pressing baccy into bricks,

[Chicken]

ive read a lot on the subject, and basically it is a step that isnt really needed,,,

allthough im gonna try my luck at it,{ i got acess to a shop press so why not,?]

tomorrow im gonna try and build a mold for it,,,{ i work long hours,,so '' TRY IS THE WORD,}.

ive read 2 hours to 24 hours press time,,, can you give me your thoughts,,,and your sucess with pressing,, and some do's and dont's youve learned,????

 

[BaccaChew]

With all the sticky (acts like glue) on the leaves, it seems that the more pressure for longer, the more likely you will arrive at a solid, glued brick. Might be interesting for a really slow release chew "pellet"!

30 ton woodsplitter is definitely out! How many tons is your shop press?

 

[Jack in NB]

I brick all of mine, then run the bricks through a tobacco cutter. Tried a paper trimmer, but it was too slow and hard to control the width of cut.

I found I had to take this approach to get the chunky texture I like for my pipe tobacco.

My forms are about 3 1/2 x 6", 2" deep, hold 50 to 100 leaves. Found I had to have plenty of moisture - well beyond light case - to get a solid brick. I have a squirt water bottle, and add 2 or 3 squirts every three or four leaves.

I use 5 substantial C clamps on the press, and tighten several times in the 12 - 18 hours under pressure. The juice runs out during that process - if I don't get some runoff (or runout!), the brick is usually rather light and the shredded tobacco is much looser.

Pictures of the operation are posted on the HTGT picture gallery, user galleries, page 2 under my name.

 

[Chicken]

With all the sticky (acts like glue) on the leaves, it seems that the more pressure for longer, the more likely you will arrive at a solid, glued brick. Might be interesting for a really slow release chew "pellet"!

30 ton woodsplitter is definitely out! How many tons is your shop press?[/QUOTE]

im not exactlly sure, i'll look tomorrow,,,

i had a lot of man-chores to do today,, so i didnt get around to construction,, im watching ice road truckers,{ d.v.r.}

i may do some construction after the show,,,

i shut my light off, at 5 p.m. and closed all inlet vents, and have the crock-pot on high, to get them in high case,,, today they finished in the kiln,

i'd like to put a brick in the press in the morning,,,,

if i do build it tonight, i'll post pictures of my mold tonight,

 

[Chicken]

its a 30 ton press,,,,

i got pics,,,,,

will post them later,,,, i left my mold in the press overnite,'' I DIDNT USE BUT THE REQUIRED PRESSURE TO DO WHAT I WANTED''

how long should i leave it in the press before it's ready to be wrapped for storage,?

pics. later,

 

[Chicken]

the hands to the top right,, the 3

thats what i dug out of to press,

BIGBONNERS burley,, my sharika, and big gem,,

and i layered some flue cured turkish,,,,and flue cured burley,,, to it also...

.. I MADE A BACCY SANDWICH..

 

[Chicken]

it's one massive press,,,

i put some torque on this brick,,, lets see how it comes out,,,,vs/ less force,???

 

[Chicken]

well

the final end results was extremely well,,,,,,

it's about 1'' thick,, pressed , and still wet,,, i cant wait to try some of this,,, i blended 4 different types of baccy,,, made a baccy sandwich,

 

[Chicken]

my brick of baccy,,,,

...

By chickenhawk435 at 2011-09-22
..

By chickenhawk435 at 2011-09-22

 

[LeftyRighty]

I gotta say something here.....
pressing tobacco into a brick, so that you have a convenient block to slice, shred or flake tobacco from, is not a bad idea. Will work well, easier to handle than a handful of loose leaves.
And this is done with leaves just 'in-case' or the correct moisture content for shreds/flake.

but if you press into too solid of a block (too much pressure), and store it too long after its been bricked, what you get is what you got - a solid block of biomass material. It will be very difficult to get it to shred or seperate.

been there, done that. After a couple months, the only way I could get anything other than chunks was to use a grinding wheel, or soak for hours in a pan of water, neither of which gave me smoking material.

yeah, I know, they use high pressure for perique - but that is high-case and soggy, and the tobacco is kept in this wet-state - very wet, and the tobacco does not 'bond' together. Not the same thing as bricking!

Just a warning.... be careful with this bricking.
a brick is not how you want to store tobacco!

My suggestion for long-term storage, and to reduce volume over just loose leaf, is to bale it, in low-to-medium case, with just hand-pressure or 10-20 lbs weights, to compress the leaves (with or without the midribs) into a compact bale or bundle, and store at 70+/- degrees and 70 RH. Wrap it in plastic or paper if you must, or just let it sit & breath.

Note: re-posted from HTGT forum.

 

[deluxestogie]

For making tobacco flake, a style of pipe tobacco which is nothing more than a thin slice of a press block, the tobacco is first pressed in high case, then sliced while still in case. The resulting flakes can then be dried as is, and stored dry or in low case.

If the flake is "rubbed out" to loose tobacco, then the shreds can blended with other varieties of tobacco shred, and again pressed, forming a press cake. A press cake can be dried or left in low case for storage.

Aged as a press cake, the blend merges, and differing shred sizes won't separate, as they would if stored and used in loose form. (Particle size stratification is what produces the concentration of small bits--usually of the same blend component--at the bottom of a pouch or tobacco jar.)

For use, a small chunk of press cake is broken off, like breaking off a piece of a cookie, then rubbed out. A well know example of this is Cornell & Diehl's Pirate Kake, which contains 75% Latakia (about as high a percentage of Latakia as will still combust, since Latakia is a slow-burning tobacco). If crumbled and then stored, the Latakia readily separates from the other constituents, as the blend is gently handled from a pouch or jar. For this reason, it is sold only as press cake.

Bob

 

[Chicken]

^^^

good info.

thats my plan to slice it,,,,and store the slices in med. case in mason jars,, opening regularlly to let them breathe,,,

this stage is merely a experiment to see how i like it,

this may be the first and only brick i make,,,,,or i may like it, and make more bricks,????

 

[Cerasaan]

ive read a lot on the subject, and basically it is a step that isnt really needed,,,

allthough im gonna try my luck at it,{ i got acess to a shop press so why not,?]

tomorrow im gonna try and build a mold for it,,,{ i work long hours,,so '' TRY IS THE WORD,}.

ive read 2 hours to 24 hours press time,,, can you give me your thoughts,,,and your sucess with pressing,, and some do's and dont's youve learned,????

I'm trying that too, I got an old vise from work that I rebuilt. I'm thinking of pressing to a size that I can easily cut it into strips that will fit through a bean slicer. failing that I got this idea from online about using a paper shredder (the kind that cuts strips not chunks) and modifying it to cut a few leaves at a time.