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I made this puck with a pasta press and blending scraps. I left it in for 3 1/2 days.
Cuts into nice flakes. I'm smoking some now
Turned out nice! But I always found the problem with round plugs is cutting round flakes from them. 😃
Ok you did this post right on the perfect time! This afternoon I was thinking I want to experiment to make some pressed mixtures myself, but I don't have the place nor the good instruments for that...
Would you mind showing here all the process next time you do this? 😀
Sure but it's super easy. I didn't come up with it on my own. I read about it on another pipe forum.
Get one of these hand crank pasta presses. I got mine on Amazon.
Use something to cover up the holes in the cap where the pasta is supposed to come out. I used folded parchment paper.
Fill it with tobaccos of your choice.
Crank it as hard as you can and crank it often.
Wait as long as you choose. Assumedly the longer it presses the more it will marry. I put mine in Thursday evening and took it out this morning.
So many options. Some folks heat the tobacco before pressing, or apply a topping. Ernie from Watch City is in there coaching. Fun.
Just for lols I put mine out in the direct sun all day Friday. Then it got rained on. But the thing is airtight. So it was fine. But I've probably created a process I can never replicate. 😂
I don't have a link for it immediately handy. But I bet if you Google "noodle press pipe tobacco" you'll find the thread. It's absolutely hilarious. Guys talking about a noodle press of the year like a pipe of the year. Pretending to argue about which Amazon noodle press is superior. I'll try to find it later.
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Here are a couple more photos. The thing is about an inch tall and super dense. It cuts easily but it took a little pressure with a sharp knife. The flakes looks like flakes. They rubbed out like flakes and smoked perfectly.
Ahahah I can imagine people arguing on that, I saw years ago some arguing on italian pipe forums and that was pretty absurd, I mean people menacing to harm others and insults of biblical violence 🤯
It was all tongue in cheek. Sort of making fun of typical pipe smoker behavior.
I’m curious, did you just tighten it down initially and then leave it or did you tighten it down a second time later?
I cranked it, or tried to, every time I walked by it. I'd say after initially compacting it, it probably turned another full turn. But I might be making that up. We'll pay more attention on the next one.
Nice work, @relight!
I’ve also been doing some pressing using the same noodle press over the past month, primarily a bunch of house blends but also just some straight pressing of commercial bulk blends. Some I’ve cased, others I’ve just pressed as-is, and then after 24-48 hours of pressing (with repeated tightening down), they’ve gone into 4oz mason jars to rest before slicing.
Examples of my pressed house blends include a 50/50 mix of C&D Epiphany and Sutliff RVL-1 Revelation match cased with bourbon and Turkish Tobacco bitters; a 50/50 mix of CS Cowboy Coffee and a black Cavendish of unknown provenance cased with bourbon; and a Royal Yacht homage of virginias topped with a blend of prune juice and slivovitz plum brandy.
With my pressed house blends, I usually leave some unpressed to be able to compare after the rest period to try to determine if it was worth the effort/time to press.
I plan to get into some of my rested cakes this weekend, as I’ve been doing the work but not yet the tasting.
I think my next batch will be straight Tuggle Hall to make a direct comparison between the pressed and unpressed.
This is so fun. I might need multiple presses. 😂
I put the Tuggle Hall In last night. Now we wait. @khiddy. How long have you found optimal pressing time to be?
I defer to Ted's excellent advice below on that question! Like you, @relight, I'm a newbie at pressing, so now I feel a rabbit hole has been opened!
Just a thought, noodle presses are fun for starting out or casually playing with pressing cakes, but if you’re finding that you’re liking the results (I do), you might want to consider stepping up to some molds and using a hand clamp for better and more consistent results. I use a couple of different machined aluminum molds which are available on Amazon at pretty reasonable prices. This setup is sufficient to make cakes like yours as well as true plugs if you decide you want to venture into that.
A few basic things that you might want to know to get the results you want, high case tobacco (damp, the typical state of commercially produced blends) won’t stick together very well and will tend to crumble and fall apart more. Low case (on the dryer side) will stick together and bind much better.
As far as pressure, you only need to achieve 35PSI, but the setup I’m using will only achieve that with my roughly 2”x4” molds. Obviously, as you increase surface area, it’s necessary to move up to hydraulics and much larger setups to achieve that. I’m content with the sizes I can make with this.
Also, temperature and time of pressing. Temperature will affect the results to an extent. I’ve found the best results are when I press at about 100 degrees for three days. I achieve this with a heating pad wrapped around the mold as it’s pressing. This temperature melds the tobaccos much better without altering them. Cool presses need more time in a jar to achieve the same result.
Also, I make a point to place my mold in a sealed plastic bag before putting it in the clamp to reduce drying during pressing.
I should also mention that commercially produced cakes and plugs use binders to help them stick together. The traditional one is sugar water sprayed on the tobacco prior to pressing, a Gum Arabic solution in water is typical today. If you want more info about this, let me know. It’s not difficult to add binder.
The second puck has been born.
This time was just Tuggle Hall nothing added.
It stayed in 2.5 days and I heated it with a heat pad (Per Ted's recommendation) for about 24 hours. You can see the result, especially near the edges where it's shinier.
It's amazingly dense and hard. I'll slice off a hunk later.
Here's a photo of the threads when I first put it in and cranked it down as hard as I could. And one I took just before I took it out. 2 thread less from cranking it throughout the process.
My mind was deluged with screwing comments, especially related to age and use. I just couldn’t pick one, so I’ve given up.
Big day at the gym.
I received my first commission for a puck and I think I got asked on a pipe date.
The guy at the gym who introduced me to Tuggle Hall was fascinated by the photo of Tuggle Pucking Hall. I agreed to make him one. I'm a self declared boutique tobacco blender now. Maybe Scandinavian will buy me.
And as he was leaving he said he was going to Edward's in a couple hours. I was like "Cool. I still haven't made it over there. Have a good weekend."
Later in occurred to me he was maybe , like, asking me on a smoking date. And I just totally heismanned him.
It's so hard (giggle) but it smokes really good. I think next time I'll use lower heat. I probably got a little aggressive. It's all melded together and shiny. I expect a little like G&H burnt ends. But I love the process. It's interesting for storage. I think you could easily get a pound in a half quart jar.
I might make a OJK puck next. I noticed the reviews for Haunted Bookshop Cake are much more positive than the ribbon cut. Maybe I'll invent OJK cake/flake. 😂
When I first started applying heat, I got it a bit too warm. Didn’t ruin anything, but it wasn’t what I intended. Ever since, I use one of those indoor/outdoor thermometers with the sensor on the end of a wire. I put my press inside a bucket also so I’m more so warming the surrounding air as well as the press. I was able to figure out heat pad settings to keep it at a consistent 96-100 degrees, but I have to adjust for ambient temperature due to seasonal changes.
I suppose to some reading this it may sound either complicated or too much effort but once I nailed it, the results have been totally worth it for me.
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