Anatomy, Snuff and Technique - Useful tips for beginners.
Hello,
As a snuff user I’ve spent a while trying to work out the best way for
myself to take a decent quantity of snuff without it hitting the back
of my throat while maximizing the scent and nicotine enjoyment. I
created this document to share what I have learned and to help other
beginner snuff users who may still be working on their own technique.
I find this technique works best for me with a small spoon, one in
which the bowl of the spoon is quite small, a little larger than an
apple seed. The one I use can be purchased here.
Any spoon with a small bowl size will do, and in fact with enough
practice this can be used with snuff tubes and of course the classic
pinch technique.
The first thing I wanted to work out was how can I get the snuff to
“brake” as it enters the intake air stream, so that it lines the
inside of my nose rather than flying straight back to my throat. Of
course air pressure is important you don’t want to inhale as hard as
possible, but I find with this method I can actually use a decent
amount of force. This allows larger snuff doses.
Let’s have a look at some snuff anatomy.
In Figure 1. the area surrounded by the cyan border is what our
nose approximately looks like on the inside. The area I am most
concerned with here is the channel running alongside the center of
the nose. The right hand side of the border area. If snuff can be
directed to flow along this inside channel it will actually slow down
and adhere here first, thereby avoiding a jet of powder hitting the
back of the throat.
I load my spoon and place it at angle so that the bowl is sitting at
the inside part of my nostril, towards the center of my nose. Then I
tend to partially block my other nostril with my finger. A medium
strength and short inhale draws the snuff along the inside of my nose
and avoids hitting my throat. It may take some practice, but that
shouldn’t be any chore for a snuff user.
Let’s have another look from the side to see what’s going on and to address
some things that happen when using snuff.
In Figure 1 we can see the path of the snuff as it enters our
sinuses. We have a lot of surface area inside our sinuses and this is
how the nicotine is delivered to our body. I once was asked how
awful it must be to have the snuff hit your brain. Well as you can
see here our skulls completely encase the brain so snuff never gets
inside our brains. Well not directly! The nicotine surely does.
Figure 2. illustrates how closely our sinuses are to our tear
ducts so may help explain why we get a little teary when we get the
snuff “burn”.
Finally in Figure 3 we can see how our sinuses are attached to the back of
our throats. When snuff draws through our noses unimpeded it usually
winds up here. This causes a prickly dry irritation which makes it
difficult to avoid coughing, and often is accompanied by a cloud of
snuff exiting your mouth.
I hope this helps illustrate a little behind what is happening when
snuff is inhaled. With a little practice you should be able to take
large pinches and enjoy them fully.
