Whole leaf tobacco

[Plinsc]

I do have a scale that scales now too! Lol

[Piping Abe]

No just a knife!

You gotta get a shredder man. Its like $30 lol

[Plinsc]

Yea I will, my attempt this route is to see how I like different casings and to see what all gear I can do cheap as possible. I saw where someone made a shredder out of frames and hardware cloth, I’m going to try that first

[Plinsc]

Here’s 2 piles of leaf, each is an ounce, one left in whole pieces and one tore up.

[Piping Abe]

Yea I will, my attempt this route is to see how I like different casings and to see what all gear I can do cheap as possible. I saw where someone made a shredder out of frames and hardware cloth, I’m going to try that first

You down to trade me some raw uncased leaf?

[Piping Abe]

Here’s 2 piles of leaf, each is an ounce, one left in whole pieces and one tore up.

I heard handling without gloves will give you a serious buzz! Very cool

[Plinsc]

Here’s the casing I tried, Delux Stogies recipe, seems like a good starting point!
I substituted white rum for the Canadian club
Casings
* into a spray bottle, add several ounces (say, 120-150 cc) of Canadian Whiskey -- I use Seagram's VO. No water is added.
* add a 1/2 tsp (~2.5 cc) of Vanilla extract
* add a drop of anise oil
* add a few drops of pineapple flavoring
* mix the bottle contents well (until the cloudiness of the anise oil has vanished)
* This mix will keep, unrefrigerated, for many months.

* Use:
1. Pre-heat oven to only 175ºF (~80ºC)
2. Spread shredded tobacco evenly on a cookie sheet (I line with foil)
3. Moisten the tobacco thoroughly by misting with the casing solution
4. Place in the oven for 5 to 6 minutes (until just barely dry)
5. With your fingers, toss the tobacco to redistribute it
6. Repeat 3 through 5 about four or five times
7. If the final tobacco is a bit too dry, mist it with pure water to bring it to a dry but flexible state.
8. Store in a freezer Zip-Lock, and wait a few days before smoking.

[Plinsc]

I’ll grab a shredder, a whole pound of leaf is only 19.99! Hang on to it for when I hook you into trying this out for yourself! I send you samples!

[HSigurdsson]

Years ago I grew some tobacco that was extremely successful.
This was like 2004 when I did not smoke pipes, I smoked cigars.
I grew Pennsylvania Broad Leaf, Connecticut......and a couple other types that grow good up here near Canada. The plants grew extremely well according to what I wss told they would do. Some of the plants grew to almost 10 feet tall and about 25 feet around. The place I got the seeds said they would grow to about 6-7 feet and 15 feet around. Some of the Pennsylvania Broad had leaves that were 20+ inches long and 15+ inches wide.
I dried and fermented them in several different ways as suggested by the online cigar group I was involved with.
Without any exaggeration they cigars they produced were pretty darn good. Better than many premium cigars I have tried.
THEN......the next year I got the SAME seeds from the SAME place and grew them the SAME way. But, the plants grew to about 4-5 feet with thin, narrow and veiny leaves.
I wss told that the dirt was possibly depleted of the proper nutrients. This was very fertile soil where I had been growing vegetables for many yesrs.
I turn manure and vegetation into the earth every year but did NOT do this before I started the second season of tobacco. I was told that tobacco plants have very different nutritional needs than corn and oats. But, the previous year the plants did fantastic. The next year I turned in the usual manure and vegetation, but had the same horrible results as the second year.
Theeeeen, the next year I bought seeds from another place and put some plants in the original area and the rest in a new area.
The plants in the original plot grew like crap again, bit the plants in the new plot grew like the first year. Huge plants with thick, huge leaves.
Ive been growing on this land for decades bit cannot figure this one out.
After that my interest in growing tobacco ended.
I have contemplated trying again but who knows.
Now that my interest is in pipe tobacco, I believe the size of the leaves matters less.
Cigar leaves need to have the correct size and thickness to roll cigars, while with pipe tobacco this is probably less important.
The tobacco from the "bad" years still tasted fine but the cigars were like 36 gauge and maybe 5 inches long after trimming the leaves.
I will be watching this thread for ideas about how to process raw leaves into good pipe tobacco.

[Plinsc]

I suppose it could but this is such a small amount that I’ll miss out on the bare hand buzz!