A Pound of Tobacco ?

[pipemaker]

Having way too much time on my hands this week, I thought I would see how much tobacco there is in a one pound bag.

I sampled 5 different quality bulk blends right out of the bag.

After weighing out exactly 16 oz of each, I let them air dry for 3 days until they were at an acceptable moisture level for smoking.

The average moisture loss was 1.65 ounces ...roughly 10 %, so an average 1 lb bag contains 14.35 oz.

For as wet as some tobacco is packaged, I expected the moisture loss to be greater.

Mike B

 

[Blackhorse]

I love it. Epic post.


:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:


So Mike...did you note the range of water loss? If 1.65 oz. was the mean, what was the least, and the most? Really interesting.

 

[Hermit]

I admire your dedication to science,
but you let five pounds of tobacco dry out?!?  :shock:

 

[Briar Spirit]

Oh dear, what ever you do don't dry out any Samuel Gawith or Gawith Hoggarth blends to compare weight before/after the fact, it's not a petty picture. :affraid: 

 

[Fr_Tom]

Being by nature a man who is cheap frugal, this has crossed my mind more than once. I am glad to have some numbers to go with my guess.

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

I admire your dedication to science,
but you let five pounds of tobacco dry out?!?  :shock:

That's the first thing I thought!

 

[Geoff]

Don't we all dry out too moist tobacco? Maybe not a pound at a time but lets not tar and feather here.

 

[Fr_Tom]

I admire your dedication to science,
but you let five pounds of tobacco dry out?!?

It is ready to smoke now. He was going to have to give it some air before smoking. Now he has five pounds at the ready.

I got two 1 lb bags from 4noggins not too long ago. One was C&D Oriental Dusk. The other was Prairie Wind. Just in terms of volume, the difference was pretty dramatic. The Prairie Wind was pretty moist. The Oriental Dusk was about right for me.

 

[monbla256]

Why would you want to dry out 5 lbs. of 'bac . Unless you were Jim,who it seems goes through about 5 lbs. a week at the speed and number he smokes, it'd need to be rehydrated to finish smoking it !! That was one expensive "scientific experiment" :twisted: :twisted: 

 

[Anonymous]

Oh dear, what ever you do don't dry out any Samuel Gawith or Gawith Hoggarth blends to compare weight before/after the fact, it's not a petty picture. :affraid: 

I'd have to weight it all out but one of the reasons I've found that SG seems so moist is its density. Even dry as a bone, FVF still stays together and is flexible. I have a wad of FVF on my desk that I pulled out of a pipe I forgot to smoke. It has stayed together. lol

 

[BigCasino]

I never dry out tobacco, I stuff and puff

 

[Blackhorse]

Yeah. Me either. I love the sound of those bubble pipes.

Where's the pic of that drying tray someone rigged up to sit just outsize the exhaust fan port on the their laptop? Totally epic. Totally brilliant. And it works as well!

 

[Briar Spirit]

Oh dear, what ever you do don't dry out any Samuel Gawith or Gawith Hoggarth blends to compare weight before/after the fact, it's not a petty picture. :affraid: 

I'd have to weight it all out but one of the reasons I've found that SG seems so moist is its density. Even dry as a bone, FVF still stays together and is flexible. I have a wad of FVF on my desk that I pulled out of a pipe I forgot to smoke. It has stayed together. lol

Ha-ha, weird stuff that FVF, darn tasty but weird, mind you I was given some 6 yr aged FVF once and it was hard as nails, still tasted good though.



I'm in the same camp as Harry, I stuff and puff with little to no regard for tobacco moisture, some more moist tobacco results in a little gurgle but that is fine with me as slightly moist tobacco burns slower giving me an extended smoke which is handy when on the old 'puter. :sunny: 

 

[BigCasino]

I'm in the same camp as Harry, I stuff and puff with little to no regard for tobacco moisture, some more moist tobacco results in a little gurgle but that is fine with me as slightly moist tobacco burns slower giving me an extended smoke which is handy when on the old 'puter. :sunny: 

When I first started smoking a pipe I saw that a lot of people dried their tobacco first, so I tried that, then I was reading that this practice is done mostly here in the US, and so I started just smoking the stuff the way it comes, and I really haven't found much difference in the gurgle factor except that if I smoke through a poorly drilled pipe with a constricted airway i get gurgle, if the pipe has a more open draw I don't

it's just like a good chunk of grilled meat the flavor is in the fat, in this case, moisture=fat

 

[Blackhorse]

Just teasing. On some I agree...like Stonehaven. Some guys praise their aged Stonehaven but I prefer smoking it as fresh as possible. The treacle (raisin/molasses) flavorings Germain uses on it taste best to me when at their height. The longer it sits, the more dissipated the flavors become. And when it's fresh it's damp. But I don't care.

 

[BigCasino]

I figured so BH, I have yet to run into something I thought was too wet, altho I have heard some stories...

 

[RDPipes]

Don't make a habit of drying anything before I smoke it either. I find if I do it seems to get harsh, besides I'm lazy. When I wish to smoke I certainly don't want to wait while my tobacco drys, I got better things to do, like watching paint dry.

 

[monbla256]

I'm in the same camp as Harry, I stuff and puff with little to no regard for tobacco moisture, some more moist tobacco results in a little gurgle but that is fine with me as slightly moist tobacco burns slower giving me an extended smoke which is handy when on the old 'puter. :sunny: 

When I first started smoking a pipe I saw that a lot of people dried their tobacco first, so I tried that, then I was reading that this practice is done mostly here in the US, and so I started just smoking the stuff the way it comes, and I really haven't found  much difference in the gurgle factor except that if I smoke through a poorly drilled pipe with a constricted airway i get  gurgle, if the pipe has a more open draw I don't

it's just like a good chunk of grilled meat the flavor is in the fat, in this case, moisture=fat

You're a man after my own heart!!! That's basically how I've done it for 40+ years and it works !!

 

[Bluefisher]

Ha-ha, weird stuff that FVF, darn tasty but weird, mind you I was given some 6 yr aged FVF once and it was hard as nails, still tasted good though.

Hmm.. I received an unsealed tin of FVF in my last order. The flakes are hard as nails and almost black. I was going to just pitch it, but I'll have to give it a go.

Oh, and of course smokingpipes credited my account, so no worries there.

 

[Natch]

Mike,

Good to see you're still alive and kicking! I did a similar research project a while back, but with notably different results. I kicked the crap out of one of my colleagues and found out that he was almost 90% crap. The remaining 10% wasn't much to brag about as well.

Damn, I love scientific research.:cheers: 

Natch