In my continuing efforts to make my own snuff, I finally picked up some Arm and Hammer washing soda today and after reading the box, surfing online everywhere I could find plus searching this site, I still haven’t seen an answer to this question…

Is it safe to use?

I see this question asked multiple times but no real answer. If no one knows the answer, that’s fine but I’d still like to ask if this is indeed what you gentlemen are using yourselves (for those making their own snuff).

I picked mine up in the laundry section, it’s called “laundry booster - super washing soda” and as far as I can tell it’s pure sodium carbonate, just as it’s been made for many many years. It’s a big damn 3 lb box so it’s a lifetime supply if I use it for snuff. It was only 3.50 and it has so many other uses it’s not a wasted purchase if it turns out not to be suitable to ingest.

I’ve been snuffing a perique heavy blend after getting the moisture, the grind and salt just where I like them and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it but I still have a bug up my butt to keep experimenting. Ultimately, I’ll want to buy organic whole leaf tobacco at make my own which is why I’m so intent on experimenting to find what works and what’s optimal.

Thanks kindly for any advice or ideas to further the discussion and I hope everyone’s sunday is going well!

Washing Soda is not the same thing as Baking Soda.

I definitely would not ingest washing soda!

I have no idea what this will do to the mucus membrane in your nose, but I wouldn’t try it based on what I used it for. 

While some lyes are used in baking and cooking, this stuff is not food quality so I wouldn’t use it.

Washing soda is sodium carbonite and I use it to make my own laundry detergent by combining it with equal measures of 20 Mule Team Borax and Fels Naptha soap. You’ve heard about using lye in the old days to do laundry? Well, this is one of the old standard forms.

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. I often take a spoonful of this with water for acid indigestion.

see: 

http://www.stain-removal-101.com/washing-soda.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate

No it’s fine, as a matter of fact most people use it as an alkalizing agent. Other options are calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) and ammonium carbonate (baker’s ammonia). But the one you found is the easiest to get in most locales. Just remember, like all caustic things… It’s caustic. Don’t overdo it.

To address the concerns of that product directly, it is the end product of sodium bicarbonate and heat- it makes the bubbles in unleavened bread products.

Ugh I keep thinking of something else to add. Have you read juxtaposer’s writeup on snuff making 101 yet? He did a great job. http://snuffhouse.com/discussion/6032/snuff-making-101

Thanks for the response snuffsahoy. Yes I have read and re-read justaposer’s writeup. It’s been the most helpful resource by far in my own snuff DIY efforts!

I tend to be very thorough before ingesting things which is why I ask these questions, just to be certain. I believe you mentioned you make your own snus, yes? Is this what you use in that? How about snuff? If you make your own snuff is this the exact brand/product you use?

My first step here is to make sure I have the right substance which it seems like you’re saying this is. Correct? The next step is to decide on the correct amount and overdoing it is not something I plan on doing! I’ll likely start with a half or quarter dose (using justaposer’s ratios as a starting point) and increase from there. I may even get PH strips to verify things along the way but I’m not even at the stage of adding it, much less have I decided on the amount.

Also, I asked this question in my other discussion about making my own but I’d like to re-ask it;

Is it necessary to add the washing soda to water prior to adding it to the tobacco? Can’t I just grind it into the baccy with mortal and pestle as I did the salt? Ultimately I’ll likely try both methods but I still would like to know.

Thanks again for the advice and tips. Greatly appreciated!

howdydave - it’s actually sodium corbonate, not carbonite. It is a food additive in numerous food products, it’s just that it doesn’t seem to be very common in stores anymore. I learned some of this by simply reading the wikipedia article on it. It’s added to snus, raman noodles and other foods. I know it’s food safe in general but this particular product is specifically labeled NOT safe to consume but that may just be a technical distinction. It is very similar to baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) which is also a potentially hazardous substance to ingest but which is safe to ingest in the right amounts in the right ways.

As always, the devil is in the details right?

I appreciate your concern though. Thanks for lookin’ out buddy!

One of these days I will learn my lesson and not think of Wikipedia as a semi-reliable information resource.

While it may be an additive, I’m not sure that the Arm & Hammer product is food quality.

It’s the exact same product. Yeah I make my own everything to answer your question, with snuff you don’t need the higher pH’s because there is no saliva involved. If you are still unsure of using it, that’s fine you can use bicarb or heat it above boiling and once again you’ll have what is in the box of washing soda. In my personal life I’m trying to reduce my tolerance though, so I can achieve satisfaction with a lower freebase amount. It’s all relative, get used to your high stuff and that’s all you can take to calm the need. Systematically work on lowering your tolerance and you’ll have access to greater variety. My latest recipes have been using bicarb instead with the goal to one day add nothing but maybe salt. I’ll have the exact same pleasure but at the end of a long day I’ll still be able to pop into my homemade stuff to have a strong one before bed. If you get used to the higher nic and freebased versions then you’ll limit yourself ultimately.

snuffsahoy - I’m with ya 100% on trying to reduce tolerance! I’ve actually reduced mine since getting into snuff more lately, which is one of the reasons of my recent interest in making my own.

These days I can get by with one pipe and a couple pinches of snuff per day whereas I used to dip a whole can, plus pipe and maybe snus daily!

I just have a need to figure out how to use this stuff (washing soda) to gain the knowledge and skill with it, to figure out how it changes things, to see what it does to flavor and just because I’m curious. I’m just a DIY kinda guy.

I’ve actually been very surprised that my homemade snuff has been so satisfying in both flavor and nicotine! As I mentioned in my other discussion, so far I found that toasting and salt additions brought my ground snuff from good to outstanding.

Thanks for your time and patience with me.

@pipensnuff Sodium Carbonate, as stated in Juxtaposers instructional, is exactly what most peopke use. If you’re gonna use it, what I used to do with my DIY was, once the tobacco was ground and seived, add about 1/2 teaspoon (per ounce of tobacco flour) to a small spray bottle of warm purified water, shake it until it’s all dissolved, spread the sieved tobacco evenly on a tray, and spray the flour slowly and evenly until it’s evenly wet, then bake it at low heat stirring occasionally until it’s mostly dried out. Pack it in a jar for a few days, take it out and cool it in a fridge before letting it cone back to room temperature. Then sieve it once more for clumps. If, however, your goal is to reduce your tokerance to nicotine, and what you’re already doing is satisfying enough as it is, skip all of that. As @snuffsahoy said, Sodium Carbonate is an alkalizing agent, used in this case to freebase the nicotine (make it more bioavailable), so you’ll be working yourself in the opposite direction. Hope that helps.

Yeah I think that’s why there is is so little info comparatively speaking about making snuff on the net, because it really is that simple. At least it’s simple to achieve the nic factor, I started only a few months ago and was looking (still am I guess) for the holy grail of snuff making knowledge and it’s just not out there in the way everything else is. Then I started to buy snuff and there really is another dimension to it that I’m still trying to figure out, but it must be purely process related. I was getting to the point where I’d need to pack my face like a chipmunk to sate the beast and said to myself wait a second this is getting ridiculous, so from that point I’ve been working in the other direction and with snuff am having the same level of satisfaction with a fraction of the amount. I still have a bunch of my first batches that are through the roof but instead of using them directly I’m using them as the alkaline addition to the new batches so nothing is wasted. Tonight I’m rocking my latest batch, ironically I did the least to it. I made it just before work and left before trying it, so although I have backups here, I was a little nervous it might not do the trick, but it is great, one of the better ones too, very similar to railroad mills with the exception of flavor, it’s using premium grade ligero leaf from Nicaragua. If you want to copy the recipe exactly it was 4 frogged leaves toasted in the oven at 150 until the fumes started being released (whatever that noxious gas is that is let off when you toast tobacco) then I added a dash of bicarb and kosher salt. Since I wasn’t doing it to develop a recipe I didn’t weigh first, but end product was about 20 grams, so about 5%by weight salt and bicarb. Grind all up together in the mill dry until very fine. Add water or not after, I chose not to this time.