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Making the powermatic shred work for pipe

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93rdCanadian

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I have received a portion of my black Friday order and its more beautiful leaf than the stuff I had from WLT years ago. I am very happy and excited to get started but I wanted to run my plan by you guys before I commit to going through the steps.

In the past I used the powermatic shredder for cigarette use. I have since quit but I still enjoy a quality pipe when I can find the time. My real plan here is to stash away many pounds to age until I am ready in 10 to 25 years to enjoy with more time on my hands.

My current plan is to shred with the powermatic, then press into cakes and jar after drying for long term storage. My concern is that the powermatic shred will be too fine a shag and when pressed into a cake and then crumbled it will produce a clumpy saw dust type cut which will clog a pipe easily. My alternative is cutting by hand using a sharp knife, however I am looking at processing about 10lbs of tobacco so I am not looking forward to using a knife to do the work.

I prefer a crumble cake because it will be easier for me to produce with hand clamps and a form.

Do you think pressing into a crumble cake will be sufficient to slow burn speed (in addition to blending, and stoving) but also not clog the draft hole easily? Thanks!
 

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What about flake?
 

93rdCanadian

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Thank you for the info Knucklehead and Bob! Im thinking I am going to do a test cake first with maybe just 8 ounces and see how the texture comes out.

The ropes/cigar idea is definitely an option too.

Do you know if I need to worry about moisture levels while pressing in a form or storing in vacuum sealed bags? I have seen others comment that mold wont grow in the vacuum sealed bags but I have my doubts hahaha. Im thinking that if I go the rope/cigar route that I will need to have the leaves in fairly high case to get them to not turn into dust during handling, the concern then becomes mold with all that moisture and low surface area for evaporation.

Ill update this thread with my progress on the test cake (will likely shred, case, and start pressing this weekend), Im still open to other ideas to process the powermatic shag to smoke slower/burn in a pipe better.

Thank you for the help!
 

93rdCanadian

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Thank you for the info Bob! I was right to suspect things were not right. My form is approximately 2" by 4" which is why I wanted to used shredded material. My dillema it seems is to either make a new form, make a screen to flake the tobacco, or hope this weekends experiment turns out.

Do you think that 30 minutes in an instant pot would be enough to steralize ilrolled cigars/ropes in medium/high case if they were in half quart/500ml jars?

I want to stove most all my tobacco to some degree, my goal would be anything McClellands which Im sure you are tired of hearing. My plan will be to make mostly pure virginia blends with a smaller amount of balkan and english blends. I only planned to stove the virginias but I plan on processing some of them much longer.

Im thinking if I steralize the blends then I can leave them for long term storage at higher humidity levels and worry about drying and shredding things when I open them later. My hope would be that the shorter processing time doesnt negatively affect the balkan and english blends. I really do enjoy the sweet, bready, malty, and stewed fruit flavours of stoved virginia tobacco blends.
 

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If you cook tobacco in high case, you get Cavendish. If you bring even dry tobacco to 149°F, you will destroy its primary intrinsic oxidizing enzyme (aging enzyme). At around 191°F, even the secondary oxidizing enzyme is destroyed.

If you're talking about many, many years down the pike, just store the whole leaf in low case until then, in the unopened bags in which it ships from WLT. It will age nicely for maybe the first decade, then slowly dissipate its more nuanced characteristics (though not its nicotine) by nothing more mysterious than increased entropy.

My own opinion (certainly not shared by everyone) is that tobacco reaches its peak of wonderfulness at about 7 or so years post harvest. Beyond that, some of the edgier varieties may lose some of their distinctive aromas. Mild gets a bit milder; harsh gets a little less harsh. All blended characteristics become less unique. It's just old tobacco.

Bob
 

93rdCanadian

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I believe that may be how McClelland produced their blends, I still have some Blackwoods Flake and Dark Star, I have handled cooked whole leaf virginia tobacco before and it looks and smells similar enough to me.

My original plan was to cook a portion of virginia (red, and lemon) tobacco lightly (low medium case, preshredded), a second portion heavily, then blend with uncooked brightleaf and press. The goal of the cooked leaf was to potentially slow burn speed and reduce tounge bite while also adding more stewed fruit flavours.

Edit: I do agree though about cooking all my finished blends is likely a bad idea
 

93rdCanadian

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I shredded a bit of leaf the other day and started the pressing process. I was worried about mold and also lazy so I didnt case the shred before pressing and pressed at low case. Im going to leave it in the press for a week then take it out for photos. It looks like a binder will be needed for my desired consistency, the cake holds together so far but rubbing it out produces individual shreds instead of the slower bruning clumps of shred im looking for.

I read up a bit more on the threads here and my next attempt will be in medium case with a light honey water casing for adhesion. It seems like mold isnt as much of a problem (at medium case) while pressing from what I have seen of others experiences when pressing for extended periods of time.

Im also thinking of doing containerless pressing as Bob has done in the past with freezer ziploc bags and 2 35lb kettlebells I have on hand. My form turned out to be 1.5" by 3.5" so it will be too small for larger batches.

Here is the shred I got from the powermatic, its about half the width of pipe ribbon. Probably doable in a pipe with careful packing but Id like to process it further to slow the burn. That being said im still torn on shredding all the leaf, Im thinking ill shred as needed until I get a cake consistency from my trials while also pressing some plugs using the containerless method that can be cut by hand.
PXL_20211210_200002371.jpg
 

93rdCanadian

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Pressed cake results
There was some adhesion creating the clumps of shred im looking for. Definitely needs a small amount of binding agent and more moisture during the press I think.
I rubbed out the entire cake and will be pressing another batch with a casing and will hopefully be able to try that one out in the pipe.
Casing recipe will be as follows:
1 cup white rum
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
PXL_20211217_180222475.jpgPXL_20211217_180213351.jpgPXL_20211217_180128646.jpgPXL_20211217_180119845.jpg
 

93rdCanadian

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2nd cake is out of the press. It looks and smells a lot closer to pipe tobacco. Will dry it and hoping to give it a taste in the coming days. The tobacco is darker than the first cake and has started to really take on a fruit cake aroma which is exactly what I love in Virginia pipe tobacco.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to make a bigger form for my press. Since I will be building that I might as well build a screen to produce some tobacco flake while Im at it.
PXL_20211223_173804108.jpg

PXL_20211223_173838169.jpg
 

93rdCanadian

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I rubbed out a corner of the cake and tried it this morning.
Its got a bit of bite to it for sure but its only red virginia leaf in this cake so no surprise. The taste was quite recognizable as pipe tobacco, it would definitely pass as an acceptable budget blend.
I think I can conclude that pressing with a binder is sufficient to make the powermatic shred burn acceptably in a pipe.
Im going to cook this cake to see if I can bring out more of the dark fruit flavours and see what it does for me.
Overall though I want to try to flake tobacco and press it to see if that texture is nicer (I suspect it will since it was recommended). I wont be shredding anymore until my new form is ready so probably not until early Spring.
PXL_20211226_122701233.jpg
 
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