Shake
Tobacco dust and what to do with it.
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- using shake
- Posted by ALLTALL on Monday, 06-Aug-2007
I can't find the post. But, I would like to thank the person who posted about how to use shake. I don't smoke um down to the filter. So using shake for the last 10 percent (nearest the filter) of stuffing sounded logical. I was unexpectedly surprised by the change. It seems to be a natural filter. Making the smoke milder. Yet I assume being heated by the smoke passing over it produced even more flavor. I end up with a smoke that is noticeably less harsh, and has even more flavor. Thanks for the tip.
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- tobacco breaking down
- Posted by nick veitz on Monday, 02-Jul-2007
Does anyone know how to keep tobacco from becomming fine dustlike particles. I buy criss-cross tobacco and it always has fine dustlike residue in bottom of bag. Can't find tobacco that doesn"t break down. thanks
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- Re: tobacco breaking down
- Posted by Wazmo Nariz on Monday, 02-Jul-2007
In a word...minimal handling. There is always going to be shake in the tobacco you buy--fact of life; from the manufacturing and package process as well as handling and shipping. Also, the drier the tobacco is, the more it will be prone to disintegrating into unusable dust. Keep it from drying out; take out the amount of tobacco required for the amount of stuffing you're gonna do all at once (meaning don't keep reaching into your bag/jar for every stick you're making) and you'll minimize it all you can on your end.
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- Re: tobacco breaking down
- Posted by Kerry on Monday, 02-Jul-2007
I agree with everything you said. There is a difference between "usable shake" and "dust". That difference usually comes down more on the side of dried out tobacco than simple over handling.
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I blend my own from (now) 4 different tobaccos. Usually about one ounce of each at a time. As long as I keep the tobacco at a decent hydration level I have no "dust" and nearly no unusable shake.
My blending process isn't exactly as gentle as it might be, but as long as the tobacco isn't dry, I have no problems with dust/shake.
Of course, this does take a little time and some considered effort.
- Re: tobacco breaking down
- Posted by mike c on Monday, 02-Jul-2007
and I totally agree with Kerry.....
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I, myself, NEVER, have anything unusable......however Wazmo is "seasoned" , and thus probably more discriminating than myself where flavor is concerned, etc...
(the spell checker works,,,far out,,,that'll be handy if I cop out and get more restoril ever...)
also, when we ever do get our SYO Tee's, could we please go in style and opt for pockets, as many of you will know why....
- Re: tobacco breaking down
- Posted by mike c on Monday, 02-Jul-2007
main point....whoever said it.....open your tobacco and get out only what you will use and keep the rest tightly packed in a special container....
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don't keep opening up the same source as you will dry out your goods....
I have been tending to pour my pounds into a large mixing bowl and purposely take out and use the shake first, but I think I'm going to "lax" on that as I become ever more comfortable in MYO
- Shake Separation
- Posted by Matt on Monday, 19-Feb-2007
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One way I like to manage shake is separate a couple packs worth of tobacco into a Gladware container. Once in the container, I pinch the surface of the tobacco and come up with a divot of usable tobacco. You can do this all the way to the end with very little shake if the tobacco is at peak humidity.
- what brand has least amount of shake.
- Posted by lipps1948 on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2007
Anyone know what brands in bulk bags have the least amount of shake?
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Pete
- Re: what brand has least amount of shake.
- Posted by scott johnson on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2007
Are you talking about 1 pound bags? there are lots of brands out there and everyone has different results. As far as ordering on-line, I've had the best luck with D&R 14 oz bags. Currently I have been using a bag of Penhooker and I noticed yesterday that there is only a minimal amount of dust and shake in the bottom of my storage container.
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Locally, I've been buying 1 pound bags of golden harvest and had good results with that. Also I've noticed the local stores have picked up Stoker's #2. That also seems to have minimum shake and dust in the bottom of the bag.
- Re: what brand has least amount of shake.
- Posted by platoslostdialogue on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2007
Though I don't care for them, the Stokkebye blends seem to have very little shake. They come in 10.something ounce cans, though, not bags.
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- Put Shake In Handhelds??
- Posted by Warrior on the Edge of Time on Tuesday, 21-Nov-2006
A proper hand-held injector with the best type of "mechanism"
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will allow you to stuff pure powder with no problem at all, you simply have to get used to the smaller quantity going into it....my experience is that it still smokes acceptably, you just have to be careful indoors in case the
embers fall off!!!
- Re: Put Shake In Handhelds??
- Posted by Kerry on Tuesday, 21-Nov-2006
You can also stuff shake with a Supermatic as long as you reduce the volume. However, powder can be quite different when smoked no matter how it is stuffed.
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For me, I find that taking care of the tobacco's humidity and handling, I don't have a problem with shake and never have powder. It took some time to learn, but isn't a problem now.
- Re: Put Shake In Handhelds??
- Posted by The Edge Of Time on Tuesday, 21-Nov-2006
I can't wait till I have a machine too!!!~ and yes, pure shake isn't a very great idea, I was just batting one for the handhelds I love so much!!!(taking to extreme what is possible)
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must learn more about handling/storage...will go back and read all the info before I ask questions
mike c
- Shake and Powder
- Posted by JD on Friday, 14-Oct-2005
I've only been involved in MYO for about two months now, and I've learned quite a bit from scanning through this site. I purchased a Premier Supermatic and seemed to be having tons of trouble making a consistently acceptable stick, until reading someone's suggestion here about lightly "sifting" the shake and powder out with a metal colander. I've started doing the same and have noticed a remarkable improvement in the quality and consistency of my sticks--as well as a marked decrease in jamming and stiff action with the Supermatic.
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What I've noticed from doing this, however, is exactly how much powder and shake I've been getting. I bought a 16 oz pack of Stoker's #2 Light and ended up with 4 oz (!) of powder and shake unsuitable for the Supermatic. I tried a 6 oz. can of ZigZag American Light and ended up with almost 2 full oz's of powder and shake. A 16 oz. bag of Gambler Light yielded almost 3.5 oz.
I've decided to order a few samplers of various D&R tobaccos tomorrow, and wondered if anyone has noticed the "powder and shake" quotient of their tobaccos. Also, have the MYO gods been having fun with me, or is this a normal amount of "waste"?
- Re: Shake and Powder
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Friday, 14-Oct-2005
For me, H&R on yielded 2oz per pound and Sagamore light was only an ounce and a half. Like I've said before, though, I still get almost the same number of sticks from a bag that's been sifted as I do from a bag that hasn't.
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- Re: Shake and Powder
- Posted by tom on Saturday, 15-Oct-2005
all tobaccos will have some shake, d&r will have less. imo shake is the better part of the leaf. trying to inject only shake into a tube you will stand a strong chance of breaking your injector. you can separate the shake first, and blend it with the non-shake as you go.
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zig-zag is a dry tobacco (compared to others on the shelf), the more you handle it the more shake you will have. D&R is a moist tobacco and may need to be air-dried before you inject it into a tube.
- Re: Shake and Powder
- Posted by Matt on Monday, 17-Oct-2005
Shake is the worst hands down. Any particles of tobacco and dust you manage to fashion into a cigarette will burn badly and taste nasty. A filter won't help matters because the burn rate and the smoke it emits will make you feel lousy for a spell. I dry an ounce at a time in a square gladware container. Someone in a recent post mentioned panning for gold, using the same motion with the gladware and tossing the remainder really helps to get over the shakes.
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- Re: Shake and Powder
- Posted by JD on Tuesday, 18-Oct-2005
Just received some D&R tobaccos...as another poster stated, almost no shake at all (I got about 6 grams)from the 3.5oz pack of Penhooker I've opened so far. Certainly moist (which obviously helps) stuff!
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- shake, dust whatever you call it.don't toss it!
- Posted by Tom on Thursday, 06-Oct-2005
it's the best part of the leaf. add it to a shag cut such as drum, jester, sampson, or even D&R tobacco (which do not have the shake). please ad your suggestions.
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- Re: shake, dust whatever you call it.don't toss it!
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Friday, 07-Oct-2005
Nearly every problem I have stuffing cigarettes is traceable to shake in my tobacco. I attribute the fact that I only have to clean my supermatic twice a year to the fact that I sift out the shake.
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Although I do keep it to sprinkle around my tent when we go camping. It's a natural insect repellent.
- Re: shake, dust whatever you call it.don't toss it!
- Posted by Kev on Saturday, 08-Oct-2005
I'll agree with Tim. Shake and a few things like hot peppers are insect repellents. It sounds silly but I just throw it on my lawn.
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- A followup on sifting tobacco
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Tuesday, 30-Nov-2004
After sifting various brands of tobacco, prior to stuffing, I have found that the amount of waste I end up with is fairly consistant. Ranging between 25-50% of the beginning weight, and usually around 30% on average. I am still using a wire mesh colander from Target.
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At first glance, this would appear to be a great deal of waste, but even though there is a vast difference between starting and ending weight, there is little change in volume. That means you are still making the same, or nearly the same, number of cigarettes.
The big difference is in how it stuffs. Last week I was in a hurry, the colander was in the sink, having just drained potatoes for mashing, so I didn't sift after mixing. The result was that my cigarettes were denser, making it hard to draw, and my Premier kept jamming after about half a pack. Unsifted tobacco has a greater tendency to bunchup and leave a gap at the filter, it makes it harder to operate the premier, even when it doesn't jam and cigarette quality is not consistant.
As far as which tobaccos, base tobaccos at least, have the most waste? A fairly dry pound of H&R sifted out nearly 8 ounces or 50%, recently. I normally have 25-30% with H&R. The best has been with Sagamore Light, only 20% or so of waste.
- Sifting Tobacco
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Monday, 02-Aug-2004
Here lately, I've been sifting my tobacco after blending it. I use a wire-mesh colander, place a handful of tobacco into it and shake. I start with about 10 1/2 oz. and end up with about 8 oz. of blend. This seems like a lot of waste, but the tobacco stuffs so much better without the fine particles that it is worth it. It's actually hard to overstuff my Premier with tobacco that's been sifted.
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I've done this with both H&R Light and Smoker's Select as the base and the amount of shake has been roughly the same. I'm going to try both Sagamore Light and Canadian as my base, over the next two weeks, so we will see how much shakes out of them.
Also, the mesh in my colander seems a tad large to me, approximately 2mm square, so I'm on the lookout for something slightly finer, but larger than screenwire. Any suggestions? And, any ideas on what to do with the shake?