Thought I'd wake this subforum up with a little tobacco flake pron :)
I just finished a batch of RYO cigars and, like most amateur torcedores, am faced with the dilemma of what to do with all the scraps and trimmings. You can't just throw them away! I've tried using scraps for filler in other cigars, but that usually results in a sort of mushy-flavored cigar that doesn't burn particularly well. Better uses I've found are steaming them to make pseudo-cavendish for pipe tobacco blending, and twisting them (with whole leaves) into rope tobacco for pipe smoking and chaw. This time I'm making a brick of flake with them.
Here's the components - mostly cigar leaf scraps plus a couple handfuls of Imzur (Turkish) to cut down on the sharpness (straight cigar leaf in a pipe hits me with a lot of "spice") and about a half a jar of cigar scrap cavendish to further soften the blow & add some depth. Not real scientific here with the measurements :) I moistened them with DW and left them in a bag overnight to humidify. See if you can guess what retail outlet consumes half my paycheck.
http://i.imgur.com/1vS3R2S.jpg
The press I use is a Harbor Freight 6 ton cheapie, slightly modified - I removed the ramrod and one section of the frame, to apply direct pressure to the subject. The pressing chamber is a simple affair generously supplied by our friend @Emperor Zurg . It's a section of 4" square channel steel with a 1/4" steel floor plate and a thicker press plate, at the bottom of the pic, that fits nicely in the square channel. The press plate is actually square - the pic it a little distorted.
http://i.imgur.com/QmWYIcK.jpg
Loading the tobacco. I lined the chamber with a plastic bag to avoid contact with the steel which would taint the flavor.
http://i.imgur.com/YTOMm6u.jpg
Pressing. The pressure plate is atop the tobacco, separated by a sheet of waxed paper, same reason as above. There are a couple of short segments of 2x4 to take up the extra space.
http://i.imgur.com/Vcci8qQ.jpg
I'll leave it in the press for a couple of days, then store it under lighter weight (~50#) for a couple weeks before slicing. This is the basic process I follow with all of my homemade flakes, the only difference being in what tobacco components and added flavoring to use. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.
