A Pound of Tobacco ?

[Blackhorse]

The other 10% being piss & vinegar?

 

[ftrplt]

Ha-ha, weird stuff that FVF, darn tasty but weird, mind you I was given some 6 yr aged FVF once and it was hard as nails, still tasted good though.

Hmm.. I received an unsealed tin of FVF in my last order. The flakes are hard as nails and almost black. I was going to just pitch it, but I'll have to give it a go.

Oh, and of course smokingpipes credited my account, so no worries there.

Don't pitch it; just remoisturize it. Lightly spray wth distilled water or put in sealed tupperware with wet paper towels in a baggie or put in bowl & cover with moistened cotton cloth. FTRPLT

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

The Patton blend Cool Hand Fluke is 40% Perique. When I bought mine from 4noggins, it was very moist, and ditto on reordering twice. I complained to Rich and he said the Perique he uses is very wet and to "stop complaining and enjoy it." I was glad he phrased his words in this manner as I knew exactly what he meant.

 

[pipemaker]

BH,

I don't have the exact figures... the dog ate my notes... but the lowest reading was 1.45 oz. and the highest was not above 2 oz.

My parameters regarding the "proper level of moisture for smoking" may differ from what others may find acceptable, so the "science" involved is not very objective.

When I buy bulk tobacco, I usually dry it to my preferences, jar it and store it in the humidor.
That way it's ready to smoke whenever I please.

Mike B

 

[peckinpahhombre]

"Oh dear, what ever you do don't dry out any Samuel Gawith or Gawith Hoggarth blends to compare weight before/after the fact, it's not a petty picture. "

I hear you on this. I always had the same feeling. The fact that SG has that statement of their tobacco indicating that the weight is the weight of the tobacco at the time of tinning only made me think this even more. On another forum, someone tried an experiment drying out SG blames to seem how much moisture there was. I believe it was BBF and/or FVF but can't recall. Sure enough, there was a bunch of weight attributable to moisture, but the surprising part was that the average wet weight of a 50g tin was well over 50g (I believe 57g was the average), so by the time the blend dried to the appropriate level, the tobacco was only slightly below 50g. In short, it wasn't as bad as everyone expected.

 

[gravel]

Yeah. Me either. I love the sound of those bubble pipes.

Where's the pic of that drying tray someone rigged up to sit just outsize the exhaust fan port on the their laptop? Totally epic. Totally brilliant. And it works as well!

That was George Kaplan's setup.

I smoke it as it comes. It works for me.

 

[Hawker]

"Oh dear, what ever you do don't dry out any Samuel Gawith or Gawith Hoggarth blends to compare weight before/after the fact, it's not a petty picture. "

I hear you on this.  I always had the same feeling.  The fact that SG has that statement of their tobacco indicating that the weight is the weight of the tobacco at the time of tinning only made me think this even more.  On another forum, someone tried an experiment drying out SG blames to seem how much moisture there was.  I believe it was BBF and/or FVF but can't recall.  Sure enough, there was a bunch of weight attributable to moisture, but the surprising part was that the average wet weight of a 50g tin was well over 50g (I believe 57g was the average), so by the time the blend dried to the appropriate level, the tobacco was only slightly below 50g.  In short, it wasn't as bad as everyone expected.

I have found the same results buying aro's from Boswell's, concerned with the moisture content unpon arrival I have weighed a couple of bags and they always go well over the said amount. Never actually dried the whole bag at once to check for "smokeable Wieght" as I fiqured they have allready taken that into consideration upon packaging so I just sit back and enjoy. Never enjoyed math in school so I sure don't want to encorperate it into my smoking pleasures.:lol!: :lol!: 

By the way, Peck where have you been. Miss seeing your PAD posts. That was my way of staying in touch with new makers and seeing what's out there. Glad to see your posting again.

 

[Dragonslayer]

There’s a Point of Perfection for every blend, the PoP though varies for each smoker. Some like blends wet while others prefer that blend dry. It’s just another of the great things about pipe tobacco that varies from cigars. I don’t think many care for a dried out or wet stick, but with pipe tobacco we not only get to find our PoP in moisture but in cut. Some just like to pack it the way it comes. Others like to at least bring it to a non-gurgling state. Then of course some will dry it to dust and love it. The true fun is finding what the PoP on the blends you smoke often.

Ribbons are my least favorite of cuts and find it’s mostly ready to smoke. It may need a little drying in the beginning but after being opened for a while it’s dried up enough from opening and closing needing a humidifying coin before it through. Crumbled flake it pretty easy with half the work done for you and breaking up a couple clumps for a quick dry if you even feel the need. I smoke mostly flake, SG and the 6” planks, the way I prepare my cubes to achieve my PoP takes little time just patience. SG flake like BBF, FVF, and SJF runs the spectrum, some like firing it up, smoking steam, clogging the pipe from expansion and then dumping the wet remains. I’ve smoked them just about every way you can from rubbing them out, lamp drying even microwaving it. But making up a batch of slowly dried cubes delivers the most on all levels. Is it a pain to take the time and cube up a flake and let it sit for hours to dry out enough to keep lit finding there’s still too much moisture in the middle. I smoke a lot of cubed flake and would never spend the time to do this bowl by bowl. So I solved the problem with doing it in batches which takes little time and always have perfect cubes ready to smoke. The most time consuming part is the first taking me about 10 minutes. I take four to six 6” planks and cut them up into cubes a little larger than 1/8” and spread them over a glass plate. I don’t use paper towels that will absorb oils along with moisture. I let it sit overnight and the next day you can see they’ve dried out and will “ting” when you drop them onto the plate. But if you look close they’re darker in the middle. That moisture needs to come out and the outer tobacco shouldn’t become too dry. So I put it all in an old tin for a day or two. Then all back on the plate. It’s all wet again as the moisture has evened out through the cube. So it’s overnight again, the next day it looks good but when it’s humid out I run it a third time. All back in the tin, and from there you have many, many bowls of nicely prepared cubed flake with kindling for the top. If you like it a little dryer you can let it sit for a bit, but for the most part with a nice tap filled bowl you’ll be enjoying smoldering briquettes of tobacco, all flavors intact. Not smoking any steam or expanding and clogging. I rarely need a relight or tamp and as I sip, a quick pull fires the bowl right up. The tobacco will last weeks in perfect shape, probably longer but they don’t last that long. So time wise you have very little invested and a lot of fine cube ready to go. :cheers: 

Craig

 

[SteveS]

Having way too much time on my hands this week,
I thought I would see how much tobacco there is in
a one pound bag.

If you've still got too much time on your hands, weigh some tobacco, then smoke it and weigh the residue in order to see how much the smoke weighed ...

That's something I've done with cigars, but haven't the patience to repeat with pipe tobacco ... not to mention that the subject drew fairly little attention from other cigar smokers ... maybe the pipers here will be more receptive.

 

[monbla256]

Having way too much time on my hands this week,
I thought I would see how much tobacco there is in
a one pound bag.

If you've still got too much time on your hands, weigh some tobacco, then smoke it and weigh the residue in order to see how much the smoke weighed ...

That's something I've done with cigars, but haven't the patience to repeat with pipe tobacco ... not to mention that the subject drew fairly little attention from other cigar smokers ... maybe the pipers here will be more receptive.

MMMMM weighing smoke :evil:  Is that like "... I've got some smoke from Mt. St. Helens I'll sell ya " ? :evil: :evil: 

 

[docwatson]

Craig Tarler once said that his tobacco from Cornell & Diehl is blended and packaged drier than most and the result is more tobacco per pound than from most other manufacturers. I would say that's true because most blends I have enjoyed from C&D are pretty dry, ready for the pipe, and burn extremely well without any condensation.
But when it comes to flake tobacco, IMO if it's too dry you lose much flavor and it will burn hotter than hell.
Just my 2 cents. 

 

[Wellpipe]

I find Peretti's is on the drier side, but still springy and ready to smoke.

 

[rothnh]

I enjoy my pipe tobacco at just the right dryness. Some is perfect out of the tin, some is too moist, and, rarely, some is too dry. With bulks, at least with the ones I cellar and restock, the same blend can be all over the place from bag to bag: over moist to over dry.

As far as "perfect dryness," I agree with Craig (Dragonslayer) -- it's simply one's personal preference.