Williams Mug Shave Soap Williams Wednesday shave.

[Droo78]

Wednesday's Shave

Ever Ready 1912
GEM S/S PTFE (2)
Semogue 820 Boar
Vintage Williams Mug Shaving Soap
Dickinson's Witch Hazel
Aqua Velva Aftershave

Today was the first shave using my newly acquired vintage puck of Williams. I soaked it 24 hours in the bottom of a mug (pictured) that has almost the same diameter as the puck (water just barely covering the top of the soap). This was my way of re-hydrating and reviving the soap. I dumped and refreshed the water three separate times and the puck was ready for use this morning. What a complete difference from the modern pucks. WOW! I will state for the record - I am able to achieve decent results from the modern pucks. The lather I achieved today though was in no way comparable to the modern Williams. It was a thick, yogurt like, creamy lather. There was also NO dissipation. As for the shave performance, I have to admit there was not as much of a night and day difference. Still very slick, but it's a bit more protective than the modern version and the post shave feel is better too. For $5, I consider it a good purchase.

Three passes today with the Ever Ready 1912 provided a BBS result with no irritation or mishaps. Surprisingly, I did have enough lather in my brush for two more passes.

You could have slipped the blooming..... The soap would have worked just as good. But on that note I am glad you now know the joys of Vintage Williams!!! Welcome to that show!!!

Thanks, Fuzzy.
I wasn't sure what I really needed to do for the old puck. So, I just did what I thought seemed logical. I had read threads about grating the soap and adding boiling water, then letting it dry for 4-5 days (some added menthol crystals). All of this was to rehydrate the soap. I didn't want to do that just yet, but I felt I probably needed to do something. Perhaps I was mistaken.

It really is a great performing soap, and from what I could tell from my short research, this puck probably dates as far back as the 1950's to early 60's. The price circle has the 19 cents stamped in the middle and also on the front of the box is another price of 5 cents handwritten. The puck inside was wrapped in a paper Aqua Velva advertisement.

On another note, I still have the puck of Colgate Shaving Mug soap that I have not used yet. I may try using it without blooming first and see how it goes. Its box has a barcode on it so I know it is newer than this puck of vintage Williams.