Leftynick: I had to learn this the hard way. Like I said, if you are going to shred & blend the "crispy" tobacco into a cigarette, that's okay. Not so good for cigar leaf.
mwaller: spritz those leaves!
1.) Not all leaves are equal. Each will have different thickness and moisture absorption / holding rates. ( Bottom, mid, upper leaves, etc.) Also, different varieties will behave differently. If you were trying to kiln Stolac 17, good luck with that one! Stolac has extremely thick leaves and is difficult to deal with effectively.
2.) At 125 to 130 degrees in a kiln, the air will hold a lot more moisture than 70 degree air. One of the other members could probably come up with a table showing what kind of humidity is necessary to keep leaves moist at 125 - 130 degrees. My own guess is that the humidity in your kiln should be above 70%. When I was first starting out, I was advised to kiln at 70 - 85% humidity. Bob (deluxestogie aka: the tobacco guru) has said in a previous post that tobacco will not mold at temps above 120.
Kilning is a tricky thing. But when you get it right it's a great thing. I had to fail a few times before I got the hang of it. Freshly (read properly) kilned tobacco has a distinctive scent and texture all its own. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't Panic"!
Good luck, happy kilning, and (eventual) happy burning.
Wes H.
