More Frustration W/SG Flakes

[Warlee]

Honestly, I rub the heck out of SG flakes. I rub them all the way down to almost a shag. I rub out the whole tin at once. Same with the new BS flake or any flake thicker then say PS LNF. Let the tin air out for a few hours and put into a jar. I've learned this is the my best method for thick cut flakes. I let them age in flake form until I Crack the tin, after that the flakes get the full treatment and anytime I want that blend I have no fuss with drying or rubbing or folding. Yes it takes some time to rub out a whole tin but it's so worth it

This right here. I have to put it in my palm and press/rub hard with my thumb to actually break the flakes apart fully. Since I started doing that I don’t have anymore issues. SG must press their flakes with a lot more pressure than most others. Orlik i can just rub between my fingers and off I go.

 

[pinem]

Just musing:

Gawith tobaccos are packed wet as we all know. And our friends there are adamant that they do not produce tobaccos that are meant to be stored. They produce tobacco as they always have which is meant to be bought and enjoyed right away.

Given those things, could this not be why they are packed so wet? The formula a hundred years ago was that you’d walk into a shop on the high street and buy a tin, open it, and the flakes would ride around in the opened tin for a while until you finished them. They never would have been sealed at all in those days. So the wetness they were packed with may have been meant to keep them from getting too dry in an unsealed tin for as long as they’d need to survive.

But today, we store the tins years for age, open them up and jar it all, and then pull wet flakes for smoking and have to contend with the moist condition. But this was not the way in the beginning.

This is just a post-bowl hypothesis, but maybe if we use the tobacco in the same way one did in days gone by, the result calibrated by our friends at GH will be achieved?

Perhaps I’ll open a tin and just leave the tin out on my desk and have a bowl each day until it’s gone to see how it goes.

I will store a couple weeks worth of flakes in the tin (say 4 to 6), and then dry as needed until they start to get to the right moisture. If they end up drying out too much before I get to the last couple of flakes, I'll add one or more fresh flakes from the jar to rehydrate the dry flakes, and dry the fresh flakes at the same. Basically a moisture solera of sorts.

My notes say I got the best flavor when a flake was at a moisture where folding it in half resulted in about half of the flake layers fully breaking/fracturing, and then smoking it fully rubbed out.

Cube cut has rarely ever worked out well for me.

 

[minerLuke]

When I first started with SG flakes I had a pretty hard time with them, but I wasn't yet very experienced with flake tobacco in general. I got frustrated and jarred the FVF and Choc Fl and forgot about them for a year or so. When I tried the Choc Flake again after a long nap I had one of those sublime nearly supernatural pipe experiences that we pipe smokers occasionally get. One of the best bowls I have ever smoked, it was 45 min of pure bliss. That about 40gr or so of jarred SG choc FL provided some of the best smoke I ever tasted. Once I saw that potential that Gawith packs into those tins, I finally 'got it' and now joined the throngs of rabid pipe smokers smashing keyboards at every Gawith drop that makes it over to these shores...

But anyway, I can only suggest if you are having trouble with Gawith flakes, try rubbing them out *really* well into a ribbon. That worked initially for me to get me going. But I don't bother with that anymore, now I lazily grab a likely looking sized flake and just fold and stuff into my pipe and just light it. For this incredibly lazy way to smoke flakes to work, I can't emphasize enough that the secret is to pack it waaay looser than you would pack a typical ribbon cut. With practice you'll get the hang of it. Oh and don't tamp too hard either.

And yes the Gawith flakes can take a bit extra flame to get going. I typically use a Bic I would hate to try with matches. But once they get going, might take an extra try or three, I find they burn down to the bottom with minimal relights.

 

[Gimlet]

I’m probably in the minority here, but other than giving a newly opened tin of FVF about 20 minutes of airing time, I don’t “dry” it out. I rub it out so it’s the consistency of a broken flake/ready-rubbed, and I pack as usual.

For me, this flake is smokeable straight from a fresh tin; I don’t share the obsession with drying it out that some here seem to have. And it sounds like you’ve essentially dried it to death.

Also: You describe FVF as “very hard.” I’ve had numerous tins over the last 20 years, and that has never been my experience. It’s easily broken or easily folded-and-stuffed. If yours are “very hard” to start with, it sounds like your tins have failed; you should probably be humidifying, not drying.

I'm the same. In fact, within a couple of days of opening the tin/ pouch I add a piece of lettuce leaf to keep it moist. I like my flakes to feel moist on the fingers when rubbing them. Dried out flake to me loses taste and smokes hot.
But I'm fairly patient and thorough with my rubbing. Only doing a small bits at a time onto the lid of the tin or flap of the pouch until I've got enough for a bowl full and it's all the same texture. And I trickle it in sparingly and tamp gently several times, rather than filling the bowl to the top and tamping just twice. Flake doesn't flow like shag or ready rubbed and it's all too easy to create either a void or hard plug in the middle of the bowl which interferes with the burn.
That's my theory anyway, but it seems to work.

had a fresh consignment of 1792 Flake and Best Brown unscented arrive today. Both were really moist - the 1792 quite tacky - and they're smoking lovely. Rich and flavourful and creamy smooth.