Tobacco pouches/ leather bags why do they exist?

[lraisch]

I have three pouches still, had several more over the years, though nowadays they don't see much use. In the 70s a roll up leather pouch lived in the hip pocket of my jeans so I could fill my pipe whenever I desired.

The box type pouches do not keep the tobacco very fresh though they are easy to fill from, so I use that only to carry some tobacco into the "media room" (big screen TV and bookcases). The roll ups are for travel.

I had a Dunhill pouch at one time. Beautiful leather, but one day the lining just crumbled and disintegrated.

Since I smoke mostly in my living room these days, the tobacco is kept in one of my humidors or used right from the tin.

 

[PLANofMAN]

I have one of these:
https://share.temu.com/bwxp2ynYwIA
They tend to be priced between $10-15.

It's on the small side, but good quality, and the outer shell is actually made from real leather and the tobacco pouch has a non-fabric lining.

After using it for a while, I keep an old matched pair of Italian made, Danish inspired, slightly bent Dublins in the zippered pipe section. They are very, very small pipes. Great for short smokes, and I switch between the two, so each gets a day of rest between uses. They live in the pouch.

I keep two or three ziplocks with a couple bowl's worth of different blends in the tobacco pouch section. Less mess, less fuss.

The tool pouch holds a pack of flints for the old boy lighter.

All three sections of the pouch share the same space, so I opted for a minimalist approach so I could store more tobacco in it without making it too bulky for convenience.

I don't normally recommend things off Temu, but this was actually a bargain for what you get, as long as the limitations are understood. Their aluminum pipe nails weren't bad either. Pipe cleaners off Temu have been hit or miss. Some are decent, some are not great (linty and with hooked ends).

After a year of use:


It will hold two small pipes or one medium pipe. I usually carry these in it:

 

[Sobrbiker]

I have one of these:
https://share.temu.com/bwxp2ynYwIA
They tend to be priced between $10-15.
View attachment 353465View attachment 353466
It's on the small side, but good quality, and the outer shell is actually made from real leather and the tobacco pouch has a non-fabric lining.

After using it for a while, I keep an old matched pair of Italian made, Danish inspired, slightly bent Dublins in the zippered pipe section. They are very, very small pipes. Great for short smokes, and I switch between the two, so each gets a day of rest between uses. They live in the pouch.

I keep two or three ziplocks with a couple bowl's worth of different blends in the tobacco pouch section. Less mess, less fuss.

The tool pouch holds a pack of flints for the old boy lighter.

All three sections of the pouch share the same space, so I opted for a minimalist approach so I could store more tobacco in it without making it too bulky for convenience.

I don't normally recommend things off Temu, but this was actually a bargain for what you get, as long as the limitations are understood. Their aluminum pipe nails weren't bad either. Pipe cleaners off Temu have been hit or miss. Some are decent, some are not great (linty and with hooked ends).

After a year of use:
View attachment 353471
View attachment 353472
It will hold two small pipes or one medium pipe. I usually carry these in it:
View attachment 353473

That’s the same pouch I posted as well. I got mine on Amazon.
One lasted over a year of daily use until zipper quit zipping, but for the price I bought another. Second is a hair tighter/smaller.

 

[judcole]

I have several pouches that I have acquired as gifts, I tend to use them for Virginia or burley blends. I like the way they look. Using a plaid rollup, loaded up with an old-school burley, gives me a nice feeling of connection with the earlier, simpler days of the hobby.

 

[PLANofMAN]

That’s the same pouch I posted as well. I got mine on Amazon.
One lasted over a year of daily use until zipper quit zipping, but for the price I bought another. Second is a hair tighter/smaller.

If I recall, they are not $10 on Amazon. Quite a bit more, at least the last time I checked.

 

[Sobrbiker]

If I recall, they are not $10 on Amazon. Quite a bit more, at least the last time I checked.

Didn’t say they were.

 

[PiperCalvinist]

I use mine to tote multiple pocket jars or pouches (or even ziplocked tobacco). Makes it handy keeping all my tobacco on a short trip in one place. I never just throw the tobacco straight in it.

 

[coming to_falling too]

I wish I could find a lined leather tobacco pouch that didn't translate that smell and taste to the tobacco I store in it. I bought I Peterson branded pouch a few months back and can't use it for that reason. Maybe Im just sensitive to it, who knows...

Now I just use a couple pocket jars that I keep in my pipe roll.

 

[PLANofMAN]

I wish I could find a lined leather tobacco pouch that didn't translate that smell and taste to the tobacco I store in it. I bought I Peterson branded pouch a few months back and can't use it for that reason. Maybe Im just sensitive to it, who knows...

Now I just use a couple pocket jars that I keep in my pipe roll.

I noticed a strong plastic odor right off the bat with my pouch. Yes, the outside is leather, but the innards are vinyl (polyurethane faux-leather) and the pouch is some sort of plastic as well.

Everything that could be unzipped, unfolded, propped open or turned inside out, was; I left it that way for two or three days to off gas. That took care of 99% of the smell. Bagging the tobacco in ziplock baggies before they go in the compartment takes care of any residual odors.

Many years ago I had a sheepskin case with a single pipe pouch and a zip up tobacco compartment. No plastic in it at all. I think it was made by La Rocca? It was high quality and expensive, around $35 in 1998 as I recall. Mighty expensive for a young man making $7.25 an hour. Now they are double that, if not more. It lasted about 15 years before the rubber tobacco pouch started to disintegrate.

It was effectively odorless.

 

[coming to_falling too]

I noticed a strong plastic odor right off the bat with my pouch. Yes, the outside is leather, but the innards are vinyl (polyurethane faux-leather) and the pouch is some sort of plastic as well.

Everything that could be unzipped, unfolded, propped open or turned inside out, was; I left it that way for two or three days to off gas. That took care of 99% of the smell. Bagging the tobacco in ziplock baggies before they go in the compartment takes care of any residual odors.

Many years ago I had a sheepskin case with a single pipe pouch and a zip up tobacco compartment. No plastic in it at all. I think it was made by La Rocca? It was high quality and expensive, around $35 in 1998 as I recall. Mighty expensive for a young man making $7.25 an hour. Now they are double that, if not more. It lasted about 15 years before the rubber tobacco pouch started to disintegrate.

It was effectively odorless.

I have to do the same with some pipes that come in leather pouches. Air them out for a few days to get the taste of leather out of them

 

[JOHN72]

As has been said here, in the past leather was used for almost everything. Here in Spain you can still buy goatskin boots for wine. They are really very elegant aesthetically, and we know that plastic is now one of the most serious problems that the planet has. In the end, organic is more environmentally friendly. I like the leather pouches to keep all the tobacco kit. The bag is flexible, unlike the tins, for storage in clothing.

 

[MisterBadger]

<SNIP> if you have a big jacket on or are carrying a bag or something, probably anything works (pouch, baggie, old tin, travel tin). Just depends how much pocket space you have.

That's my look What Brits call a gilet, and the majority here I think would call a fishing/shooting vest. And ex-military combat trousers (I think you call them 'cargo pants'). Pockets generally stuffed with tools, cartridges, phone, wallet, seed packets, loose change, keys, old bits of wire etc. A 2 ounce tin never looks out of place in that kind of assemblage. When personating a Victorian farmer, the clothes I wear also have huge, deep pockets. Victorian tobacco tins also have a certain charm, are prettier and don't carry those awful health warnings. The rare occasions I have to look suave and soigné in the 21stC tend to be those where pipe smoking is a no-no, so I carry a vape instead.

 

[MisterBadger]

As has been said here, in the past leather was used for almost everything. Here in Spain you can still buy goatskin boots for wine. They are really very elegant aesthetically, and we know that plastic is now one of the most serious problems that the planet has. In the end, organic is more environmentally friendly. I like the leather pouches to keep all the tobacco kit. The bag is flexible, unlike the tins, for storage in clothing.

Yes, plastic is a big planetary problem, but so - albeit to a lesser degree - is the endless manufacture and consumption and disposal of stuff in general. I accept that goats, cattle etc must die and we might as well give them the respect of using all of them; but what can be more eco-friendly than reusing a tobacco-tin?

 

[JOHN72]

Yes, plastic is a big planetary problem, but so - albeit to a lesser degree - is the endless manufacture and consumption and disposal of stuff in general. I accept that goats, cattle etc must die and we might as well give them the respect of using all of them; but what can be more eco-friendly than reusing a tobacco-tin?

Of course, I agree with you, that I prefer a small can, rather than plastic.

 

[Sobrbiker]

but what can be more eco-friendly than reusing a tobacco-tin?

Tobacco that comes in goat skin

 

[The Libertine]

Tobacco that comes in goat skin

Wouldn't that be baaaaaaa-d?

 

[MisterBadger]

Tobacco that comes in goat skin

We should have a word with the tobacco manufacturers, maybe. Mason jars would be a good idea, too

 

[Choatecav]

In centuries past, they existed by necessity, before plastic zip lock sammich bags were invented.

Jim is correct. In old times they were used by all pipe smokers. Not only leather but cloth and canvas as well. Since they could not keep the tobacco sealed up air tight, they would place things in the bag, like a slice of apple or peach, to help with the moisturization of the leaf.
We spend a lot of time debating which is superior, mason jars or plastic bags and both are light years ahead of what folks used in the "golden years" of tobacco consumption.

 

[MisterBadger]

Jim is correct. In old times they were used by all pipe smokers. Not only leather but cloth and canvas as well. Since they could not keep the tobacco sealed up air tight, they would place things in the bag, like a slice of apple or peach, to help with the moisturization of the leaf.
We spend a lot of time debating which is superior, mason jars or plastic bags and both are light years ahead of what folks used in the "golden years" of tobacco consumption.

Good point. If you could afford it, a wash-leather bag like the one you'd keep your money in; and if you couldn't, you'd tie up your weed in a handkerchief or even just a spare scrap of cloth. And it brings to mind the situation a couple or three centuries ago, when pipe smoking was primarily a social activity for men, (rather than the solitary vice our latter-day puritans in government are willing it to become): in inns and taverns, not only would there be a rack of clays on the bar counter, but sometimes also a wooden box with tobacco in one compartment, and a receptacle for coins in the other - certainly in England. You put your coin in the slot, pulled the drawer, and took out a fill for your pipe. That of course was back in the days when mostly you didn't have much choice as to what tobacco you smoked. And since it was a social activity, maybe tobacco receptacles were only prevalent in the home or other places where men gathered socially.

 

[Peter Peachfuzz]

These are handy as a grab and go option..
A couple of Ziploc baggies of tobacco, sleeve of pipe cleaner replaces the notebook add a bic and pipe knife.