I found that back of the hand and spoon methods are really easier and faster techniques but I assume logically that they don’t heat the snuff dose and prepare the bouquet of scents like the pinching method or is it just a myth and you will get what the snuff has to offer anyways ?
From my limited experience, although it might depend on the snuff, I find that I usually get the scent better by pinching than other methods. I thought maybe it was because I took more with a pinch than with a spoon but having just made and used a much bigger spoon I still find pinches give me fuller flavor with most snuffs.
@TomStrasbourg I use pinching, back of the hand, boxcar and spoon (my pipe tool spoon actually) and I really don’t feel any difference what so ever.
The only thing I have noticed is that coarser snuff feel more comfortable in my nose when I use a spoon.
Even so I rarely use a spoon. I usually pinch. After that box car or back of the hand if I am using Toque’s stanless steel flask.
I usually use whatever method the container is best suited for, but when I use a spoon on a tin I usually pinch out of, I can’t seem to get the flavor quite as strong. If I take huge bumps off the back of my hand it makes up the difference versus pinching, but I haven’t tried a spoon bigger than a pinch. With about the same size, however, I find fuller flavor from the pinch, except for 6 photo because those flavors are so strong I just take a tiny spoonful and I’m set for an hour. I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the way I use my nose than how I use my hands though. Im thinking it also depends on the snuff and the snuffer a lot.
whats boxcar?
@Snuffster Boxcar is rounding your index finger around your thumb nail and put snuff in the area between the index and the nail, perfect when moving or in windy times.
@Slide and @TomStrasbourg That’s what I think, the flavor depends merely on the snuff itself not the way you take it with.
It’s a myth! If you keep your snuffbox in a pants pocket, then the snuff is already warmed to body temperature… Fingertips are cooler than body temperature.
IMO pinching has a negative effect because it gets skin oils and all sorts of microscopic nasties into your snuffbox every time you stick your fingers into it for a pinch. They can then start to “blossem” in that warm, dark environment.
I use the boxcar method:
Wrap your index finger around the end of your thumb and put your snuff on the thumbnail. The little pocket formed between your index finger and thumbnail makes a good wind-screen
To prevent contamination I use wooden snuff boxes with sliding tops. Tap boxes also work and, with practice, you can master the technique with a smash box. You open it just a crack and tap snuff directly onto the thumbnail.
@howdydave A number of people here credit you with coining the term “boxcar” for that method. Care to verify or deny?
@howdydave Thanks a lot for the information, I use the boxcar method and the back of the hand already, I failed until now to perfect the pinch method with fine grinds like Toque Quit and it is really not comfortable for me at all that’s why I wanted to know if I never use the pinching I will miss the full snuff experience or not.
@Roderick That’s the same I feel, I don’t feel the same with the pinch whatever speed I use to deliver the snuff and it always gives me throat hits unlike the other methods which can be controlled easier imho.
I may have been the first person to use the term “boxcar” on this site, but I learned about it several years ago on a different snuff message board:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snuffboxthenasalsnuffclub/
It’s just about the quantity flowing over your nasal receptors, not how it get’s there. I think pinching is the best way to take snuff as a method, the experience can only be the same.
@Snuffster I think the boxcar method can deliver more quantity and you can control the flow as well.
I think “Boxcar” refers to the coupling system for rail cars, it kinda looks like the thumb/finger method. Just speculating of course.
@Pot Poe Yes it does mean that too and you can return to a previous comment of howdydave explaining the boxcar method very nicely, enjoy snuffing man 