Shredding whole leaf tobacco

[Haebar]

This is a pound of flue-cured Virginia scraps after cleaning. I bought a sampling of the bags of scraps just to see if they would be useful for making pipe tobacco. When I took them out of the shipping box, I immediately regretted having bought them in spite of the low price. However, after working this batch up, they were not as bad as I thought they would be. Lots of stems and a few discolored pieces, but in the end, I am pleased with the yield.



Update: The bag of American Virginia flue-cured scraps were completely unusable; I'll use them in the garden somehow. However, the Assorted Virginia flue-cured scraps were about 80% usable for pipe tobacco and the Fronto scraps were about 90% usable. Even so, I won't buy anymore of the scraps.

[Bruck]

This is a pound of flue-cured Virginia scraps after cleaning. I bought a sampling of the bags of scraps just to see if they would be useful for making pipe tobacco. When I took them out of the shipping box, I immediately regretted having bought them in spite of the low price. However, after working this batch up, they were not as bad as I thought they would be. Lots of stems and a few discolored pieces, but in the end, I am pleased with the yield.

Is that your tobacco salad bowl?

[Haebar]

Is that your tobacco salad bowl?

Yessir, it's a huge stainless steel bowl. It's good for blending too. You can swirl it around and if you shake it a certain way, you can make the tobacco fines and dust come to one end where you can spoon it out.

I have "processed" so much whole leaf tobacco today that my right hand is sore from cranking the hand-shredder. I had to switch to turning the handle with my left hand. If the tobacco has a certain amount of moisture in the leaf that it gums up the shredder and I have to stop and clean out the grooves with a knife. They must have a bad year for American flue-cured Virginia because it was in bad shape. I got some Canadian flue-cured and it was in fine shape.