams was more than 30 years ago. For many years, it was all I used, then I began to discover other brands which I prefer more. I have not used Williams for more than 10 years.
Nope, sorry, but I absolutely assure you that it worked. Now, how well it worked compared to an unmolested puck of, say, Oleo canard-base or Stirling mutton-base, is another matter. But For what it was, it got the job dones. I've since gotten a decent-sized soap rotation so I needn't molest my Williams again. But it can be done IF you have the right combination of soaps and don't nuke them too long.
Oh Lord, it's a good thing I have a big bucket of popcorn. Or like we say in the south, it's a good thing I have my boots on cause it is getting deep in here. Some of y'all gonna learn how to play dodgebrick.
