Hey all, new member here. I started snuffing bout a year ago, and it took most of that year for me to decide I could actually quit smoking by using snuff. It all started with this site and me procuring a can of bruton scotch from a local rundown convenience store. Out of all my friends who tried it I was the only one who actually tolerated it, but I never learned to enjoy it (ended up dumping it out to use the plastic tin). When I went back for a can of swisher honey bee things changed. I totally loved it and began using it pretty regularly. Eventually I learned to pinch this snuff liberally without it hitting the back of my throat. I could easily take large piles off my hand but found this method to be more sloppy. Recently I purchased some Toque and while I found the flavors and effects awesome, I sadly was not able to pinch the stuff! I could pinch W&H toast just fine but Quit and PB hit the back of my dome almost as bad as the bruton (the burn wasn’t comparable though). Half the time I inhale it. Now, I can take the PB and Quit off my hand with no trouble. I can pinch Hedges fine as well, and although the menthol seems to have some local analgesic effect on my nose such that I can take this stuff like blow, it looks like a similar grind to the Toques. Any ideas? I’m sure that I’m sniffing with restraint (the technique that works for me with toasts), but perhaps I am not holding the pinch in the proper place wrt my nose. Thanks all edit: oh yeah, also any tips on getting a neat pile of snuff on your hand out of a single compartment sliding top snuff box?
Well, I can’t exactly say I’m any kind of an authority on the subject, but here’s what I’ve gathered from this forum and found to work for me. 1. When you pinch, roll the tobacco between your fingers a little. That’ll make it a little more uniform, prefenting the sandstorm-effect. 2. Before taking a sniff, take a deep breath and keep it in. That way your sniff will stay shallow, and prefent you from inhaling the snuff too much. 3. Tuck your chin to your chest. That oughta block your throat somewhat. Also, from what I can tell, you need far less of an gale when pinching, as your fingers form a respectable seal on your nostril when compared to using the anatomical snuffbox. I’m fairly sure I will be correted by the more experienced folk out there.
The comment about a “respectable seal” has already improved my results… I thought I might have had the pinch too close but it wasn’t close enough. Sealing it up and pressing a bit into the nostril seems to work quite well.
For my $.02, what I do when pinching scotches is not use my lungs at all. Rather, I keep my throat closed, my nostrils flared, bring the pinch right up to them and I rapidly drop my jaw and tongue. It creates a sufficient “whiff” that pulls the snuff in just enough and it’s impossible to fly down the throat/lungs. You might look like a mule with hiccups the first few times but after a while you’ll get it down to a science. Lemme know if it works for you!
A bullet works great for fine dry snuff, maybe as good a method as any. If you want to pinch scotch and the like, try taking a small pinch and inserting your thumb and finger just slightly into the nostril and then gently brerathing in as opposed to a sharp sniff or snort, you can gauge it to stop it goingto the throat or worse still the lungs like that.
For using a wooden snuff box with sliding lid to deposit a pinch on back of hand is very easy. Slide the lid back about 5mm and pore the snuff from the corner of the box. Shake whatever snuff may remain in the corner back into the box and that’s it. Works the same as shaking snuff from a plastic box with slide opener on the side.