Today, I took some of my home made snuff in to work and tried it properly for the first time. I made the snuff from ‘smooth pipe tobacco’, which is essentially cigarette tobacco with a more friendly tax classification. I ground a 1lb bag (cost around $12) of it in my ball mill. I didn’t add any alkalyzing agents, because, being a commercial tobacco product, it almost certainly already has them added. I had taken little pinches here and there while making it, but I only take small pinches and blow it out immediately when I’m making it because I don’t want to overload myself with nicotine. If I had taken large pinches and kept them in my nose for longer, maybe it would have made me be a little more cautious, or at least prepared me for what happened… I took a big pinch up each nostril, and then repeated about 30 seconds later. Around 30 seconds after that second pinch, WHOOOSH! I walked briskly to the bathroom and blew as much of it out as possible, then sat on the toilet feeling very sorry for myself for a good few minutes. Once I got used to it and took it in more moderate quantities, it’s really good. It has plenty of nicotine to kill the cigarette craving, in fact I put my morning break cigarette out halfway today because I realized that I was smoking it out of habit rather than to satisfy a craving. It still needs flavoring because it’s a little plain, but I’m very happy with my first really successful experiment. My goal is to prepare for ‘snuffmageddon’. I worry that the PACT act will be broadened one day and I’ll lose access to manufactured snuff. Now I know for sure that I am capable of making something that is at least usable, I feel a lot less concerned.

Good job Doctor! Being prepared is always a good idea and the motivating factors are plenty. Enjoy your snuff plain for a while and then start playing with scenting with whatever blows your skirt up. Essential oils are easy to make or buy and a little goes a very long way. Also look up LorAnn oils and flavors as well as powdered all natural fruits (@fhanna has good sources). Have fun

@doctorbeat Nice discovery. What amazes me is that you ended with a raised Nic-kick snuff with no addition of moisture nor alkalyzing agents. So you used a comercial tobacco with no additives of your own and with no rest/maduration process and were able to get a nice basic snuff from the ball mill. WOW. Good news to our beloved Snuff preppers!

I believe that the alkalzers are already in the snuff, as it was made from a commercial tobacco product. That’s why I didn’t add more; I resolved to test the snuff before making the decision to add washing soda, and it turned out that it didn’t need any! Had I used an additive-free tobacco, I would probably have needed to alkalyze it. I should also have mentioned that I have had this snuff sitting forgotten in a mason jar for a couple of years, and some amount of maturation seems to have taken place despite the fact that it was stored dry and air-tight. I did add a bit of moisture to the sample I tried, and I also added a little salt yesterday, which dramatically changed and improved the flavor. @chefdaniel; I have some bregamot oil, and I intend to get some rose, sandalwood etc too. My aim is to learn how to make a range of basic snuffs so that I am not caught short if the importation laws change.

So, what’s bergamont oil sold for? What kinds of industry uses it? Apart from snuffmakers and tea flavourers?

@JakartaBoy‌ This might be a long way from you but this is one of my favorite sources: http://www.bulkapothecary.com/essential-oils/bergamot-essential-oil/

I picked mine up from wholefoods. They have quite a selection of essential oils. I think it was $13 for what appears to be a lifetime supply (you only need a tiny amount)

i made a good batch out of two boxes of carter hill pipe tobacco ive noticed the finer i grind it the more y nose wants to run and i lose a good few pinches through front drainage. does anyone else have this problem? is this a common thing with snuff. im not able to use as much as id like with my last batch i dident have that problem but tossed it cause after about 2 weeks i didnt like it no more. it was terrible. with my last batch i could put three pinches in each nostril and only have run with no tobacco in it. am i going to have this problem with all snuffs? what causes this am i taking it to far in?

Could be a lot of things, see the snuff taking advice section. Having said that, I did initially experience the same with my home made snuff, but it went away after the snuff had been sitting in a mason jar for a year or two. I guess it mellowed out, but I have no explanation as to why. I was dry and stored in an airtight container, which pretty much excludes fermentation as a factor.