How long have you been taking snuff?

My first snuffing was about 5 years ago or so, as a kind of novelty… But only been since around the start of this year that it’s become a more regular thing.

How did you hear about it?

Oh I’m sure I first saw it in a movie as a kid, but then I don’t know 10 years ago I was goin through the mall and into a pipe shop that use to be there and the owner asked if I’d ever taken snuff. I said I hadn’t and he tapped out a bit of Packard’s Club for me…and all I can say is wow it took my breath away…literally…but even through the initial discomfort I knew it was something I’d like.

5 years for me. Stefan

About 1 year i think

It’ll be two years for me come next month since I first began taking snuff. Although if you want to count the first time I tried “snuff,” I could go back about another year to a silly mistake involving snorting some Copenhagen.

@snuffster - Dunno if that question was general, or meant specifically for me, but I heard about it years ago when a box of Lowen Prise was being passed around at a pub I used to go to regularly, like I say about 5 years ago, and I was offered some… The others weren’t regular snuff users, it seemed to be more of a one-off thing, but I liked it! And got some of my own soon afterwards, and sort of got into it… but it’s been more recently that I’ve ‘done it’ (oo-er!) more regularly.

I also started in June 2009. I first tried what I could get locally… President and Ozona Raspberry. I didn’t really get into snuffing until I tried English snuffs a few months later.

I think I heard about snuff via Charles Dickens, or some other British author from the same era.

I have no idea where I first heard of snuff, honestly. It’s always just been in the background for me. I started using snuff seriously 11 months ago and it’s been a wonderful ride. Never looking back.

I clearly have too much time on my hands. Here’s my entire snuff saga with aspects of UK snuff history (those that I’m aware of) thrown in for good measure. 1959 First snuff experience was Fribourg & Treyer’s Bordeaux, courtesy of a broad minded relative who was an inveterate snuffer and cigar smoker. Occasional pinches continued until about 1963 when my first tin of J&H Wilsons No.1 was bought. 1963/4 Discovered House of Bewlay in nearby town. Huge choice of snuffs sold loose, in bottles and tins. Back then Illingworth and Smiths had easily the largest selection of snuffs and I tried them all. Bought first wooden snuffbox, which recently developed a crack. 1965 First visited Smith’s in Charring Cross, Wix in Piccadilly and Fribourg & Treyer in the Haymarket. Earliest lists in my possession date from 1965, tatty but still readable. Bought several pewter boxes. c.1967 Bought 2lb tin of Kendal Brown through the House of Bewlay. First bulk buy. 1967 First trip to Morlaix and Paris. First exposure to French rappee sold in waxed paper parcels. Tried the very moist muddy-green French oral tobacco, powerful, but disgusting. (N African oral tobacco better). Took to smoking cigars in Provence, a habit that would last twenty-eight years. Armed myself with the only Spanish snuff still available - 5 pst for a bag of about 40 grams of medium-fine unscented brown - and a litre of Spanish brandy for 12 pst before bullfight in Ronda. (Stuck it out but was very upset, drunk and ill by the end.) 1970 First visit to Dublin and sampled every available snuff, namely those by Carroll’s, Gallagher and Grant’s. (The latter claimed a genuine toast which had a mill similar to Old Paris and had a natural aroma rather like almonds. Obtainable anywhere in Ireland and Ireland only.) Became interested in clay pipes and pipe tobacco. (1970s Main UK manufacturers introduce the Alite system manufactured by Paxall of Letchworth for filling containers - 50,000 a day. The services of wenches and Boer War veterans no longer required. Electricity and modern machinery gradually replaced water and wind power during the 1960s) (1977 Mark Chaytor of Wilsons of Sharrow launches their famous Celebratory range for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Except for Grimstone’s Eye all these snuffs are still available.) (1978 Customs and Excise duty removed from EEC snuff tobacco. Formerly very expensive F&T snuff becomes much more accessible.) (1980/1 to 1984 J&H Wilsons began their advertising blitz. Memorable was “We’re as famous for pinching as the Italians” - reference to Italian men groping and pinching women on the street. Free box of No.1 or No.99 delivered with blue booklet. Geoff Capes, the world‘s strongest man, advertised Hedges in athletic and sporting magazines.) 1980/1 Visited Westbrook and Sharrow mills. Tours were advertised in tobacconists in Sheffield and associated tobacco literature. Slightly disappointed with all the hi-tec machinery. 1980/81 First noticed and bought the beautiful snuff bottles made by Poschl for their home market then appearing in UK tobacconists. (1982 Illingworth burns down in February. They somehow manage to continue manufacturing from a temporary site.) 1983 Bought last F&T from Wix in Piccadilly. It was from the proprietor there that I learned the Haymarket establishment had folded in December 1981. J&H Wilsons continue manufacturing F&T before passing everything on to Wilsons of Sharrow. Wix themselves went west thereafter, but can‘t remember when. This was probably the largest tobacconist anywhere in the UK. You name it, they sold it. (The AITS, in association with the Society of Snuff Grinders, Blenders and Purveyors and Martin McGahey publish the definitive list of all UK snuffs.) (c1984/7 Small UK snuff manufacturers Alfred Preedy, Hames Hargreaves & Sons, Robert McConnel Ltd (Scotch Roast, Gun Room, Minister’s), JIP Medicated Snuff Ltd of Nuneaton and James Upshall in Wiltshire (Walnut and Lavender ) all seem to stop their (now mostly forgotten) snuff lines or went bust. JIP snuff survived and is now made elsewhere. UK snuff sales hit hard by decline of coal mining.) 1987 Discovered some wonderful Bernard snuffs in Switzerland, sold in bottles. Amostrinha (now mentholated) Feinster Kownoer, Civette, Pariser No. 2 and Alt-Offenbacher Koestlich. Despite being a German company their snuffs were not readily available anywhere in north Germany except occasionally in paper wrapped foil. 1995 Stopped smoking cigars. Started buying 1lb drums of English snuff via post on a regular basis. 2009 Joined this site.

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a 50 yr stroll down snuffing lane … very nice. i enjoyed that post.

Excellent post @PhilipS , very enjoyable read. Such a shame about all those small UK based companies though…

Wow did you have all this written down or did you type this post off of memory?? Your memory is astonishing!

I’m thinking about 4yrs, whenever I joined the forum, I’ll have to look. I did an exchange for some snus, as I was new to that, and curious, and in the exchange I also got a Jaxons Cherry Menthol. Well, I really wasn’t digging the snus experience, and that Jaxons sat in the freezer for a long while, and one day I decided to try it, and I loved it. I thought it was great, and then I rather quickly after that found this forum and made my 1st order at MrSnuff. I did eventually learn to like snus, and that lead to trying other oral tobaccos, but now I am quitting oral tobacco(I mean it this time) and only using nasal snuff.

Good luck tom502 this time! You’ll be in Guinness book of records soon.

Thanks AllanH. I don’t want to sidetrack the thread, but I used to smoke, and while not as bad health-wise, I find oral tobacco to be harder to quit than smoking. But I can do it. That’s why I am reluctant to recommend it to anyone. Snuff, the nasal kind, to me is more like a hobby, I’m not jonsin’ for a sniff upon waking, maybe some do, but I don’t. I feel I can enjoy nasal snuff in a hobby way, and not be gripped to it.

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I first snuffed when I bought some Mccrystals violet from a tobacco shop at 18. Have used daily for about 3 years now. So off and on for about 12 years and steady for 3.

That was a nice read PhillipS.

My cousins friends used to snorted Copenhagen Snuff thinking it was the same as nasal snuff. Then I gave them a half empty container of D. White lol