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Brand information and reviews are now in the Brands subcategory (gives this page room to grow, not sure how, yet). While manufacturer information is scarce, a Companies category will probably be added at some point.

There's a relatively small number of tube manufacturer's making a rather large number of brands. The biggest difference I have found is in quality control. When talking about quality (or construction), the manufacturer is more important than the brand. Unfortunately there have been a lot of changes over the last couple of years and who made a particular brand can depend on where you bought it (old/new stock).
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Light tube types

White Tip
   Plain: Laramie, Premier, Rave, Rayo, Smokers Gold, Windsail, Zen, Golden Harvest, Shargio
   Perforated: Gambler, TOP, Twister, Zig Zag

Cork Tip
   Plain: El Rey (new), Escort, Gizeh Charbon, Ramback, Rave, Rizla, Three Castles, Vera Cruz
   Perforated: El Rey (old), Mascotte (Gold), Silver Tip (Airstream)

Manufacturer and Filter length:

   Inter-Continental Trading (US):
      Shargio: 20mm

   St Vincent (Philippines):
      17mm dense : Rave, Smokers Gold, Zen, Golden Harvest
      20mm: Laramie and Three Castles
      20mm dense: Ramback, Vera Cruz and Windsail
      22mm: Cheap Tobacco
      25mm: Zen 100's

   RBA/Imperial (Canada, new: 15mm filter, porous paper):
      El Rey, Escort, Premier, Rayo and Rizla

   Gizeh (France):
      15mm: Gizeh Charbon, Silver Tip, Twister
      25mm: Silver Tip Extra

   Austria: Gambler, TOP and maybe Zig Zag
   Germany: El Rey (old) and Rizla (old)

Please correct or add missing brands via comments.
[ page | comments (2) - Saturday, 14-Jul-2007 | top ]admin

CTC style tubes

CTC_style_tubes.jpgWhile there are still some CTC made tubes out there, they are becoming a thing of the past.

Filtered tubes are made up of 3 elements - a paper encased filter, tube paper and tipping paper (the cork or white paper wrapped around the filter end). CTC appears to apply their tipping paper before making the tube. The seam overlaps of the tipping paper and the tube paper are in the same place. The result is a bulk of four layers of paper at the single seam. Other manufacturers offset the tipping paper and tube paper seams, i.e. apply the tipping paper after making the tube. Another item is gluing the filter tube to the filter paper, CTC only spot glues the filter in place. I believe its the combined effect of the bulky double seam and the spot gluing of the filter that causes the trademark dimple/crease.
[ page | comments (3) - Friday, 17-Apr-2020 | top ]admin

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