AceFour's Notebook

Amateur pipe tobacco blending and pressing

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Virginia/Dark Fired Kentucky - Memphis Plug

Tuesday, Jul 26, 2022

Whole leaf Virginia/dark fired Kentucky plug is the next experiment to perform. This is made with equal parts bright Virginia flue cured, red Virginia flue cured and dark fired Kentucky. All of these leaves were purchased from Whole Leaf Tobacco. First step is prepping the leaves.

Prepping the leaves, by unfolding, de-stemming and hand ripping the leaves and placing in a plastic bags. Use one bag for bright Virginia and one back for the dark fired Kentucky. De-stemming is easy my grabbing the tip of the stem at the top of the leaf and pulling down. After you may what to hand rip big leaves into smaller pieces and put in a shopping bag. Next we need to case the bright Virginia.

@ AceFour

3 minute read

Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug

Tuesday, Jul 26, 2022

Experimenting with Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug. Tobacco was purchased Bright Virginia Flue Cured and Lemon Virginia Flue Cured from WholeLeafTobacco.com along with their commercial casing . Whole Leaf Tobacco commercial casing for flue-cured tobacco is just an inverted sugar water flavored with lemon peel. Next, was deciding on the blend.

The blend recipe was 2 parts Bright Virginia and 1 part Lemon Virginia tobacco. I got that rough ratio from an interview on YouTube with Mike McNeil of McClelland’s. That was the Aston blend they use to do long ago. An no, this is not even going to be close to that blend. If you know what or how McNeil’s did their magic with their Virginia’s The blend recipe was 2 parts Bright Virginia and 1 part Lemon Virginia tobacco. I got that rough ratio from an interview on YouTube with Mike McNeil of McClelland’s. That was the Aston blend they use to do long ago. An no, this is not even going to be close to that blend. If you know what or how McNeil’s did their magic with their Virginia

@ AceFour

2 minute read

Pipe Tobacco Blending Resources

Friday, Jul 22, 2022

Casing/Recipes

Press

Noodle Press
PVC and Hockey Pucks
Shop Press
2′ Stainless Steel Tube T43311
3/4″ Richlite high temperature cutting board

Whole Leaf Vendors and Casing Supplies

Whole Leaf Tobacco
Leaf Only
Flavor Extracts and Cacao Nibs (use “like a spoonful per 16oz of casing”)

Cutting

How thin can you go? (Inexpensive method for producing uniform thin flakes)
Bingham Knifeworks (custom blade design for vintage plug cutters)

@ AceFour

1 minute read

Blog on amateur pipe tobacco blending

Friday, Jul 22, 2022

I am an amateur tobacco blender. I make personal blends and blends for Afterburner Cigar Lounge in Lillington, NC. I don’t really make any money on it but it does give the local shop something unique to sell and a way for others to obtain some of my blends. I do it for fun, not for money.

The goal of this site is to inspire others and credit those that have helped me in this hobby. One of my first blends was various iterations until Red Queen V was created. From there I started playing with pressing tobacco . Lately I have been experimenting working with whole leaf tobacco .

@ AceFour

1 minute read

About this site

AceFour’s Notebook is an independent publication launched in June 2023 by AceFour. “I don’t advertise, I don’t do affiliate sales, I don’t sell anything. This is for you, the pipe tobacco community.”