rolling your own

[swampyankee]

I am considering rolling my own cigarettes. Seems to me you can get a carton of supplies for around $7. Does anyone do this and is it worth the effort? Also any good recommendations for tobacco? I know it's not as cheap as quitting, but I am weak. ;D Thanks

[hillbillygal]

I personally don't smoke but my husband's friends all do. They use Bugler in the canister or pouch. They've been doing this for a few years now.

[Mac_Muz]

my wife and I roll our own from a can of Drum, which is about as close to a real Marlboro as it gets but a tad stronger.

We use a bamboo mat to roll with and I can do it while I juggle a cell phone texting while driving with one of my other hands just like Festus did in Gun Smoke!

no not really but it sounds good.. In a pinch on the loney interstate I can roll, but I don't own a cell phone...

A "Head Shop" might have the roller.. Other things you can get are pre rolled papers and a machine that stuffs them, even with a filter... I never have, so can't tell you how it works.

We were going to quit, and what happens when we try is something terrible, so we don't try anymore. The first idea was we would quit because we thought we might be too lazy to roll. Well we just got good.

We pay just over 10 dollars a tin, which is stated on the can at 150 grams/ 5.29 oz, and there are 200 papers in 3 or 4 packets.

A milder blend we tried and sort of liked more because of the texture which is important, was bali something.. I want to say bali high, but that probably isn't correct. Oh I know.. Bali Shag... CRS sucks..

You have the option to buy packets which are about 2 maybe 3 times what a single pack of butts is to find the blend that suits you most.

The packets tend to dry out and become harder to handle, and also become harsh. Many packets are dry on the shelf.

Sometimes a tin will be dry on the shelf as well, and when that happens we add 3 maybe 4 drops of water to thew tin, reseal it and place it in a sunny a window as we can find.

Or on the dash of a car into the sun. That will humidify the bacca pretty well, and it then will roll better.

At first rolling won't be so easy, and then tearing the corners off the papers might help. That bam boo roller takes a little getting used to, but it will support the whole of the work and after not too long you will make a real looking smoke, instead of something the cops will raise an eye lid too.

I have tried a good many other brands like Bugler, Top, and what's it Zig Zag?... We didn't like them much at all..

You can get that Native brand as well, and we thought that was pretty light in taste..

Head Lines has a site on line where you could order the rollers, which don't always last long since they are sewn. On the other hand the one I use now is over 3 years old.. it is well broken in and so I like it, and don't share... My wife wears out a pair of new mocs in 10 days while I have some 10 years old.. So it depends on how you deal with things.

If Head lines is out I have some here, which I bought there. I think they ran a whoppin' 2 bucks each.. So if you need send me a PM and a address.. BTW I am in Tamworth NH, apx 25 miles from Head Lines. They are in North Conway NH.

[AlchemyAcres]

We use a bamboo mat to roll with and I can do it while I juggle a cell phone texting while driving with one of my other hands just like Festus did in Gun Smoke!


LOL

~Martin ;)

[RangerRick]

Thank God Sweetie and I quit the nasty tobacco habit 17 July 1981 and have saved a bundle sence then but I do have a buddy that used one of these machines and it spits filtered smokes out about as fast as you can pull the crank. But of course if you're looking for a fatty stick with the bamboo and old man Ziz Zag.

http://www.ryocigarette.com/supermaticii.html

;D

Rick

[bee_pipes]

Last price hike here got me off of store bought cigarettes. Should quit, if the health warnings are true. I just hate being told what to do and keep bumping into old timers that smoked all their lives and can still out work me...

Rolling your own takes the compulsive part out of the habbit, for me. I could sit at the computer and keep smoking one after the other if they were in my shirt pocket. You can reach up and light one without even thinking about it. If you have to roll one, you have to think about it. Cost me $5.49 for a 6 oz bag of menthol tobacco, $.98 for 100 filters. A bag of tobacco, two bags of filters and two packs of top papers and I have a carton of cigarettes. I think I paid $2 for a rolling machine...

Moving to a pipe, and growing my own tobacco next spring. Corncobs and homegrown tobacco takes my habit out of other people's control...

Regards,
Pat

[Mac_Muz]

Probably there is truth to smoking is hazardous to our health, but so is living... I hit 56 tomorrow and I can still wear out 20 somethings and I smoked more or less since age 14. I stopped a few times.

In Aug 06 I was ill enough long enough to get x rayed. No cancer. I didn't suspect cancer anyway I suspected pnumonia since I was born with it.

Now My Dad who never smoked a ciggy butt in his life died of advanced double lung cancer.. What's that mean? It means if cancer is gonna get ya it is gonna get ya. He was 72 then.

He passed on Sept 3rd 1997. That is Labor day.

Next my little brother passed, and he would have been 40 had he lived another week or so. He was a non smoker, and he just up and went at home, after a snack and after out for a motor bike ride. That was Memorial Day 98'. it was said he suffered an aneurysm.

On Easter 99' my wife folks were stabbed to death, and these too were non- smokers..

I have been to hell and back so many times where I should have been killed, and haven't, I can sell maps to the place.

I think I might be on life numba 9 and a little smoke isn't gonna do much after spending 20 years breathing asbestous from blowing out brakes and clutches long before anyone knew it was dangeous.

The way I see it we all have a numba' and one day that numba' comes up to be collected and when it does it just does, and that ends the story.

[bee_pipes]

I hear ya. Spent a few years working in a warehouse full of pesticides. Cancer takes me out it will be a crapshoot as to whether it was tobacco or breathing in the dust all those years. Kind of cracks me up that folks get in an uproar about trans fats and second hand smoke, yet eat food whith god-knows-what in it, buy toys from china with lead, put soft drink machines in schools, and spray all sorts of chemicals around the home. Once somebody decided it was alright to tell their neighbor how to live their life things seem to have gotten a bit confused...

regards,
Pat

[swampyankee]

Thanks for all the input folks. It is much appreciated. Think I'll give it a shot, nothing ventured nothing gained. Thanks for the offer Mac_Muz, it's a shame I was just there last weekend with the wife. Wish I had known. Beautiful place up in the mountains, I got some great pictures. I heard stories of the $3 pack of smokes up there, wasn't much cheaper than here but still about a dollar cheaper. At least I got to hit the state liquor store. ;D Take care all.

[12vman]

Yup.. Since the taxes were added, I free hand roll mine. I carry a pouch of tobacco and papers everywhere. It really turns some heads at times.. LOL ;D

[Mac_Muz]

lemme know... I have some bamboo rollers in a desk drawer, and I can run up there anytime. The only bad part is ya gotta give me a place to mail the friggin things too.

If ya like feel free to search my user name on google, or go to mcusa. Either way finding me and what I am about ain't hard ta' do.. In 05 I took a wee tour cross country with my wife on a Cowasocky Nomad, which is a fairly big bike..

Since I had been a mod untill a recent dispute, and since the Admin wouldn't take my tools away, so I could still mod if I wanted to, well lets just say i didn't have any problems find invite's for 3 nights any place in the USA... I might be tacky, but I am a very popular tacky. Or you can give me the addey and get the rollers for free, since it ain't worth the stamp in the first place other than you have a need.

I am no big shot, but had I know you could have come over and we could have gone up there.. I just rent a small room with my wide which we live in, and I have access to the rest of the house, lands, and etc etc..

For a month "max" a female from NZ came here. it was supposed to be 3 to 7 days as her bike was imported for a coast to coast ride, and she needed shelter, a tach that could un crate and assemble, and etc. Well since I am a very married guy and she was some wicked delayed, I just took her to Baa haa bor down east in Maine for a lobsta' and we shacked up in some cottage out on Mt Desert.

She says I am a gentleman.. I got proof, ova' ta' mcusa

So anyways if you want I can do....

I'ld like to free roll, but with these clubs I call hands it ain't gonna happen. The papers are just to fragile, and this is as close as I can get. The rolling mat fits in the pouches, as do 2 packets of papers which I always carry in there. There ain't nuthin' like havin' bacca and no papers!

[Buck]

As a pipe smoker I can tell you that the cost per bowl of pipe tobacco
using OTC & bulk tobacco blends comes in at about 6cts to 12cts per
bowl. Far, far cheaper than any RYO or OTC ciggies ever could be.

There is a bonus pipe smoking offers that most ciggie smoker never
learn about. That is since you are smoking real full tobacco's you will
need to smoke less of a tobacco that cost less to start with!!

Once a small investment is made in a few pipes (corn cob pipes are great
for OTC blends) the cost is pennies per smoke. ;D ;D

If anyone is interested in supply source info and forums to help you learn
to smoke a pipe I'll be glad to help if asked. Yes, one need to LEARN HOW
to smoke a pipe or the effort will fail.

[Mac_Muz]

Buck good point, but I think I would still go nuts with out my fix.. Most pipe smokers don't inhale the stuff..

But with roll yer own youy do get far longer lasting smokes, in a shorter package. I tend to put them out, as compared to marlboros when I tended to smoke 1/2 that nasty filter.

The bacca does indeed burn slower so it burns longer.

A weel ago I was wondering "what if" I put this in a pipe? Then the problem is I can't find my pipe and going to the store for just isn't my idea of any option.

So If i don't find my pipe, I will have to dig up my supply of pipe stone and carve one, then create a stunning stem from curley maple, and see about that then..

I have a mess of other pipes I know where they are too, but i am afraid I need some help lighting these as my arms are a bit too short! Thars mo such thing as a pocket that fits those pipes either! ;D

[bee_pipes]

The pH of cigarette and pipe tobacco are different. I believe cigarette tobacco is more acidic so that it may be inhaled. When smoking pipe tobacco, the nicotine is absorbed through your mouth, not your lungs. Not only don't you need to inhale, you don't want to. A fellow told me about his dad switching to a pipe when the doctor told him he had to quit smoking cigarettes cause of the shape his lungs were in. Well he kept inhaling, even with the pipe, and in a few month's time had really crudded up his lungs.

I tried cigarette tobacco in a pipe, inhaling. It wasn't very satisfying. Smoke pipe tobacco in pipes and don't inhale. Like Buck said, there's a method to smoking a pipe - it ain't rocket science, but to get satisfying results, you want to go about it the right way.

Remember when you first started smoking cigarettes? You would be working and take a break to sit down and have a smoke and rethink things or look at progress? That's before it gets to be an unconscious habit and you have one hanging out of your mouth while you're working - and don't even remember lighting it up. Pipes are kind of like that - you can work with one in your mouth, but smoking a pipe is not something you can rush like a cigarette - it also provides the opportunity to slow down a little - not necessarily a bad thing.

An outfit named Missouri Meerscham still makes and sells corn cob pipes here in the good old USA:
http://www.corncobpipe.com/

Pipe smoking how-to's:
http://pipes.priss.org/howto.php
http://www.notsoboringlife.com/pipe-smoking/guide-to-pipe-smoking/
http://vegassmokes.com/pipe-smoking-tips.htm

Site for tobacco seed and how to grow book:
http://www.seedman.com/Tobacco.htm
http://www.ryomagazine.com/july/review.htm
You could shop around and maybe find something cheaper

And lastly, an excellent book on tobacco, the history and different forms. An excellent read:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802139604/ryomagazine
I found a used copy for $5 on abe books. You could probably find all the information on the web, but I'm an old dinosaur and prefer a book I can hold in my hands to reading off a computer screen.

Oh, and this is a link to a pro-smoking outfit where I found out about a bunch of this stuff:
http://www.ryomagazine.com/

Regards,
Pat

[Buck]

What is largley unknown about OTC ciggie
"tobacco" is the stuff ain't tobacco at all.

It's "Reconstituted sheet tobacco" which
means it chemically modified/adulterated
waste tobacco slurry that is dried & cut
to look like real tobacco. A toxic poison.

Pipe tobacco is pure tobacco's with food
grade flavors or preservatives and nothing
else.

Due to pipe tobacco more pure nature it
doesn't need to be inhaled to enjoy. The
nicotine hit is absorbed instantly in the
mouth tissues with far less chance to
cause any cancers.

What is also mostly unknown it that by 2009
all cigarette paper must be 'fire safe' being
self extinguishing unlike today. Can you imaging
reighting a half smoked ciggie? YUCK! Relighting
a pipe is ok and happens often at times. But a
ciggie??? No, thanks.

[Mac_Muz]

fire safe papers? Oh man that will do it fer me I bet. The damned gov is into every friggin thing. I will have to cook off pure bacca and friggin inject it like a drug addict... (Don't worry the day I do that will be the last day of my life)

I think Drum bacca is a real bacca... The can of course says it is a premium. Anyway it suits me.

[ryanmercer]

fire safe papers? Oh man that will do it fer me I bet. The damned gov is into every friggin thing. I will have to cook off pure bacca and friggin inject it like a drug addict... (Don't worry the day I do that will be the last day of my life)

I think Drum bacca is a real bacca... The can of course says it is a premium. Anyway it suits me.

I like the fire safe papers though... they were on the local news last week and they self-extinguish pretty fast. And they were quoting fire statistics just for so far this year and it was alarming how many house fires there were that were caused by a neglected cigarette.

[Buck]

The move to 'fire safe' paper is yet another hit at the cigarette
smoker. It is somewhat well known that the paper used on
ciggies today (and forever) is designed to keep a ciggie lit
to avoid the nasty taste due to relights.

The thinking is that when ciggie smokers get tired of always
having to relight (and then enjoy the foul taste) they will
quit smoking. Poisoning the soup if you will.

There is also a growing movment to close the door on smokless
tobacco to keep ciggie smokers from switching. So far the pipe
is being left alone. So far that is. ::)

[Mac_Muz]

Whats in the chems that make the papers go out? My hand rolled will go out if I don't take a puff every so often.

Who makes these fool laws anyway, just maybe I'ld like to go and bum their day out... I am sure I can find something that will do that..

So far as I can tell every law maker also bereaks a law every day. It is getting harder and harder to not break a law these days..

The friggin do gooder will have us naked as birds and eatting hydroponic plants ONLY, living with NO Fire and no heat, but pay taxes, oh yeah these useless fools will still want that for crap paper we call money, and what for? To make more foolish laws...

[swampyankee]

I ended up getting 200 tubes with filters(the Mrs made me give up the pall malls years ago) and a filler machine for $7. I got a pouch of tobacco for $1.50. yielded 23 smokes. Not too shabby iI think. they tasted pretty good too. I figure with the next pack, the machine will have paid for its self. So a buck and a half a pack makes it worth it in my eyes, seeing as how I'm spending over $5 in Ct now. lol The only problem is that the wife likes the taste of them too, so it looks like I might be rolling for two now. ??? Thanks for all the advice everyone.

[Mac_Muz]

Get cans. The cans have better quality since they are packed and sealed air tight. I really roll and have no idea how the machine works.

My mat and 2 packs of papers fit in the same type plastic pouch you have now, but I only but them when the pouch wears out.

Drum I get must have more even in a pouch as I get closer to 50 smokes in one pouch.

The can includes 400 papers as I looked harder, and in 4 packets.

Which brand did you try?

[swampyankee]

Tried McClintlock on the advice of the clerk. She hit a homerun with that advice, good flovor right out of the gate. The machine just basically injects the tobacco into the hollow tube. Very simple and quick process and it allows me to keep my filters. The only thing is the tobacco comes with papers also that I don't use. Guess they could be a good way to make some friends. lol ;)

[Blacksmithswyf]

I rolled my own in college and loved it. *I recommend Drum, with a piece of apple in the bag to keep it moist. *Rolling by hand is easy enough just roll your fingers back and forth like getting glue off of them. *Or I had one those little machines ($2) which was easy to use, but easy to overload your smokes and make them impossible to draw.
Plus rolling your own makes owning a sweet silver cigarette case that much sweeter. Or you can use an old box from a hard pack.
*Good luck :)

[SPIKE]

I am a tube stuffer! ;D

A pound of lite tobacco is costing me $16.95, for a box of 200 tubes it is $1.85.

I get approx 2 cartons and three packs from a pound of tobacco.

So after sales tax, I am spending about $23 for what was costing about $61.

YES, it really is a nasty habbit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Buck]

"YES, it really is a nasty habbit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Allow me to point out that while a "habit" tobacco
use will never be on the same plane as cocaine
and such which your statement hints at.

Tobacco has always been used as a aid to control
hunger or as a religious rite. Tobacco is a gift
to help man in many ways from stress relief
to suppressing hunger on long journeys.

Now don't even think to compare the modern
OTS ciggie to real tobacco. It ain't the same stuff!

[Weezin]

The Mrs. got me a "Top-o-matic" machine 2 years ago for X-mas. Buying Buglar by the can and the tubes costs about $1.50 apack.
Most of the time the Mrs rolls for me, good gal.
Taylor mades here a running about $5.70 a pack.
Getting old, when I started smoking as a kid, they were 21 cents a pack.
Bought a pack awhile back, told the kid at the check out, when I was in the Army I could go the the B.X. with a five dollar bill, get 3 cartons of smokes, stop by the E.M. club drink two buckets of beer and still have some change in my pocket when I got back to the barracks.
He looked at me, like I was older than dirt.

[Buck]

Getting old, when I started smoking as a kid, they were 21 cents a pack.
Bought a pack awhile back, told the kid at the check out, when I was in the Army I could go the the B.X. with a five dollar bill, get 3 cartons of smokes, stop by the E.M. club drink two buckets of beer and still have some change in my pocket when I got back to the barracks.
He looked at me, like I was older than dirt.

I can remember these prices too. That said, don't look now 'cause you
and I "are" older than dirt!! ;D :o ;D :o ;D

[bellevilleannie]

I totally suggest doing this for anyone that likes the taste of the bulk tobacco. As kids, me and my brother thought it was fun to roll them for my parents. They smoked Pall Mall regularly and my parents liked it cause they said tobacco was very similar. I can't remember what brand we used though.

I am considering growing tobacco myself, between my mother and my friend's mom, I end up buying packs for them cause they are on a fixed income, so it would save me money in the end.

I smoke menthol so I dont roll my own, but am considering it.

[Buck]

I totally suggest doing this for anyone that likes the taste of the bulk tobacco. *As kids, me and my brother thought it was fun to roll them for my parents. *They smoked Pall Mall regularly and my parents liked it cause they said tobacco was very similar. *I can't remember what brand we used though. *

I am considering growing tobacco myself, between my mother and my friend's mom, I end up buying packs for them cause they are on a fixed income, so it would save me money in the end. *

I smoke menthol so I dont roll my own, but am considering it.

I can't recommend RYO enough to any adult who has chosen to enjoy
tobacco.

WHY? Chemicals or the lack thereof. OTS ciggies are a mix
of over 4,000 chemicals ,that ensure the addiction while poisoning the
body with toxins, carried in a base of Reconsituted Sheet Tobacco slurry.
This RTS is gound up ,paper, dirt & all, tobacco tailings & waste, mix
that has added to it to make the "tobacco" in todays OTS cigarettes.

As a pipester I enjoy real tobacco that does not have any of the toxic
chemicals in ,or on, the tobacco I choose.

It's the same for RYO tobacco's.

So if you choose to enjoy tobacco at least be smart enough to enjoy
real all non toxic tobacco's and skip the chemical caused cancers.

[swampyankee]

I'm buying the cans now. Good advice tyvm. It stays fresher so I dont have to use it all at once and stays fresh when i need it. They also have menthol tubes and tobacco so the menthol smokers can get in on the fun too. ;)

[clarkshomestead]

I've been smoking Bugler for about 6 months and yea, you get some double takes when you fire up. I couldn't roll worth a crap when I first switched but I found a video online that shows how to use a dollar bill much like the bambo rollers I assume. It gives you a nice square ciggie, not tapered on the ends or "preagnant". Now I just learned how to roll better with out it. I take my regular bugler paper put a decent amount of tobacco in ( enough that i know it will be hanging out both ends ) . Hold it between my thumbs and index fingers and loosly resting on my "bird fingers". I start with my thumbs at the center of the paper and roll it once back and forth, then holding it with my thumbs and birdies I pack it down with my index fingers so there are no strays sticking up. Then I start with my thumbs at the middle again and roll back then forward till the paper tucks itself slightly under itself, then in one motion I roll and move my thumbs outward towards the ends tucking it all the way down. Likg stick and light. Wow that took more words than I expected. But try the dollar bill thing too.

[flatwater]

Real frugal living would be to quit altogether, I just buried my mother because of her smoking. Her last 5 years she was hooked up to oxygen but still smoked. Lucky she didn't blow herself up. Well ya-all probably didn't want to hear something that you already know so I'll shut up and mind my own business. Hope to see you all alive in five years.
Flatwater

[Buck]

Real frugal living would be to quit altogether, I just buried my mother because of her smoking. Her last 5 years she was hooked up to oxygen but still smoked. Lucky she didn't blow herself up. Well ya-all probably didn't want to hear something that you already know so I'll shut up and mind my own business. Hope to see you all alive in five years.
Flatwater

While I can understand ,please accept my best regards on your loss, it's
important to point out that it wasn't Pure Tobacco that killed your mother.

It was the chemical toxins that are added to all Off the shelf cigarettes.
Chemicals that alone are known cancer casuing agents. The chemical
ensure that the user will become addicted.

Pipe, RYO, and natural leaf cigars tobacco's have no such agents added to them.

[clarkshomestead]

here, here buck! sorry to hear flatwater. i lost my grandfather to cancer its a rough one.

[pergammano]

Hate to admit it....but, yup, I do! Switched to "rollies" when cigarettes here went to $6/20 pack. Now they are $10/20 pack.

Tried a machine at first...but have switched to hand rolling! Because of my work, Landscaper &/or tiler, my hands are always dirty, so I put off having a cigarette til it's worth washing them (lunch break?) If I pre-roll them I smoked a lot more. Our 50 gram pkges., for premium are $20.00, so I buy some of the cheaper ones, one premium.....and blend! :-X

[Buck]

Hate to admit it....but, yup, I do! *Switched to "rollies" when cigarettes here went to $6/20 pack. *Now they are $10/20 pack.

Tried a machine at first...but have switched to hand rolling! *Because of my work, Landscaper &/or tiler, my hands are always dirty, so I put off having a cigarette til it's worth washing them (lunch break?) *If I pre-roll them I smoked a lot more. *Our 50 gram pkges., for premium are $20.00, so I buy some of the cheaper ones, one premium.....and blend! :-X

If I understand your post correctly why not try buying your RYO tobacco
in bulk to reduce overall cost. One sure way to reduce cost it to ,now
don't laugh, to switch to a pipe. While not common (yet) ladies DO
smoke pipes. If you stick to a corn cob (these are really great work pipes)
and the common Drug Store type tobaccos ,in bulk pack, your cost can
be about a 1/10 of a penney per smoke. (and you'll enjoy it more)