Tobacciana
webmost
Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
Cleaned up one of several rolling blocks I scored Tuesday:
For scale, I set it on the bamboo cutting board that I have been using all along, and set an architect's rule on it. They all came with a lot of black on them. The old factory guy told me that's beeswax. You see where I cleaned some up. In this second pic you can see how they're constructed -- five slabs of maple an inch and a half thick, joined by three rods with riveted heads.I spose they pound the rods in hot and let them cool to tighten the business. Only one of these boards still has the tuck cutter. I'll have to recondition that.
Basically, when a girl graduated school in one of these little Pennsyltucky towns, her Dad gave her a block, a tuck cutter, a knife, a mold, and a rack ... and there was her livelihood. Like this kit:
This mold is a parejo; but nearly all the molds were perfectos, back then. The advantage of a fecto is, you light the tapered end with a match & the rest lights itself from that. It's way more practical than these mandingo parejos you see today. I did score a real nice mold for 5 1/4" x 44rg parejos -- sharpest old mold I have ever seen.
I'll post some other pics as I clean this stuff up.
For scale, I set it on the bamboo cutting board that I have been using all along, and set an architect's rule on it. They all came with a lot of black on them. The old factory guy told me that's beeswax. You see where I cleaned some up. In this second pic you can see how they're constructed -- five slabs of maple an inch and a half thick, joined by three rods with riveted heads.I spose they pound the rods in hot and let them cool to tighten the business. Only one of these boards still has the tuck cutter. I'll have to recondition that.
Basically, when a girl graduated school in one of these little Pennsyltucky towns, her Dad gave her a block, a tuck cutter, a knife, a mold, and a rack ... and there was her livelihood. Like this kit:
This mold is a parejo; but nearly all the molds were perfectos, back then. The advantage of a fecto is, you light the tapered end with a match & the rest lights itself from that. It's way more practical than these mandingo parejos you see today. I did score a real nice mold for 5 1/4" x 44rg parejos -- sharpest old mold I have ever seen.
I'll post some other pics as I clean this stuff up.
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
9
Comments
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Going minimalist here.
Then this nifty cam operated mold press, with two molds to fit it: one 46rg parejo and a plump perfecto:
A grad student on the BOTL forum looking to make a couple bucks made me a small salomone mold with his home made cad cam setup. I am eager to see it.
But meanwhile, despite all these appurtenances, I am just as likely to whip out an unmolded quickie as anything else. Like this little salamone which I'm about to take to the garage:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Betsy-Ross-Cigars-Framed-Cigar-Art-/272830140205?hash=item3f85f18f2d:g:YUQAAOSwaApZjzJw
It's amazing what they can get away with.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
That's the same thing I told the guys who want to build a distillery across the street. Damn, I am always trying to help.
That does make a difference.
That is an extremely good quality sign.
If I hadn't just spent money on a box and 10 pack, I'd have to seriously consider it.
I love old tobacco signs.
Somewhere buried in all my stuff is an old Copenhagen snuff sign I've had since the late 70s.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Tho I must say I have never yet felt gypped by anyone on either E-prey or Craigslist. And keep in mind I've bought three thousand dollar motorcycles a thousand miles away. I figure it's like a flea market with a broader audience. I aver that 1) honest folk vastly outnumber thieves, and 2) common sense can find a way. Been thru enough probs w/ brand new stuff that I don't see the big deal buying used.
But let's stick to some pics of tobacciana. Like this ashtray:
From the thrift store. Isn't she a beauty?
That's the cigar I am going to spark later today, BTW. Six months age on a blend I call the Uppowoc Maks, cause I bought the Churchill mold for it from a Slovenian farmer named Maks.
Lay a row in the bottom of the box. Then lay one of those sheets of pre-plastic on top. Then another row, another sheet, until you have about fifty...
Then swivel that bar over the front edge like so:
I got this from Bob Frutiger in Red Lion. Comes from the last hand rolling factory in PA. Kind of gives you a scale of hand rolling production versus machine. The machine guys have hosts of rolling racks of boxes. Each box holds 500. Each rolling rack holds maybe four boxes across and five or six high. So one rolling rack might hold ten thousand. The hand roller might fill one box before lunch then go back and fill another. That's her day. Two machine operators, on the other hand, can keep Mark Twain in smokes for a year.
What did they call that pre-plastic stuff? I forget. It's paper and phenolic glue, innit? Kind of reminds me of that cloth and glue sheet they used for sheave cheeks. Damn strong stuff.
Micarta?
So sayeth Wikipedia (I think)......
Everyone knows it's Red Lion, but that diphthong is tough on the Pennsylvania Germans, I guess.
I like Oliva and Quesada (including Regius) a lot. I will smoke anything, though.