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Destemming whole leaf

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BarG

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I plan on storing alot of my leaves mybe 12-15 lbs by folding along midrib,flattening and stacking in plastic bags. When I pull some out for destemming the leaf is already flattened out and I just need to grab the stem at bottom and remove by working up to top,after bringing into a pliable case. I've been folding with outer part of leaf showing, any one have better results doing different?
 

Chrism

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I do mine from top tip to bottom... Seemed to be they won't tear as bad as going from the bottom to tip. I also do one side at a time...
 

BigBonner

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If they are big flat leaves . I take my wifes rotary cutter from sewing and cut with it . It looks like a pizza cutter but they are sharp . I also shredd with one and a long flat fabric ruller . scoot cut, scoot cut ,Its makes a fine shredd but takes a long time to make one pound .
 

Chicken

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make your own vein deribber,

i can envision a good idea,,,,

take a old hand roller off a old washing-machine '' what they used to wring water out of the clothes'',{may have to make this from 2 bread rollers}

dremel a groove out of the wood,,, in the center of both rollers,,,,,,and glue metal in them grooves,,,,and insert the leaf turn the crank and as it passes thru,,, the vein is cut clean off,,,


..
 

HowardW

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I use a utility knife and a wooden cutting board, keeps me from ripping the leaf and I have a nice pile of stems left over which could be ground up for a nicotine kick!
 

Chicken

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I use a utility knife and a wooden cutting board, keeps me from ripping the leaf and I have a nice pile of stems left over which could be ground up for a nicotine kick!

I AGREE,,,^^^^ that would proablly be the best way,,, to do it, and make sure your leaf is missing what it needs to be missing,,,

and intact,and unwrinkled where it needs to be,,,,

i store mine allready shredded, in quart sized mason jars,,,, SO IM PRETTY ROUGH AT REMOVING THE MID-RIB<-------
 

BarG

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My homeade tobacco shredder and homeade rocking knife for cigar wrappers and binders. Photo is In process of destemming and shredding vbl.
 

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deluxestogie

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I have used a number of techniques for destemming leaf. I've destemmed with a rotary knife (pizza cutter style), a curved tactical knife, a chaveta and various ways of destemming by hand. Currently, I have settled on destemming by hand exclusively.

What I've found is that the case of the leaf is critical. I start with about 20-30 crispy-dry leaves. Held by the butt end of the stems, I mist these thoroughly with distilled water (distilled so that it won't clog my spray bottle over time). These are then carefully placed into a very large, transparent plastic bag, and closed with a twist of the plastic and a clothespin. Usually by the following day, the leaf can be felt to be entirely pliable.

The key to hand stemming appears to be putting the leaf in medium case, while the stem is still in low case (not dry). This allows the lamina to be held without breaking, and be torn cleanly from the stem by drawing the lamina along the direction of the stem, rather than pulling it away. I use about half the length of my index finger, together with the long edge of my thumb. If the stem is too moist, then it tends to come off in shreds along with the lamina. The leaf should be either silent when handled, or sound like thick vinyl. If it rustles, it's too dry.

As for direction (butt to tip vs. tip to butt), it depends on the angle of the secondary veins to the stem. With a 45 degree angle, tip to butt usually tears most cleanly. With a 90 degree angle, like CT Shade or FL Sumatra, it seems to tear more cleanly from butt to tip. If the stem is too moist, then butt to tip will prevent the stem from delaminating. Each secondary vein forms a separate strand along the stem all the way to the butt of the stem. With a damp stem, this strand simply strips away from the stem.

Since any humidified batch of leaf will contain leaves of varying humidification, sometimes one direction works better than the other with any particular leaf. I usually start tip to butt. If that tends to be troublesome, I'll try the other direction.

I've actually timed the hand process, which varies with the size of the leaf. Generally, it takes 20 to 30 seconds to strip both sides of the leaf, while leaving little to no lamina fragments on the stem. I've only been able to achieve this speed by any knife method if the leaf is absolutely flat, and the stem has no twist. Doing it by hand, it doesn't matter much if the leaf is not flat or the stem is twisted.

Bob
 

BarG

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Nice post Bob, I've been trying all day to remember the name {chaveta}, couldn't remember what it was called although I've seen pics. I destemmed a lot today and each leaf was probabably destemmed a little different [as you described] depending on shape, texture,and case of leaf,as there were several different varietys.
 

johnlee1933

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I use an old fashioned guillotine paper cutter with a support board outside the blade and about 1/2" away. The leaves need to be pliable. I pull one off the pile, smooth it flat on the cutter table, slide it under the blade, line up the rib inside the blade and cut. Slide the leaf in a bit further and cut. The mid rib falls down the half inch crack and the two leaf halves are on the cutter table and support board. If the rib is badly curved I sometimes fold the leaf and make a couple of cuts to remove the rib. Making the support board out of a piece of scrap is what makes it works for me. The ribs go down the crack and out of the way. I do get a bit of leaf on the rib at times but don't waste as much as when I try to hand strip. I haven't lost a finger tip yet but I do think about it and am careful.

I considering mounting two razor knife blades on a 3/8" wide stick so they are parallel. This would be a "double cut" knife of sorts and should strip the rib out clean. I'll let you know when I get it made and how it works.

John
 

BarG

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That sounds like good old American innovation John. Last year While my cured leaves were in case I folded along stem and piled for storage in plastic bags. It would work with one cut on your cutter or knife.
 

johnlee1933

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That sounds like good old American innovation John. Last year While my cured leaves were in case I folded along stem and piled for storage in plastic bags. It would work with one cut on your cutter or knife.

Great thought. With a single blade you would lose less leaf close to the stem.

John
 

deluxestogie

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There are several cigar factory videos that show a stemming machine. The leaf is in high case and pre-flattened. The butt end of the leaf is fed into a pair of spinning rollers with a notch in the center. The rollers pull in the remainder of the leaf, while a double cutting blade straddles the stem. The separated leaf strips are sent to right-hand and left-hand bins.

Bob
 

leverhead

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Boboro mentioned something earlier tonight, again, about a de-ribbing machine. I had looked around the patent office and other places on the subject earlier in the year. Just by looking at the similarities and differences in the patents over the years, makes me think there's not very many ways to skin that cat. I ended up working on a shredder and growing tobacco, so I let slide. I'm posting a couple of pictures and some images of the drawings from a couple of patents that I found most interesting. Then a list of US Patents, searching patents without a number can be pretty frustrating. If you're a tinkerer, you might enjoy this.

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notcrack

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Not to butt in to this convo, but I'm pretty confident the old hemp stripping machine would work for this purpose. They were made to separate the fibrous stems from the leaf material. I'm pretty sure there are pictures of them at work in the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer.
 
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