pipe hawks

[wwpete52]

I like the Rocky Mountain Pride twist tobacco that Crazy Crow sells.  It's the "natural" one.  Their "sweet" twist is unsmokable.  Warning: If you don't like a super strong tobacco stay far away from Rocky Mountain Pride twist.

[Captchee]

The stuff tastes like moldy goat ropes delicately seasoned in rancid yak barf, and is twice as strong as bull's p*ss with the foam farted off. Not in the good way, either. "

Many years back I had a chance to smoke  real Good  twist tobacco right from the  drying shed .
 One of  my men’s family grew tobacco and was kind enough to take me to their  plantation  .
 After a  very long inspection of  their collection of  pipes , we went out to the sheds .
   The smell , I will never forget . Such a sweat aroma .
  After being ask if I would like to sample their product , I made the mistake of taking out my Briar which got an instantaneous frown .
. We walked down the rows of hanging tobacco. His father carefully smelling and feeling each   mass of leaves .
 Finding just the right one , he took it down and we went to  main house .
 Out on the back porch was a   rolling table  that I was told had been in their family   since colonial times .
 We sat down  and  a glass of fine whisky  was  poured  while  his father  masterfully  removed the stems  and centers of the leaves . Then  rolled the leaves into a  rope . Within just a few minutes he made  me  a dozen  twists .

 Eh then  took a knife from his pocket and cut a ¼ inch section from the  end of one of the twists  and handed it to me . I again  pulled my Briar . But was told that it wasn’t proper  and would not   give the proper flavor of the tobacco, unless it was very clean .
 A drawer was   opened  in the table , which  was  of short stemmed clays .
 First thing I noticed was that the bowls were rather small  . But  they held the amount that I was given  perfectly
 I can tell you the flavor of the tobacco mixed with the whiskey was Very pleasing   and simply wonderful . It was not hot  like many of the specialty  pipe tobaccos. But it was much stronger then I was used to .
I sure wish i had some of that now .

 I also had a chance to sample Cuban tobacco while    in South America.
 that’s a completely different  flavor  and also very pleasing .

 IMO the twists you get  from traders is of  very low quality . It is also many times old  and dry. Not good for anything other then  past needing a tooth brush and  some mouth wash . .

as to pipe hawks . IMO these probably were not smoked all that much . basically just for special occasions  where  enjoyment of the tobacco was not  any real concern

[Longhunter]

The stuff tastes like moldy goat ropes delicately seasoned in rancid yak barf, and is twice as strong as bull's p*ss with the foam farted off. Not in the good way, either. "

Some years back...32 to be exact, I went on a trek with a half dozen fellas for several days. It was a pretty strict event. Besides having to hunt and forage for most of our food we had to use only clay and stone pipes and smoke twist tobacco.

Now that twist was stout enough to put a mule to his knees. So to make it more palatable we gathered wild berry leaves, wintergreen leaves and shaved some cherry bark to mix with the tobacco. Then we unrolled the twist and dried it on a flat rock by the fire along with all the other fixins. Then we chopped it up real fine, mixed it together and stuffed our pipes. Now I'm hear to tell ya it was a mighty fine smoke. If fact I took some home to smoke when I got back to the modern world.

[Shawnee Mike]

"Over the years I've bought several twists of allegedly Period Correct tobacco. If it was all I had, I'd never smoke again. The stuff tastes like moldy goat ropes delicately seasoned in rancid yak barf, and is twice as strong as bull's p*ss with the foam farted off. Not in the good way, either. "

   Rick,
That was extreamly funny.  :lol:  Thank you.  Good to get my day started with a smile.  Ill have to remember that description.

[Pichou]

http://www.historysociety.ca/media/pdf/ ... p36-39.pdf

Tobacco for the Fur Trade
Barbeau, Marius & Clifford Wilson
Beaver, March 1944, Vol. 23, No. 4, Out. 274, p36-39

A really good read.

That American style pigtail twist actually fell out of a goat's butt, and I don't mean gunstock.  

Pipe hawks have a long stem that cools down the smoke a bit, but they also have a big hole in the wood and metal.  I think those leaks are built in as a health/safety feature.   :lol:

[Gordon H.Kemp]

I used to smoke a pipe for many years , I tried most materials they commonly use as pipes , and overall I'd have to say that a good cob can't be beat . Now I only smoke a cermonial (peace pipe) now and again , I have a chunl of pipestone from the quarry at Pipestone Mn. I'm working on at this time. The calimite ( pipestone) gives a good cool smoke but I'd still have to say the cob is king !

[chad1043]

Captchee,
Do they sell their tobacco online? Does anyone have a GOOD source for twist tobacco?

[Captchee]

Captchee,
Do they sell their tobacco online? Does anyone have a GOOD source for twist tobacco?

 saddly no they dont . that was many years ago .
 most of what you find today is from blenders . not the pure leaf  of a single plant .

[chad1043]

Thanks.

[Osprey]

Since I'm just finishing a pipe hawk, and do lots of farming/gardening, too, have any of you tried growing and drying tobacco?  Just googled some seed companies that offere many types, may order some seed and try it.

[Longhunter]

It it grows to have long skinny, and pointy leaves it outta be a pretty good smoke...

[Gordon H.Kemp]

Osprey , I have never grown it myself , but when in my early teens . An old fella next door  ( in his late 70s early 80s ) used to grow two rows of Conn. burley about 100 foot long each year .
      He always had some hanging in his barn and we would get a leaf and put some in a cob pipe along with a little mint leaves , and smoke up a storm . I never thought it would grow in our area , but it sure did . Up-State N.Y.  I don"t recall him doing anything special in taking care of the crop?