Shredding whole leaf tobacco

[Haebar]

Nice work, @Haebar !

You can't really compare hobbyism to manufacturing As you know, I roll my own cigars for a hobby, but they're never going to look as good as the cheesiest commercial cigar, nor taste as good as a Padron, and if I tried to sell them, I wouldn't even make enough money to cover the licensing fees. It's just the fun of craftsmanship and coming up with something unique.

Good point! I am having a lot of fun with it; have never handled whole leaf tobacco before. Love the feel of it in my hands; it has a wonderful waxy, leathery feel. I like taking a leaf and spreading it open. And I am becoming much more efficient at destemming it. Last night I did a quarter pound of Virginia in 15 minutes. The Perique was interesting too, dark, exotic, and unique smelling.

[Haebar]

Here's a picture of the shredding process. This is some Virginia Gold Fronto leaf, very good condition leaves that I got from Whole Leaf Tobacco.



I also bought a kit for making Balkan Sobranidje tobacco. The assumption is that you will use it for making cigarettes, so they included two different casings to be used on two of the three different types of leaves.