I’ve searched this site along with the entire internet and there just isn’t a lot of info beyond the very basics. Forgive me if this topic has been beaten to death but I still have some questions as I tinker with creating my own snuff out of pipe tobacco. I intend to try cigar tobacco soon too since I love me a good stogie from time to time and have plenty on hand. I have gone over the “snuff making 101” thread here and it’s been the most helpful list I’ve found so far.

On to the questions;

1. Must I use water to add analyzers and salt? Can’t I just grind this up with my mortar and pestle?

2. I smoke a pipe so I have plenty of baccy on hand to experiment with and it’s all non-aromatic and as plain as pipe tobacco comes but I believe there are still SOME additions such as pg (propylene glycol) as well as possibly some anti-fungal and possibly some sugar substance. Are any of these additions a problem? They certainly don’t seem to be but I’ve seen some comments indicate that they might be a problem.

3. What if I enjoy simply grinding my pipe baccy and snuffing it? Am I missing out? I’ve been doing this now for the past week and I’ve been impressed with how simple and enjoyable it is -> Dry it, grind it in coffee grinder, add a pinch of salt, then mortar/pestle it into powder, sift and enjoy! It compares very well to the few commercial snuffs I’ve had. Since it’s the pipe tobacco that I like, it’s already tailored to my particular tastes! Am I missing out if I don’t age it?

4. Is the step of adding the water (plus salt and any analyzers) the step that helps it age when sealed or will it age if I never add water?

Thanks everyone!

*analyzers should be alkalizers*

When you’re using pipe tobacco you might want to consider giving it a brief toasting to minimize any propylene glycol effects.  You can’t eliminate them, but this might help.

You likely don’t need to raise the pH with commercial weed; it’s bound to be at the right level.

Unless you’re adding scent you don’t need to add any liquids, so you can mill your salt with the tobacco.  Use the best quality sea salt you can afford.  It’s worth it, and you don’t need much.

You might want to look at getting a very fine sieve or getting some screen online.  For finer snuff I use 100 micron and for medium I use 150 micron.  I don’t make many coarse snuffs but I used a 200 micron sieve for those.

I have an 80 micron sieve, but just getting air through the bloody thing is an exercise in futility.

If you like, then it’s perfect.

Thanks a ton for the input chefdaniel, I appreciate it!

I experimented with another round today after drying out some Cornell and Diehl burley flake #2 which is a blend of burlys and a small amount of virginia. I let it dry in the open air for about 5 days then, today, ground it in my coffee grinder and pounded it with a pinch of high quality salt in my mortar and pestle, sifted it and snuffed it right up. Notes of cocoa, earthy tobacco and a touch of sweetness. Didn’t add water, didn’t age it or anything. To my tastes it might benefit from a touch more salt. Not overwhelming in the nicotine department but there’s enough to notice.

How about moisture content? Do I want to seal it up the moment it’s ground and ready to use? Next time I well definitely try toasting prior to grinding!

Still not sure about aging. Any advice here from anyone?

I was at the store today and couldn’t find any sodium carbonate. Where the hell do you find that stuff?

I guess I’ll keep coming back and posting my experiments so others might learn from it. If nothing else it will be a way to track my own progress. Everyone is welcome to add their two cents to any of this as I’m very open to advice here.

I’ve only made it by grinding then adding base mixture, but I notice all the manufacturers seem to make the sauce, soak the leaves before aging, drying and grinding. I’m guessing there must be a reason for the latter method to be used as the former is much easier. I want to try it that way next. My current batch is using perique style fermenting that I read about from bigbonner, I’ve done it once by accident making snus, but this time is deliberate and will go for about a month, I’m half way in. A nice thing about homemade is the coffee grinder size snuff is easier to take, although I’ve been hitting the medium dry toast that I got a pound of while on sale last month and am getting a lot of practice taking the finer grinds now. A great mixture is made with the Virginia red leaf that Don sells at wholeleaftobacco.com, the smell right out of the bag is amazing, but and mixing it with dark air makes a nice snuff. Some of my best have just been the bottles that I pour the excess of each batch into, it’s just a mix of many different tobaccos so random every time, but really good. I’d still love to learn more from the experts though. I’m still a complete newbie but learning quick with the large amounts of different strains on hand but would love to see, just once, someone that is a master do the process from start to finish.

Moisture can be increased several ways.  I like to use RYO cigarette filters that are made from inorganic material.  I use booze to soak them and toss a few into a sealed jar or tin for a few days until the snuff is w

I had thought of doing this myself as I have a bunch of pipe tobacco in sealed tins from back when I used to smoke pipes. However, I decided when it comes to snuff, I prefer to let masters like Chef Daniel, Roderick and Johnny make it. Of course, that is only my opinion for myself.

Larry, I know what you mean. Commercial snuff is superior in many ways to home made, especially if one is a beginner like me but I’m trying to force myself not to buy commercial snuff so I have no choice but to improve my technique. I love my tobacco and this is one way to limit my use of it and limit the money I spend on it.

Currently, I’m snuffing a blend of the last few batches of snuff I made. I mixed them all together and that seems to improve things. Each time I make a batch I get better at it. While I’ll admit my own snuff is inferior to store-bought, I’m surprised how easy it is to make very decent, perfectly serviceable snuff! My favorite form of tobacco is a pipe and inevitably, I end up with tins that I may not want to finish. If I get good at making snuff, these can get used by making them into snuff.

Plus I guess I’m just a nerd and like DIY projects!

chefdaniel - You mentioned that you think pipe tobacco comes with the right PH and may not need to be alkalized. What if I just want to make it stronger? If it’s already at the right PH does this mean adding sodium carbonate won’t help? Would it just make it painful to snuff at that point?

Thanks everyone for adding to this thread

Using sodium carbonate doesn’t make it stronger per se.  It does make nicotine uptake easier. 

The nicotine in the snuff is what it is, all you can do is maximize the availability for membranes to absorb.  IMHO a pH higher than 9.0 is treading into some harsh territory.

Yeah gotta be careful, I lost a layer of skin with a snus I went overboard on the base, not a huge deal in the mouth, dunno what it would do in the nose.

snuffsahoy - so you make your own snus? Very cool. Have you ever used PH strips to see what that painful snus came in at?

chefdanial - I’m taking notes on all of your tips here and I’ll keep you posted on my progress. The reason I ask is because I want to kick up the nicotine of my snuff. I’ve played around with the flavor variable, the grind variable and now I want to tweak the strength variable. Can you give me more tips on how to increase/decrease the strength of snuff? Does salt effect strength at all?

Am I just going to have to mix in a stronger leaf like rustica or something if I want some very strong snuff?

The pipe blends I’m using for snuff are fairly strong according to most pipe smokers but in snuff form, they are weaker than W.E. Garrett which has been my favorite snuff of the few I’ve had.

Salt doesn’t have any impact on strength, at least that I’m aware of or can detect.

Rustica certainly works for boosting nicotine.  For domestic leaf I’ve found Kentucky Dark Air Cured packs a good dose of vitamin n.  YMMV.  I personally think that mid ribs have more nicotine than the lamina, but that’s just me.

What chef Daniel said is right (although gc analysis showed lamina higher), all things considered dark air types have the most nicotine in them. Huge plants, with about 4 to 6% nicotine. Rustica, if hit with tons of nitrogen can get to 9+ but are hard to cure and don’t produce a fraction of the yield of a good tobaccum. Jessica Nifong of the USDA grin did her thesis on them and with normal fertilization the alkaloid levels were on par with a flue cured leaf (aka Virginia) at 1-3 percent on average. If you are going for nicotine dark air is the best commonly available leaf. India has done some improving of rustica varieties (and tobaccum for that matter) that yield real well. I grew some gc-1 that had some nice yield. The bidi types developed at the bidi tobacco research station at the Anand Agricultural University developed a strain that is the highest tobaccum variety in the world right now, well above the y-1 strain British American Tobacco produced in Brazil that resulted in all the hubbub. @Manit_Joshi if you are able to export seeds I’ve been trying for the better part of a year to source gc-3 and anand-7. If there is any way to get a hold of these seed strains I would be insanely grateful for your help. But that being said don’t chase the dragon, you only catch it at the beginning and after that the closer you get the further it stays away.

@snuffsahoy  Excellent!!  I didn’t know that there were GC/MS data on the subject.  Very cool.  I just go by how dizzy I get after a big shovel full 

I’m not a fan of Rustica; it gives me visions that I’d rather not experience again.  I also am interested in what they’re doing in India, especially with whatever leaf they’re using for Madras.  It strikes my nose like a dark air cured burley, with a little something extra, besides the extra nicotine.  NB is my go to Madras and I am scratching the last crumbs.  Dammit.

Knowing that I could never even come close to the quality that I find in my favorites (especially 6 Photo), I figure that fiddling around with making my own would just be a waste of time.

Using RYO tobacco, I don’t have a clue about what sort of chemical additives may be in the tobacco that you get off of the shelf.

When it comes to Quality, Texture, and Consistency; most of the professionals have this down to an exact science.

Why reinvent the wheel?

howdydave - good question. My answer; I’m weird and like to reinvent the wheel! Some of us like to do things the hard way I guess. I like knowing I can make my own with what tobacco I have on hand rather than ordering some online and paying for shipping. I also like supporting U.S. tobacco growers and producers and almost all the pipe tobacco I get is American grown and processed so I’m starting with quality U.S. leaf that’s been minimally processed.

Update on my recent improvements - after playing around with salt content, I find a little too much is better than too little. It really does bring out the flavor/aroma.

Toasting is also the way to go if you’re using pipe tobacco (and cigar tobacco I would imagine). Leaving it out to dry didn’t work for me. I used my convection oven at 150 F for 10 minutes. Next time I’ll probably aim for 15 or 20 minutes. chefdaniel is right, toasting helps!

Perique features strongly in my favorite pipe blends and I find it to be absolutely amazing in snuff form!

My next experiments will involve the washing soda and a week of aging to see how that changes things.

Yes, I’m definitely reinventing the wheel here but for anyone who shares my strange ways, they may learn from this.

I made one that’s pretty good, it’s a mix of different tobaccos and instead of mixing everything into the water I mixed it in the coffee grinder when I was reducing the leaf. Instead of water to hydrate and start the alkalizing I used Jack Daniels whiskey and honey. Pretty good, and with the grinds the coffee mill will generate I can get massive spoonfuls up the nose at a time hehe. I went a couple hours with nothing, letting the craving build up then snuffed probably a quarter gram up each nostril. I’ve got the sweat on my nose and the feeling in the front of my mouth above my teeth letting me know it’s beating the craving into submission. Very nice:)

Ok, I finally experimented with adding washing soda. I’ve been snuffing my own homemade snuff from pipe tobacco with a heavy dose of perique and loving it (w/out washing soda added) but wanted to experiment. So, I used a tried up tin of Abingdon from C&D which is an English pipe blend heavy in latakia which I don’t like in my pipe, which is why it’s been sitting around not getting used.

Following juxtaposer’s ratio recommendations, I added half the amount of washing soda and the full amount of salt. The snuff toasted up great, ground to an absolute powder, then I added the washing soda and salt DRY, mixed in my coffee grinder and pounded in my mortar/pestle and gave it a try. It tasted/smelled like hell, just as it does in my pipe! It wasn’t strong in nicotine at all. I ended up throwing the whole thing out!

Oh well, Live and learn I guess right? I’ll keep experimenting and updating. Eventually I plan to order some whole leaves and apply what I’ve learned there. Any advice is welcome.

In the meantime, I still have a decent supply of the homemade stuff that I enjoy and I keep learning with each batch so I don’t regret anything. The baccy that I threw out wasn’t going to get used anyway.

Don is the name of the owner of this site.  Great leaf, good prices and outstanding service. Inventories can get a little iffy sometimes, but that’s the tobacco business, and why only use Don as a backup vendor when I can’t find my own locally.

Whole Leaf website

http://wholeleaftobacco.com/main.sc

Yeah I endorse him 100% Don sells the best whole leaf in the business. And if you really want to take a trip down the rabbit hole of tobacco obsession stop by http://www.fairtradetobacco.com and get started growing. As to the washing soda dry, it can’t freebase the nicotine in a dry setting, you’ll need to wet your tobacco so it can be driven into the cells and convert the pH. It’s also exceptionally harsh if it touches your mucous membranes and gets activated in the liquid. Part of only adding enough is so that as it raises the pH it is partially neutralized. Good thing you didn’t do too much, you might have caused chemical burning.

Damn, I thought the question about adding it dry was answered in the affirmative! It’s on me though.

I do plan to keep going down the rabbit hole but growing my own is a long way off. I’ll try a few more pipe blends and get my technique down and zero in on what I like, right now I’m thinking it’s Kentucky dark, burley and perique that suits my tastes in snuff, same as what I like in my pipe. Eventually I’ll try ordering whole leaf and storing it, making my own rope and such. I suspect that’s as far as I’ll go but who knows.

Thanks everyone for continuing to comment on this thread, it’s been a big help. There is so much info that is easy to find regarding all the other various forms of tobacco but snuff doesn’t have nearly the knowledge base by comparison so thanks again for helping out.

As much as I support artisan snuff making, bringing back a lost art (and appreciate even more chefdaniel sharing his wisdom and skill with us) I think there’s also something to be said for spreading the knowledge of how to DIY to get around big government’s taxation.

Yeah I’d added bicarb dry but it was only bicarb, it smoothes out saline solutions and that’s what I was going for not pH. I have to agree with you about Jaap Bes and chef Daniel, it’s awesome how frank and sharing they are with their knowledge. Oh editing in another thought here, Don sells a pound of Virginia dark for something like 14 bucks. Experiment with that instead of something you already know you don’t like.