From: "A.W. Donovan-Shead" <?????????????????????????>
Subject: Smoke Signal #12

Smoke Signal #12
December 28, 1994
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Now we will talk about the making of a humidor for pipe tobacco.
Practical and Inexpensive are the watchwords of this very small
project, for those among us of slender means, for those financially
challenged, for the impecunious, or even for those -- rich as
Croesus -- wanting to remind visitors to their palaces that they
really are the salt-of-the-Earth. Here, then, an humble humidor.

Georges Herment thought the smoker best served by savouring tobacco
in all its stages of humidity, from the perfection of the new broken
vacuum seal to the dried shreds of a week later. As a philosophy,
this is Jim-dandy for the heavy smoker, if I may use the vernacular,
but for many of us occasional puffers of the pipe, two ounces of
baccy can last for long, long while, becoming desiccated and
unpleasant if not stored properly. Received wisdom will bespeak the
relative humidity of tobacco best at 70%, 65 degrees Fahrenheit
being a good temperature for long-term storage. Uncle Fred will
suggest a slice of apple as a moisturiser for the tobacco pouch, but
Hacker strongly opposes this, his thesis proved by irrefutable
experience. When given Uncle Fred's treatment, Hacker's tobacco grew
a beard of white fungus that polluted the container as well, causing
new tobacco to be bearded in its lair in not much more time than it
took with apple at first. He had to discard tobacco and container to
be rid of the dead hand of apple. I agree with Hacker, eat apples
rather than making them lie in the same bed as your best baccy.
There is an easier way to maintain the moist springiness of your
leaf.

Not only that, it is no secret either as you will see when you read
on. Use plastic, food-grade, reseal containers such as Tupperware or
Rubbermaid, or similar high-quality product if you are living
outside the United States. You could go to a Tupperware party,
however, Rubbermaid can be had for a few bucks at most large grocery
stores. My Rubbermaid container is round and of three cups capacity.
Into this I put my fresh tobacco. What will serve for pipe tobacco
will answer just as well for cigars, choose an airtight plastic
container to fit your smokes.

Even with your "smokeables" sealed in Tupperware, they will dry out
eventually through repeated opening and closing of the container.
Some people recommend adding a few drops of water or brandy, which
works but is not homogeneous humidification; some parts will be
wetter than others. You can buy a button humidifier if you can find
one. Instead, make one as I did out of a plastic pot one and one-
half inches in diameter by one-half inch thick.

First find your plastic pot. A good place to look is in your local
natural-foods-health-freak shop. In such a place, should you never
have entered, there are all manner of unguents, and goo for sale in
small quantities, packaged in just the kind of container you need,
plastic and rustproof. I found a plastic pot containing something
that looked like refined earwax, priced at around $2. Buying this,
I carried it home where I scraped out the "earwax" with the spoon
end of my pipe-tool, holding the pot under running hot to dissolve
and disperse the residue. Finally, I wiped it out and peeled off the
manufacturer's label from the lid.

Next, I marked the lid to receive several holes one-eighth of an
inch in diameter. Laying the open lid on a block of wood, holding it
in one hand, I drilled the hole pattern with my battery powered
drill. With this done, I needed a non splash medium for the
moisturiser.

Unbeknownst to my wife, I raided her cosmetics' box, carrying away
a quantity of cotton-wool pads. Cutting these to fit, I stuffed the
pot with several. I wetted the cotton-wool with distilled water
before snapping shut the lid. Having done this, I then placed my
homemade humidifier with my tobacco, inside the Rubbermaid
container, making sure that the tobacco didn't come into direct
contact with the moist cotton through the holes in the lid. You
could be a flash cove by attaching the humidifier to the lid of the
Rubbermaid humidor by Velcro,  but I don't bother.

Fancier yet is the addition of a maximum and minimum hygrometer.
While not essential it is a neat device to add when you can spare
$25. You can buy these from Radio Shack for much less than Edmund
Scientific.

Now my tobacco stays moist without difficulty and I can enjoy my
occasional smoke without fear of drought. All this for less than
$10, not including an hygrometer.

Should you be new to smoking a pipe then consider the humble corn-
cob as a place to start. Missouri Meerschaum sell them for less than
$5. They smoke cool and dry and may be of most use to those who like
aromatic, heavily flavoured tobacco. At that price you could afford
to have several so as not to burn them out too quickly, for they
don't last like briar. Hacker tells us that the corn is a special
variety grown for its cob, more dense than usual. Once shucked of
its kernels, the cob is turned into a pipe and soaked in a secret
mix of plaster of paris, this to prevent it from burning out too
quickly. Corn cob is absorbant, more so than briar, and they are
easily grown, unlike briar. Kernels are sold to the tortilla chip
industry. Perhaps you expect the smoker of a corn cob to go
barefoot, clad in bib overall, wearing a straw hat? In a place like
Wall Street, you could be in the vanguard of fashion with your corn
cob, in your shirtsleeves and red suspenders on the floor of the
stock exchange, smoking a plug of "Elizabethan Mixture" or of
"Fragrant Anise". With corn cobs, a sixteenpenny flathead nail as a
pipe-tool, and a Rubbermaid humidor, your biggest expense will be
tobacco. And you could grow that if you consider Coltsfoot.

Well, we are smoking the dottle. In my next puff we will see what
the folks at Ted's have to say, if I can find their brochure. After
that I shall, I think, knock out the ash and take a back seat to
these proceedings.

Andrew
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[ Thanks, Andrew! From some discussion elsewhere, the spongy styrofoam
stuff that florists use to stick cut flowers in also works well as a
humidifying agent; one could replace the cotton wool with that,
too. -S. ]


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