So I’ve been trying to get more into grinding my own snuff lately, but I’m having difficulty nailing the texture. I’ve used a coffee grinder, mortar & pestle, panty-hose sieve, the works, but the snuff is always a bit to coarse for my taste; any suggestions?
A favorite trick of mine is to dust out the coffee grinder lid. A few whirls then brush the dust out again and so on until you have a bit of premium “cabinet” grind.
Another thing to do would be to keep the first sieving draft separate. The first draft is normally of exceptional quality and is ideal to be finished off in a mortar with a pestle with no further sieving necessary. Also adding a tiny bit of water while finishing will expand and soften the particles for further break down.
If you are a lover of soft fine snuffs like I am, you will appreciate these two styles.
After these two methods you will wonder what to do with your snuff of the “third kind”. Well… I suggest juicing the stuff up with alkalizers or what not and letting some fermentation (putrefaction?) break it down a little. I suppose you could end up with some “cabinet fermentar” or something like that. Honestly, I have not gotten this far being so consumed with my Cabinet and First Draft snuffs.
Ok, thanks!
For a consistent fine grind, porcelain or hard stone mortars work best. Just grind a small amount at a time until it’s fine enough. It will take some time and effort. Re-sieve the finished snuff at least three times. Another thing that will help is to use a rigid mesh sieve. Pantyhose stretches too much if you want a consistent grain size.
I use steel balls in a rock tumbler to grind my snuff. Unless i leave it too long, it comes out a really good consistency, a little bit finer than a Toque grind. I couldn’t find a rigid mesh the correct size, so I stretched pantyhose over a rigid mesh so I could control the grain size a bit better than just leaving it loose. My grind comes out of the tumbler fairly consistent, and the sifting finishes it off to a really nice, even batch of snuff.
Now if I could only get the flavoring down. In my opinion, that’s the real trick to the whole thing.
What kind of flavor materials are you using? There’s different ways of adding aromas to snuff.
Right now I haven’t tried much at all. I figures I had better get my grind down before I worked on the next part too much. I’ve used some essential oils, but I think I’d like to get some fermentation going on. Also, my base tobacco blend sucks eggs. I got the worst stuff I could just so I could practice and get my grind down. I was thinking about trying one of the recipes posted in a recent thread once I get some decent tobacco to start with.
A rock tumbler? I haven’t seen one of those in a long time…I’ll have to give it a shot!
I have two different models. One is a cheapo kids tumbler that has the Smithsonian brand, but it has a plastic barrel so it’s noisy as hell when you’re grinding. The model I love to use is a three barrel Lortone tumbler. The barrels seal really well, and they are made of a rubbery material so it makes very little noise while running. The multiple barrel system also makes it great for different kinds of tobacco all grinding at the same time, or even mixing snuffs if you want a really even blend. I haven’t spent the money on ceramic grinding balls yet, but steel works well for me. I always pour the batch into a container with a heavy magnet to get any metal dust, but I haven’t seen anything yet, so they don’t seem to degrade on the small batches that I do. In my area, good sized bearings are hard to find, so I hit the sporting goods store and bought steel slingshot ammo in two different sizes. It works like a champ and I really enjoy the grind that comes out.
@Dogwalla - thanks for the tips. How much to you grind at a time in one barrel?
about 1/4 - 1/3 of a pound, depending on what it is. Moderately packed, I try not to fill the barrel over about half way. The barrels on my tumbler are fairly small though. I know that some of them are just massive, and you may be able to get a bunch more in at a time. I just find it works a lot better if I don’t overfill the barrels.