Tobacco Press and Blood Meridian

I'm a huge admirer of Cormac McCarthy, thus the homage to one of his masterpieces and my pretentious nature in naming this humble tobacco. It may end up being only a working name but the leather and earth top notes remind me of the Western frontier in the book.

One of the great challenges in tobacco blending is to get a mixture to finish, that is to remain pleasurable right to the end of the bowl. Tobacco blending is like being a hitter in baseball, you have hot and cold streaks and lately I've had a hot streak where my blends are coming together and finishing well. I've been there before and I know that all of a sudden everything you make tastes like, well, you know but I'll ride this for as long as I can.

The mixture is almost all Virginia, dark and light, with a special ingredient to flesh it out and add complexity. I want to test the mixture after it's been pressed (not a flake) and fortunately I can do that thanks to Bill, @EmperorZurg, who designed and made me a this beautiful, small tobacco press.

So this little photo essay, assuming that the pictures post, shows the press and how the tobacco is handled.

The Emperor Zurg tobacco press is three pieces; Cylinder, weight and pressure plate. The pressed tobacco in the plastic wrap is some Thomas Hariot that I've finished pressing (5-6 days).


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Bill was most kind in making the press and he even engraved Elephant & Castle on the bottom of the cylinder. That's class!


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Blood Meridian in the sample mixing bowl with plastic wrap to hold the tobacco to be pressed.


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About one ounce of Blood Meridian wrapped and ready for the insertion of the pressure plate.


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Pressure plate in place . Note the superb work on the weight including the cork bottom that is so important. The weight is really heavy! (sorry for the fuzzy picture).


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The assembled press with the Blood Meridian inside. I'll give this about three days but there's significant pressure with only a day in the press.
Great piece of equipment Bill, many thanks,


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No pics. How can I help?

PS One of my boy's gamer tag was JudgeHolden. Proof that I raised him right, in my mind.

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Originally Posted by Alligator Gar

No pics. How can I help?

PS One of my boy's gamer tag was JudgeHolden. Proof that I raised him right, in my mind.

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The amazing Judge! Yes you did well.

Damn, I have so many problems posting pics. I can see them and it seems to post.

If Cormac McCarthy novels becomes a theme for your blends, I think the Child of God mixture would scare the hell out of me.

Looking forward to seeing the pics, Pete.

:popcorn:

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

The amazing Judge! Yes you did well.

Damn, I have so many problems posting pics. I can see them and it seems to post.

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Here is how I do it. I take a picture with my phone. I upload that picture to my Imgur account. I go to the image in Imgur and copy the Direct Link. I start a post in CB. I click on the tree icon. I click insert image from URL. I paste the link there. Very important: I uncheck "retrieve remote file and reference locally" That should do it. If you're still having problems I can talk you through it tomorrow night.

:eagerness::tickled_pink::behindsofa:

Blood Meridian was an amazing novel, and blew my mind when I read it, as it was the first by CM I'd read. I like the idea of tobacco blends inspired by is work. Also fond of Suttree, although I don't think the world's ready for a watermelon aro ;)

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Originally Posted by cpmcdill

Blood Meridian was an amazing novel, and blew my mind when I read it, as it was the first by CM I'd read. I like the idea of tobacco blends inspired by is work. Also fond of Suttree, although I don't think the world's ready for a watermelon aro ;)

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OK, may have found a way to post the pictures with the assistance of a good samaritan.

Chromebooks don't access storage or web hosts in anything near a normal fashion and thus even if I got pics to Photobucket (or other service) the Chromebook might not recognize it (hasn't in the past).

I knew youz guys wuz edicated! I no longer have a favorite Cormac book because I find something thrillingly worthwhile in every piece of his that I've read but I was thinking about naming a blend, Lester Ballard's Man Cave. How's that for creepy?

I've not read Suttree but I've started it five or six times. I can usually read books at a quick rate but not McCarthy. Suttree is a definite read this Winter and I'm allowing 8-10 weeks. I'll decide about the watermelon aro after reading it.

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

Damn, I have so many problems posting pics. I can see them and it seems to post.

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Looks like you're trying to link pics from a gmail account. They won't display because you have to be signed in to the account for them to show up. That's prolly why you can see them but nobody else can. You'll need to upload them to a pic host of some kind... imgur, photobucket, tinypic, flikr... take your pic, there are dozens of them. Nice thing about tinypic is you don't need an account... of course you don't have an album then either so you can't go back and delete your pics if you want...

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what you actually DO with that press. Never seen it in action :p :p

I little info about the Chromebook:
Most folks aren't aware of how Chrome OS works. You cannot download (most) software to it. The OS automatically updates itself and Flash in the background. It runs a special version of Flash that is rarely incompatible with some things. So, in other words, you can't install Firefox, nor can you update Flash.
Try the free app from the chrome web store called the User-Agent Switcher for Chrome.
Go web to store and in the search bar type in "User-Agent Switcher for Chrome".
Then select the app that has the little piece of paper wearing a mask /The User-Agent Switcher for Chrome and add to chrome. With this extension, you can quickly and easily switch between user-agent strings.

This app mimics different web browsers that can be more compatible with certain sites more than others. If you are on a chromebook and sometimes sited just have links that do not work or the page does not interact with you like it should this little app can fix it much of the time. Try using the firefox 15 spoof.

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Originally Posted by BryGuySC

I little info about the Chromebook:
Most folks aren't aware of how Chrome OS works. You cannot download (most) software to it. The OS automatically updates itself and Flash in the background. It runs a special version of Flash that is rarely incompatible with some things. So, in other words, you can't install Firefox, nor can you update Flash.
Try the free app from the chrome web store called the User-Agent Switcher for Chrome.
Go web to store and in the search bar type in "User-Agent Switcher for Chrome".
Then select the app that has the little piece of paper wearing a mask /The User-Agent Switcher for Chrome and add to chrome. With this extension, you can quickly and easily switch between user-agent strings.

This app mimics different web browsers that can be more compatible with certain sites more than others. If you are on a chromebook and sometimes sited just have links that do not work or the page does not interact with you like it should this little app can fix it much of the time. Try using the firefox 15 spoof.

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Man !! You lost me and I work on puters for a hobby,,,,:confused:
Just installed win 10 a month ago and still learning how to get around.

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Originally Posted by Lostmason

Man !! You lost me and I work on puters for a hobby,,,,:confused:
Just installed win 10 a month ago and still learning how to get around.

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Yeah. I know what you mean. I'm in IT, and feel like that when I talk to my boss.
Most of that is copy/paste from the interwebs.

Summary: if you use a Chromebook, download the User-Agent Switcher for Chrome. Set it to "spoof" Firefox 15. It should help "difficult" sites work like they are supposed to.

Pressure plate in place . Note the superb work on the weight including the cork bottom that is so important. The weight is really heavy! (sorry for the fuzzy picture).

Why the cork?

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Originally Posted by Alligator Gar

Pressure plate in place . Note the superb work on the weight including the cork bottom that is so important. The weight is really heavy! (sorry for the fuzzy picture).

Why the cork?

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The cork absorbs the shock of metal hitting metal. The weight 'cushes' rather than crashes when it contacts the pressure plate. EmperorZurg perhaps could add specifics from his design notes.

@Nature, many thanks for re-posting the pics, pixel by pixel.

@BryGuySC, I've been schnooking around with Chrome for months and your solution sounds like it may have legs, thank you. I'll test it later and if it does then you guys may, by the number of pics posted, come to regret Bryan's sage advice. What do you do in IT?

@EmperorZurg, thanks for the advice with Gmail/Chrome. I emailed myself an image from my tablet, opened it and dragged and dropped (because Chrome doesn't play nice with Copy/Paste).

Altogether I suspect that you guys provided a solution all around, from the problem at hand, to the reasons why and the ongoing solution. Impressive.

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

@BryGuySC, I've been schnooking around with Chrome for months and your solution sounds like it may have legs, thank you. I'll test it later and if it does then you guys may, by the number of pics posted, come to regret Bryan's sage advice. What do you do in IT?

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I do end-user and network support for a company of about 150 employees.

That is a sweet press!

I have had the most success with photobucket. I have the app on my phone, so I open the pic in the gallery then upload to photobucket.
I open the Photobucket site in my browser, click the photo, then click the Direct link, and just paste that link in the body of my post here.

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

The cork absorbs the shock of metal hitting metal. The weight 'cushes' rather than crashes when it contacts the pressure plate. EmperorZurg perhaps could add specifics from his design notes.

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I put cork on there for a variety of reasons, none of which are all that insightful to the art of tobacco pressing given that I really didn't know why the press was needed or how it was to be used. Pete just said he needed a gravity press to hold a couple ounces of tobacco to simulate tin pressure so he could see what a blend was going to taste like after it had been packed into a tin for a while.

So for the record, here's the 'why' behind it...
1) I had a scrap of cork gasket material on hand (for that matter, the entire press was made of various shorts and drops)
2) I didn't know if the weight would be used as a hammer or not but it made sense to dampen the 'clack' if it was.
3) It's easier to tear the cork off if it's not wanted than to come up with a piece to glue on later
4) I figured Mrs. Bend would kill Mr. Bend if if he gouged up the counter with that heavy weight.
5) I didn't want the weight to scratch up the follower plate.

That's pretty much it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BryGuySC

I do end-user and network support for a company of about 150 employees.

That is a sweet press!

I have had the most success with photobucket. I have the app on my phone, so I open the pic in the gallery then upload to photobucket.
I open the Photobucket site in my browser, click the photo, then click the Direct link, and just paste that link in the body of my post here.

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I've used Photobucket with a desktop but the Chromebook won't recognize it (at least where file exchange is concerned). I'll try it again under a Foxfire alias.

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

I put cork on there for a variety of reasons, none of which are all that insightful to the art of tobacco pressing given that I really didn't know why the press was needed or how it was to be used. Pete just said he needed a gravity press to hold a couple ounces of tobacco to simulate tin pressure so he could see what a blend was going to taste like after it had been packed into a tin for a while.

So for the record, here's the 'why' behind it...
1) I had a scrap of cork gasket material on hand (for that matter, the entire press was made of various shorts and drops)
2) I didn't know if the weight would be used as a hammer or not but it made sense to dampen the 'clack' if it was.
3) It's easier to tear the cork off if it's not wanted than to come up with a piece to glue on later
4) I figured Mrs. Bend would kill Mr. Bend if if he gouged up the counter with that heavy weight.
5) I didn't want the weight to scratch up the follower plate.

That's pretty much it.

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Holy smoke, your planning of the press is evident when I use it but you saved my marriage too! (Am I supposed to hate you for that?) :)

Very cool piece of gear @Emperor Zurg !

As for Cormac McCarthy, I've only read The Road. Very good, but jeez are all his books that grim?

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

I've used Photobucket with a desktop but the Chromebook won't recognize it (at least where file exchange is concerned). I'll try it again under a Foxfire alias.

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I have had the same problem with Photobucket on a Windows tablet running windows-8 for "Surface". I have to go to the "Help" screen of PhB and find "remove mobile view". The link for this doesn't otherwise show. Even though the photobucket site still doesn't support my browser, it works.

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Originally Posted by c.ortiz108

Very cool piece of gear @Emperor Zurg !

As for Cormac McCarthy, I've only read The Road. Very good, but jeez are all his books that grim?

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Hi Chico,

Have no expectations when reading McCarthy even to the point of expecting normal punctuation. I know people who have just given up on him because he doesn't use quotes. The Road is bleak and to me a bit of an anomaly. I'd suggest reading No Country For Old Men or All The Pretty Horses that are more approachable and then Blood Meridian and Child of God later. If there's a greater living writer, they're not known to me and I esteem him among or above the greatest literary giants of the past. Where is his Nobel Prize?

The press is uber kewl and very useful. Kudos to Bill (@Emperorzurg) for taking my idea to fruition and surpassing my expectations.

I had a good talk with my sister-in-law. First in many years. Last year I sent her new hubby a digital copy of No Country For Old Men and he apparently loved it.

She likes romances and less violence so today I sent her a digital copy of All The Pretty Horses. I hope that she likes it.

In my opinion, both are masterpieces. I've read Horses three times and No Country several times more, always hoping that Llewelyan Moss doesn't take the money. Has there ever been a more brilliantly developed antagonist than Anton Chigurh?

That is 100% pure awesome!

Wow on so many levels to so many people.

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Originally Posted by NeverBend

I had a good talk with my sister-in-law. First in many years. Last year I sent her new hubby a digital copy of No Country For Old Men and he apparently loved it.

She likes romances and less violence so today I sent her a digital copy of All The Pretty Horses. I hope that she likes it.

In my opinion, both are masterpieces. I've read Horses three times and No Country several times more, always hoping that Llewelyan Moss doesn't take the money. Has there ever been a more brilliantly developed antagonist than Anton Chigurh?

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Got the update from my sister-in-law and her husband,

He watched the movie to better follow the book and she gave up on the book because of the lack of quotes and bought the audio edition instead. This all started because he said that he never watched TV and was an avid reader. Am I missing something :)

Smoking Blood Meridian that was pressed for a few days. Press did a great job of making this into a (near) crumble cake. I'd need to age some to be sure but I believe that this is smoking like it had a few months in the tin under pressure. Not that that's better or worse but it allows me to make some tweaks based on what I'm sampling. Apologies but my tablet was borrowed so I don't have pics of the pressed cake but will try to post future pressings.