The Value of Handling Tobacco?

[tolstoyevsky]

Edit on title: capitalization! (Rule 9)

Off we go into bizarro town...

Still learning how to get a pack technique that is pleasing. Some videos suggest putting tobacco in your palm, inverting the bowl, and using a circular motion to pack upside down. Just tried it, and I got a draw I almost like. But what intrigues me is the role that skin oils may play.

Tobacconist set me up with some luxury twist flake, and asked if he should break it up or if I wanted to do it. So I'm doing that now.

Used to smoke cigars, and there's the trope of maidens hand rolling cigars. Honest, my mind is not in the gutter, but it does suggest the discussion of pheromones.

You figure there's a value to handling tobacco?

 

[PipeIT]

Yes, definitely the way in which you prepare your tobacco can greatly effect the outcome.

Examples…

Depending on Casings and Toppings, and how they are applied, light vs more heavily, or the types of casing and toppings, will be effected by how you dry. Or the type of tobacco leaf, and how it was prepared, stoved, pressed, flue cured, etc…

Packing and smoking cadence are also important…

Some blends depending on their process and profile needed to be carefully treated.

A good example of this, are complex blends that have delicate flavor profiles, if you were to dry them out to much, or smoke to fast, you can easily destroy the complexity.

To much fire/heat can destroy complexity.

Typically recommended, depending on the blend, some are good to go from the tin, or dry lightly, when a clump is squeezed there’s only a slight crispness to it, pack lightly, light slowly and take small slow sips smoking.

I gravity fill my pipes, dropping a very small pinch at a time, till I reach the top, and then with the lightest of pressure press down, but very lightly. And then when smoking, only using the weight of the tamper to pack. Depending on blends, some are better lightly packed, others tighter. Vincet Manil’s Semois blends are a perfect example, needing to be packed tighter and sipped slowly.

P.S. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone talk about skin oils as an issue, unless someone has an extreme amount of oils or sweaty hands, that could always be a possibility.

 

[proteus]

Personally I'm not sure if that plays a part unless your hands are especially dirty. If you've seen some tobacco processing factories it's essentially all on the floor pressed in cast iron boxes that look to be a hundred years old. Trick I've found over the decades is to not pack tightly or pack at all below the air inlet at the bottom of the bowl. Pack a bit tighter as you go up. The draw in this way remains effortless throughout the smoke.

 

[jackattack]

Off we go into bizarro town...

Still learning how to get a pack technique that is pleasing. Some videos suggest putting tobacco in your palm, inverting the bowl, and using a circular motion to pack upside down. Just tried it, and I got a draw I almost like. But what intrigues me is the role that skin oils may play.

Tobacconist set me up with some luxury twist flake, and asked if he should break it up or if I wanted to do it. So I'm doing that now.

Used to smoke cigars, and there's the trope of maidens hand rolling cigars. Honest, my mind is not in the gutter, but it does suggest the discussion of pheromones.

You figure there's a value to handling tobacco?

If it adds to your enjoyment of the tobacco then it doesn't matter if there's any actual difference.

In the words of Clark Griswold "It's all part of the experience"

 

[BingBong]

Do you sniff your hands?

 

[Chasing Embers]

You figure there's a value to handling tobacco?

No more than handling food to prepare it.

 

[mortonbriar]

It's all in the hands of the beholder.

When I am in a work day, with oil/stain/solvent/paint/glue/grease/grime/dust on my hands I rely on a scoop straight from a pouch, and something other than my own digit to tamp.

If my hands are clean-ish I will pack and tamp by hand.

 

[Grangerous]

I wholeheartedly must agree.

 

[SSGT.]

Off we go into bizarro town...

Still learning how to get a pack technique that is pleasing. Some videos suggest putting tobacco in your palm, inverting the bowl, and using a circular motion to pack upside down. Just tried it, and I got a draw I almost like. But what intrigues me is the role that skin oils may play.

Tobacconist set me up with some luxury twist flake, and asked if he should break it up or if I wanted to do it. So I'm doing that now.

Used to smoke cigars, and there's the trope of maidens hand rolling cigars. Honest, my mind is not in the gutter, but it does suggest the discussion of pheromones.

You figure there's a value to handling tobacco?

Personally I enjoy the ritual of sitting down in the morning with a fresh cup of coffee while breaking up a good flake to load a morning bowl and fill my pocket tins for the day. So to me yes there is a value in handling my tobacco because it adds to my enjoyment, others may not be the same.

 

[telescopes]

Just wait till you end up making your own blends and you are mixing a pound at a time with your own hands.

 

[tolstoyevsky]

Personally I enjoy the ritual of sitting down in the morning with a fresh cup of coffee while breaking up a good flake to load a morning bowl and fill my pocket tins for the day. So to me yes there is a value in handling my tobacco because it adds to my enjoyment, others may not be th

Just wait till you end up making your own blends and you are mixing a pound at a time with your own hands.

Now we're talking! Who kneads bread dough with gloved hands?

 

[telescopes]

Of the Seven Intelligences (Gardner), Kenestetic is perhaps one of the most critical to both long term memory and sensory understanding. The feel, odor, and resistance one feels handling tobacco not only increases the enjoyment of the smoke, but it teaches and informs the brain about many aspects of the tobacco that would otherwise go unnoticed. There is a level of cognitive understanding and function that can not be understood without direct physical tactile contact. That is my professional opinion and one there is loads of research and study to back up. Douglas Sexton, Ed.D.

 

[Grangerous]

Of the Seven Intelligences (Gardner), Kenestetic is perhaps one of the most critical to both long term memory and sensory understanding. The feel, odor, and resistance one feels handling tobacco not only increases the enjoyment of the smoke, but it teaches and informs the brain about many aspects of the tobacco that would otherwise go unnoticed. There is a level of cognitive understanding and function that can not be understood without direct physical tactile contact. That is my professional opinion and one there is loads of research and study to back up. Douglas Sexton, Ed.D.

Thank you, Dr. Trust the Science.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Thank you, Dr. Trust the Science.
View attachment 349327

I was getting ready to ask if he was a scratch and sniff sort of fellow.

 

[telescopes]

Say what you what… but my response is a direct answer to the OPs question. Laugh at the science behind it - but this was a large part of my career and I was fortunate enough to work directly with some of the most significant and influential researchers in the field of various types of intelligences. But, who knows, I am sure your a few comical reactions helped answer the OP’s question more directly. Comedy is its own form of intelligence - no doubt, Lol. Yes, Grangerous, your post is funny.

 

[bullet08]

When in doubt, use surgical gloves. Way I see it, tobacco came from earth, and my hands are cleaner than most dirt around here.

 

[buroak]

Of the Seven Intelligences (Gardner), Kenestetic is perhaps one of the most critical to both long term memory and sensory understanding. The feel, odor, and resistance one feels handling tobacco not only increases the enjoyment of the smoke, but it teaches and informs the brain about many aspects of the tobacco that would otherwise go unnoticed. There is a level of cognitive understanding and function that can not be understood without direct physical tactile contact. That is my professional opinion and one there is loads of research and study to back up. Douglas Sexton, Ed.D.

I do not endorse Gardner (his work seems to be in the same relegated category as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at this point), but muscle memory and the unsung metis lauded by James C. Scott jibe with my experience as a pipe smoker.

Just keep tinkering with your process as you smoke in a wide variety of pipes with an equal - or greater - variety of tobaccos. Eventually, packing, lighting, tamping, and the rest will become reflexive and expert.

Also, don’t be afraid to use a blender every now and again to make your tobacco the consistency you want. Not everything needs to be done by hand. Plug tobacco certainly is not made (or made ready to smoke) by hand alone.

 

[buroak]

When in doubt, use surgical gloves. Way I see it, tobacco came from earth, and my hands are cleaner than most dirt around here.

I do usually wear at least the Sam’s brand food service gloves when jarring bulk tobacco. My hands are probably cleaner than a field, but I don’t want to allow too many extra variables in the mix when setting aside good leaf for the long term.

 

[telescopes]

Man, I think this is getting over thought. Tobacconist for years have done it with their hands. But, if forever plastics mixed into the tobacco trip your trigger, by all means, use gloves. Forty years of mixing tobacco by hand - buying from tobacconist who mixed it by hand without gloves has taught me not to worry. But then, when I conceal carry, it is always in Condition One.

 

[telescopes]

I do not endorse Gardner (his work seems to be in the same relegated category as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at this point), but muscle memory and the unsung metis lauded by James C. Scott jibe with my experience as a pipe smoker.

Just keep tinkering with your process as you smoke in a wide variety of pipes with an equal - or greater - variety of tobaccos. Eventually, packing, lighting, tamping, and the rest will become reflexive and expert.

Also, don’t be afraid to use a blender every now and again to make your tobacco the consistency you want. Not everything needs to be done by hand. Plug tobacco certainly is not made (or made ready to smoke) by hand alone.

Not to bore people here with Gardner, but yes, when taken to the extreme like those who in the school system were want to do, his ideas can easily be misapplied. But the basic premise that the mind can express itself intelligently in more ways then just math and science is sound enough and is readily apparent to anyone who has done business with anyone who is talented in a their given field, whether it is a plumber, runner, or a musician. God gave us five senses - use them.