For a while now I’ve been carrying a coffee scented snuff in my rose wood french box. I’ve tried my best to clean it out as I want to start to put citrus based snuffs in it now. I can’t seam to get the coffee smell out. I even let it soak in rubbing alcohol all night and cleaned every corner out to the best of my ability. I dried it out, thought I had It and now today I have St. Clements with a hint of coffee. Not very strong, but I notice it. Any advice? Guess I need a silver box so aromas aren’t absorbed into the material? Huge difference from the st. clements I have in my bullet. …nightcap
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I’ve been wondering that as well nightcap. I put some Kamul (sp?) in my wood box and I havent used it for anything else yet but I have a feeling I might run into some scent issues.
I would be very cautious with this, as you could easily ruin the box. If it was mine I wouldn’t do much more than keep re-filling it with whatever snuff I was using at the moment because the coffee aroma will fade away with patience. I don’t think applying anything other than snuff and fresh air to this is a good idea. If you wanted to risk it, and the smell just refuses to go away, you could try very dilute vinegar, which I had some success with in an old tobacco jar once.
People use salt and alcohol to leach bad smells from pipes. You could try the same thing with your snuffbox. Search for salt and alcohol treatment on pipe sites or on the net. I’ve never done it but basically you stuff the pipe with kosher salt (it has big grains and its pure salt) and fill up the bowl with high percentage pure alcohol. After a day you dump out and repeat until the smell is gone.
I was also thinking about baking soda. Like the box you put in you fridge. May be put some in a empty tea bag or kleenex and let it “soak” up the coffee aromas. @ snuffer not sure how I going to damage the box? I’m just using 70% rubbing alcohol. I"m sure won’t do anything to the wood.
The only thing about baking soda is it’s going to go into the wood and then everything you snuff will smell like baking soda. The S/A treatment works because the alcohol and salt pull whatever is in the wood out, and it goes into the salt, which you dump out.
kosher salt is really koshering salt it’s applied to meats to suck the blood out of them. So definatly go for koshering salt.
I would just leave a bit of the “new” snuff in there for a day or two. Or you can put a bit in there and rub it into the walls of the snuffbox and let it sit for a while before dumping it out. From my experience the new snuff takes over pretty quickly. @ matt- I left some Kamal in a box for months and had the same concern as you. The above method worked fine. Right now the box is empty and it smells like sweet peach was the last snuff used in there, no sign of the kamal. I would not suggest using alcohol or any liquid in a wood snuffbox be it new or antique, especially the boxes from Wilson’s, heartwood or me. Soaking a pipe is one thing, there’s no moving parts. On a snuffbox the hinged or slide lid may never work the same due to swelling, shrinkage, warping of the wood. The baking soda idea makes alot more sense to me as it does absorb smells. But realistically so does snuff! So why not just use the new desired snuff and let it sit in there for a while. If you don’t like scent of the new snuff mixed with the old dump it and refill, you should be good to go.
salt sounds like a plan. just trying to enjoy the crossover might be a good way to go too…
Well we are @ the 12 hr mark with St.clements sitting in the box. The over all aroma, jst from sticking my nose in , smells a little more citrus and less coffee, but the snuff has absorbed the coffee smell. I think I’ll dump it a repeat the process untill I get the proper aroma. I feel the 90% Iso has done the majority of aroma removal. I would recconmend it. There was no damage to the hinge or box at all.
I had the same problem with smells sticking around in my pipes. I just kept smoking, and by the third bowl of the new blend, the old taste was gone completely. I say just be patient, keep putting your new snuff in, and it will work itself out.
Either that or light your snuff box on fire LOL
as a snuffbox producer i would say: have various boxes for various snuffs. That is fine for the buisiness ;-). Many pipe smokers have also various pipes for the various tobaccos. The other way is to airbrush the box or to have patience.
Hi Georg, how are you? How long will snuff stay fresh in your boxes? How long does it take you to use all the snuff that fits in your snuffbox? I don’t take much snuff so I am pinching from tins…
wooden boxes are not made to store the snuff for a long time. They are made for the dayly use. My experience says menthol snuffs 2-3 days. Schmalzer a week. Natural an dry tobbaccos like Bernhard Cardinal a few weeks. I use mostly Pöschel Doppelaroma and i refill my box every day. The dayly use is 8-10 gr. I will produce smaller boxes for fine snuffs next weeks. (my second patent) They will give alwas the same dose snuff.
I just mean be cautious what you rub into it to avoid making it smell worse
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Thanks for the info Georg. Is Molens in the category of schmalzer? For me it would take a long time to go through 10 grams. I bet your Eucalyptus snuffbox would be excellent for storing menthol snuffs! Did anybody try to match the wood to the choice of snuff? Like Cherry snuff in cherry wood boxes, etc. Also interested to see your new amazing uniform dosing box!
Hello Snuffbox, Molens carries two categories of snuff. The Latakia type, which resembles the smalzer in that way, that is is a fermented snuff, but no oil and chalk are added. The other type is the Virginia type, non fermented tobacco, aromatised in different ways. For a more elaborate description see under snuffshop on the English part of our website www.snuifmolens.nl Jaap Bes.