What, *ANOTHER* rabbit hole??? @Nothing Clever

[Nothing Clever]

Greetings, y’all - what an amazing place you have here, love the storefront/clubhouse vibe

Never knew this was a thing until a day or two ago: I found myself in a temporary cash pinch & low on smokes, so I scraped together for a pouch of Bugler, raided an ex-roommate’s abandoned sack of rolling papers…and after 50 years of smoking as much as 3 packs per day, plus or minus, found myself with a whole new relationship to tobacco & smoking it.

To abbreviate the story, 2 weeks ago, I was a pack-a-day smoker, @ $12/pack; today, I smoked 1-1/2 cigarettes, and I’m putting together my first order from WLT, fueled by memories of discovering English full-Virginia cigs back in the 70s

My game plan is to grab a TC-100 from the Amazon, order some Virginians to play with, then add in the ‘exotics’ (red-tip Burley, perique, Izmir…), making up my own blends as I go along

I have never been excited about tobacco until now

Speaking of which, the range & depth of info here is dizzying - and I love it! Thanks for this place & everyone in it! I’ve already got a half-dozen tabs open….

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar.

Bob

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[DaleB]

Welcome!

 

[johnny108]

Welcome!
The next question is, how much garden space do you have?

 

[Knucklehead]

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

I have never been excited about tobacco until now

Great feeling isn't it!

 

[DaleB]

Oh, and... if you think Virginias make nice cigarettes, try something like Izmir. I dare ya.

 

[jclif43]

Welcome!

 

[Nothing Clever]

Oh, and... if you think Virginias make nice cigarettes, try something like Izmir. I dare ya.

I do, and I’ll take you up on that - I’ve read thru the comments on most of WLT’s offerings (still some to go - kind of an education of its own) & Izmir & several others popped out at me…think I’m about to start my own pound-a-month club, adding something different to what I’ve got so far each month: Bright, VA Red Tips, Izmir will be my first 3, I’m thinking

Here’s my first real question: has anyone ever done hand-shredding & not regretted it? It would be swell if I could avoid the expense of a shredder right now, so I’m thinking of starting testing my knife skills. I have a wicked sharp nakiri, a steady hand, and a ton o’ patience…also, a ton o’ practice mincing herbs & vegetables; I’m sure others have tried a similar move so I’m curious about others’ experiences -anyone got tales good & bad?

Another question: are there videos showing the destemming/deveining/shredding process itself?

Thanks for the responses, yall

 

[deluxestogie]

@rainmax approach to stemming:

Stemming Leaf (by @rainmax)

fairtradetobacco.com

@Knucklehead shreds his leaf by rubbing very low case leaf through a wire mesh, to end up with a Bull-Durham style flake.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

@rainmax approach to stemming:

Stemming Leaf (by @rainmax)

fairtradetobacco.com

@Knucklehead shreds his leaf by rubbing very low case leaf through a wire mesh, to end up with a Bull-Durham style flake.

Bob

It's hidden within one of my grow blogs. Here it is:

Knucklehead's 2022 Prilep and Veggie Container Grow Blog

Last nights (predicted) low was supposed to be 37F and the same tonight. Too close for comfort so the plants are sleeping indoors last night and tonight. After tonight it looks like I'm clear to put them outside in a permanent location. No sun at the back of the truck so these had their own...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[Nothing Clever]

@rainmax approach to stemming:

Stemming Leaf (by @rainmax)

fairtradetobacco.com

@Knucklehead shreds his leaf by rubbing very low case leaf through a wire mesh, to end up with a Bull-Durham style flake.

Bob

Thank you SO MUCH for that!!
Such a boost to my grasp….
(Pix >>> words)

Makes sense of something I read about stacking leaves & rolling them up… much clearer now, feeling more confident about freehand shredding…

 

[deluxestogie]

Another approach, if you want to make actual shreds with a knife is to roll the tobacco into a crude "cigar", slice it into coins with a knife, then slice across the coins to form the desired shred length. The method is illustrated in the following pipe-blending post. The thickness of the coins determines the width of the shred.

Unlikely Pair pipe blend.

Bob

 

[Nothing Clever]

Eager to get my first order placed…at the same time, y’all are the old hands. I’ve been leaning toward Bright for my 1st, but I keep thinking about the VA red tips….

I’ll be ‘blending’ what I get w/ a half-pouch of US-grown American Spirit…what would you guys suggest for my first pound?

 

[Knucklehead]

Eager to get my first order placed…at the same time, y’all are the old hands. I’ve been leaning toward Bright for my 1st, but I keep thinking about the VA red tips….

I’ll be ‘blending’ what I get w/ a half-pouch of US-grown American Spirit…what would you guys suggest for my first pound?

See poll at top. I can delete that if you don't want it in your thread.

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Eager to get my first order placed…at the same time, y’all are the old hands. I’ve been leaning toward Bright for my 1st, but I keep thinking about the VA red tips….

I’ll be ‘blending’ what I get w/ a half-pouch of US-grown American Spirit…what would you guys suggest for my first pound?

Hard to go wrong with one of WLT's Whole Leaf Blends.

Ill wager that you would totally enjoy American Old-style Bold Tobacco Blend, 1lb.

"This whole leaf tobacco blend is comparable to classic premium American style tobacco brands. Hand selected whole tobacco leaves, it has the strongest flavor of all our blends.

Each package contains one bottle of casing #1 for the Flue Cured tobacco and one bottle of casing #2 for Air Cured tobacco. Please use the casings separately and then blend the tobaccos together. Casing is a mixture of FDA approved food grade ingredients used to correct the raw aspects of the tobacco."

 

[Nothing Clever]

See poll at top. I can delete that if you don't want it in your thread.

No, that’s fine - thank you

Hard to go wrong with one of WLT's Whole Leaf Blends.

Ill wager that you would totally enjoy American Old-style Bold Tobacco Blend, 1lb.

"This whole leaf tobacco blend is comparable to classic premium American style tobacco brands. Hand selected whole tobacco leaves, it has the strongest flavor of all our blends.

Each package contains one bottle of casing #1 for the Flue Cured tobacco and one bottle of casing #2 for Air Cured tobacco. Please use the casings separately and then blend the tobaccos together. Casing is a mixture of FDA approved food grade ingredients used to correct the raw aspects of the tobacco."

This stopped me in my tracks…I haven’t more than glanced at any of the blends, but I’ll go do that, it might be just the thing

Thanks for speaking up!

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

No, that’s fine - thank you

This stopped me in my tracks…I haven’t more than glanced at any of the blends, but I’ll go do that, it might be just the thing

Thanks for speaking up!

You're welcome!

Im still new to whole leaf and its one thing I regret, passing by the blends at first. With a Knuckelhead Shredder you'll be smoking premium in a week with ease.

 

[Nothing Clever]

Well, I did like I said…now I get to sort *those* out. Honestly don’t know about the “old-style bold”…was smoking the yellow ones ‘til I couldn’t afford a fresh pack; since then, a half-ounce of Bugler & same of the dk-blue AS has got me ~50 hand-rolls, which have been satisfying for me in ways cigs have never actually been for me…no tongue bite, gentle throat hit, can’t really say much about the flavor(s) at all

As long as nothing falls to the level of Galois blue, I’m likely okay…still leaning toward the Virginia blend because happy memories discovering imported Dunhills ~’71, then State Express & Player’s #6 in England a year later…the blend would speak to ALL of that, and give me ‘room’ to add something more different next month.

Lordy, it all sounds like so much fun…alright, I'm dropping the order

BTW, “Knucklehead shredder” is the 1/4” hardware cloth, right? This will be mine, for at least a minute: