Keeping my tobacco fresh

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coolsmoke16

Lurker
Jul 10, 2011
1
0
Okay so here lately I have been buying tobacco by the bulk and have been exploring ways to keep my tobacco from going dry and stale. Eventually I am going to invest in a humidor but being a college student, I can't afford one at the moment. I want to share with you my idea I have come up with to see if it was either a complete waste of time, effort and money, or will work fine. So basically I purchased a 15 ounce air tight, shatterproof plastic container from Wal-Mart. It has a pull and lock latch so it does create a very nice seal. Then I bought a regular kitchen sponge probably 3 or 4 inches. I then wet the sponge and put it in a very small Tupperware container which I then capped it with its original top only thing being that i put about 30 holes in the top so that the water could escape into the big container to wet my tobacco. Will this work?? Thanks, Bryce

 

kcvet67

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 6, 2010
968
0
A humidor is great for pipes but not much use with pipe tobacco. Unlike cigars, which need about a 70% humidity level, pipe tobacco responds best to a level of about 12%-18%. I'd take the sponge out of the setup you're using, unless your tobacco is very dry to begin with. Personally, I prefer mine on the lower end of that scale, I think you get more flavor and a cleaner burn from drier tobacco.
Mason jars do a great job of maintaining your tobacco at the proper humidity level without the need for adding moisture. You should be able to find them in a variety of sizes at most grocery stores for around $10 for a case of 12.

 

tslex

Lifer
Jun 23, 2011
1,482
15
Maintaining temp and humidity is always a trial and error thing.
You will only know the humidity if you get a hygrometer. There are available for under $10. See here.
Really air tight container wouldn't be your choice if you never went into it. But if you're in there every day or so, that's not an issue.
Experiment with size of sponge/size of holes etc etc. But the concept is one that

 

tslex

Lifer
Jun 23, 2011
1,482
15
LOL. Misread by me.
Been smoking cigars a long time and seen lots of humidor questions and assumed this was a cigar humidor question.
What these guys said -- you just need to store pipe tobacco well selaed to preserve the low necessary level of moisture.
(Altho I did good advice on cigar storage.)

 

pstlpkr

Lifer
Dec 14, 2009
9,694
31
Birmingham, AL
What you described sounds like a plastic bail top jars.

I have a set of these, and some others as well.

I like bail top jars, both plastic and glass.

They work very well for me.

My advice is to insure that they don't sit in the sunlight.

That will cause the tobacco to heat up and the moisture will escape from the tobacco and collect on the sides, top, and bottom and could cause your tobacco to spoil.

The second piece of advice would be don't pack the tobacco too tightly. Air is your friend inside the jars.
Here's a picture of some inexpensive bail top jars from Wally World.

0002337709012_P255045_180X180.jpg


 

teamhavoc28

Can't Leave
Nov 10, 2010
498
0
I have to fall into the mason jar camp. Not the most space friendly but haven't found anything better at keeping pipe tobacco fresh. buying them by the case and in varying sizes should also help.

 

eaglerico

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
1,134
1
Hobby Lobby is another source for Mason and any other type of jars. They have all sizes so if you do have a lot of bulk they have the large jars for a couple of bucks.

 

hauntedmyst

Lifer
Feb 1, 2010
4,006
20,751
Chicago
For cheap and easy tobacco storage, just cut in half and hollow out a watermelon. Fill each side and duct tape them together. It's cheap, easy to do and you can write what's in there with a Sharpie. Don't reuse the melons or they will ghost the new tobacco with the old. What's nice is that when you have emptied the watermelon of tobacco, you can just toss the old rhine in to the neighbors yard to help them compost.

 

misterrogers

Can't Leave
May 16, 2011
347
1
Ohio
For cheap and easy tobacco storage, just cut in half and hollow out a watermelon. Fill each side and duct tape them together. It's cheap, easy to do and you can write what's in there with a Sharpie. Don't reuse the melons or they will ghost the new tobacco with the old. What's nice is that when you have emptied the watermelon of tobacco, you can just toss the old rhine in to the neighbors yard to help them compost.
oh_you.jpg

For me, it's mason jars all the way.

 
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