Hey guys. I'm "new" here in that this is my first post, but I've been referring to this site for a long time. Since this is my first year growing tobacco and a lot has changed with the German mills closing. I figured since I've started growing tobacco and making snuff full-throttle this year, I'd throw my hat in the ring and talk with you to compare notes and swap stories.
The rubber drum rock tumblers, impart an unavoidable rubber smell in snuff.
Do they really use one of these? Is the tumbling drum itself a rubberized plastic type material, or is it rubber-lined? I imagine they use rubber to keep the noise down, but it doesn't sound good for aroma of the snuff itself. If this is true, then it
perfectly explains those faint overtones of…well, rubber…that I haven't been able to identify in those WoS and F&T snuffs. For years since I started thinking about how they make that stuff I've wondered what that smell is.
Where did you hear about this if you don't mind my asking? I'm trying to compile as much info about snuff-making as I possibly can. I've found a lot, but it's never enough, heh!
The old and defunct Samuel Gawith mill's tumblers were all steel-on-steel, and no doubt
very loud. Looking at that machinery compared to today's is wild—old, rusty, greasy, dusty, and dangerous as heck. It's not exactly OSHA-approved for safety, haha! It's awesome that they processed
so much snuff over the years using only the power of the river.
I'm sure you guys have seen this but I'll put the link here just for posterity:
View: https://youtu.be/FpA1RF32irs?si=Ygizasy8c4tetmp1
I have made a “toast” from stems in a crock pot. The result is buttery and fluffy. I’m pretty sure HDT has some stems in it as well.
When you say you used a crock pot, do you mean that you put your tobacco flour and ingredients (water, salt, pH adjustment of choice, and any aromatics) all into that crock pot and ran it until it was dry? This really interests me. I have so many questions, but I'll spare you. I've read through
a lot of the snuff threads on this site and I love hearing about everyone's different methods.
Stems-only snuff sounds like it could work out fine. On the one hand there's
definitely nicotine in them, but on the other, there are very little terpenes and compounds that make tobacco leaves smell like they do. Interesting. What sort of tobacco were the stems from? I'd love to hear about anything in particular you might've gathered from making that batch.
I wonder what the problem would be? Seemed like a decent idea to me, but I'm new to the snuff game.
Roderick was referring to was the possibly of a piece of metal or anything the balls might be coated in which may crack and break off into the flour.
With that said, I know for a fact that stainless steel ball tumblers are used in industrial-level chemical and food manufacture. Thousands of powdered products intended for human consumption—from pharmaceuticals to vitamins, protein shake mixes to baby powder—are often made using tumblers. Almost every solid pill you've ever taken started out as a compound that was mixed with fillers and binders, and then pulverized in a tumbler to make it as uniform and homogenous as possible before being pressed into a tablet or put into a capsule.
Roderick obviously knows
way more about snuff-making than I do, but tumblers have definitely been used in snuff-making. The video I posted in the first part of this reply (see above) shows them being used in the old SG mill.
I don't know for sure, but a rock tumbler sounds riskier than one with stainless steel balls as far as tainting your product is concerned. As the rocks degrade, eventually some powdered rock ends up in your snuff. Whenever I think of rock tumblers, I immediately think of how they're used to make denim softer.
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This is a long reply, I know, but since I've been lurking here without contributing anything for a long time, I thought it'd be nice to give back. Have a great day guys!
D Then I added 3/4 tsp of this solution to it.
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