Making your own snuff using a snuff grinder of some description is really easy.

In the below example I’ve used a small plastic snuff mill / snuff grinder - whilst it’s not designed for everyday ‘heavy’ use, (for that I would suggest a metal snuff grinder) I think from the images below you can see that making your own snuff using a snuff mill is fairly straight forward.

You could also use a salt / pepper grinder or a coffee grinder. If you want to really go back to basics, then a pestle and mortar could also be used to grind up your tobacco into snuff.

Most snuff grinders / mills are of a similar design, they’ll generally have three parts. The first is the hand grinder at the top which you turn to rotate the grinding blades.

The second is the tobacco and sieve chamber. Depending on the snuff mill you’re using, this will vary in size. Some have a large capacity. The blades are usually on a spring type mechanism, this automatically pushes down on the tobacco that you’ve put in the tobacco chamber. The tobacco is pushed against the sieve and you turn the grinding handle to blend your tobacco into snuff.

The third is the snuff chamber, or sometimes it’s a chamber that has a funnel that you place inside a suitable container whilst grinding your tobacco into snuff in the mill.

All you then need to do is transfer your ground up snuff powder into a suitable container / or snuff box and you’re all set to use your homemade snuff.

The tobacco used in the snuff mill for this snuff grinder experiment was sourced from a old packet of ‘Lucky Strike’ cigarettes.

The tobacco in Lucky Strike I think is ‘toasted’ and so the snuff that was created in the milling process not only looks a little like High Dry Toast, it also has a similar aroma!

I found about ten cigarettes in a kitchen drawer. I do not know how long they’d been in there, so I opened them up and removed the tobacco, placed the tobacco on grease proof paper in a baking tray, then I put it in the oven for a few minutes on a low heat to makesure the tobacco was totally dried out.

I then put the tobacco in the snuff mill’s tobacco chamber in small batches and steadily ground it down. All I was left with at the end was a few stubborn bits of stalk, which I’m sure if I had the patience I could have turned into snuff with a few more moment’s work!

Now to take a pinch of snuff. I was ‘testing’ the snuff as I was grinding it, purely for research purposes you understand - the line of snuff you see below was my first ‘big’ pinch after already deciding the snuff was good due to these earlier tests…!

So that’s the left nostril done, now for the right nostril!

Right nostril done and no sneezing… Or should I say ‘with no grimace‘?!

The strange thing being, is that the wooden snuff box that I transferred the home made snuff into, had previously been full of a menthol snuff. This added a slight menthol flavour to the snuff that wasn’t at all un-pleasant!

So there you have it, if you’re interested in DIY snuff making get yourself a snuff grinder of some description and have a go!

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Below are further images of the metal snuff mill.

Snuff Mill laying on it’s side.

Overhead view of snuff mill, showing turning mechanism.

Snuff Mill showing tobacco chamber, milling blades, sieve and turning mechanism.

Snuff mill broken down into three parts, showing funnel that milled snuff is dispensed from, sieve and tobacco chamber.

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Magnet Snuff update for you!

Snuff Store now stocks the following Magnet blends of snuff available in 10g tins. Magnet Snuff is a light brown fine to medium, dry-ish blend and thought by many to have a strong nicotine ‘kick’.

Magnet Menthol Snuff
Magnet Peach Snuff
Magnet Spearmint Snuff

So for those of you wishing to try Magnet Snuff, be our guest!

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Taxi Snuff update for you!

Snuff Store now stocks the following Taxi blends of snuff described as being blended with Malawi Tobacco Leaf and available in 10g tins. Taxi Snuff is a coarse moist blend and thought by many to have a strong nicotine ‘kick’.

Taxi Menthol Snuff
Taxi Regular (Blue) Snuff
Taxi Spearmint (Rock) Snuff
Taxi Strong (Red) Snuff

So for those of you wishing to try Taxi Snuff, be our guest!

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Hi All,

I’m re-reading through a few ‘dog eared’ snuff books that I have aquired over time and most seem to have a section on famous snuff takers.

Living close to the home of Charles Darwin, I remembered seeing a snuff box on display in his home - Down House; which is saved for the nation, open to the public and looked after now by English Heritage.

I did a search online and found that on the website Darwin Online, there are 42 results for the search term ‘snuff‘.

One of my favourites being the below.

Snuff was a stimulant, and was taken during working hours. He took snuff for many years of his life, having learnt the habit at Edinburgh as a student. He had a nice silver snuff-box given him by Mrs. Wedgwood of Maer, which he valued much—but he rarely carried it, because it tempted him to take too many pinches. In one of his early letters he speaks of having given up snuff for a month, and describes himself as feeling “most lethargic, stupid and melancholy.” Our former neighbour and clergyman, Mr. Brodie Innes, tells me that at one time my father made a resolve not to take snuff except away from home, “a most satisfactory arrangement for me,” he adds, “as I kept a box in my study to which there was access from the garden without summoning servants, and I had more frequently, than might have been otherwise the case, the privilege of a few minutes’ conversation with my dear friend.” He generally took snuff from a jar on the hall table, because having to go this distance for a pinch was a slight check; the clink of the lid of the snuff jar was a very familiar sound. Sometimes when he was in the drawing-room, it would occur to him that the study fire must be burning low, and when some of us offered to see after it, it would turn out that he also wished to get a pinch of snuff.

Anyone else got a favourite snuff related quote orginating from a famous snuff taker?

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The Silver Snuff Boxes have landed!

They are now listed on site - click Silver Snuff Box for more detals; as promised below are some additional photos for those of you wishing to see the silver snuff boxes from different angles.

This Silver Snuff Box has a pattern on the lid.

This is the plain highly polished silver snuff box.

This silver snuff box is slightly heavier than the other two rectangle snuff boxes.

This is the round silver snuff box.

I hope the above are of assistance to any of you who are considering adding a new silver snuff box to your collection. If there’s any other snuff box ’views’ you’d like me to take a quick photo of, please get in touch using the contact area of the main site.

Many thanks for taking the time to view these silver snuff box images.

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Snuff, Snuff Boxes & Politics

Taken from Tobacco Talk & Smokers Gossip, which has numerous snuff related anecdotes. Snuff, snuff boxes and politics relates how no politician should be without a snuff box, as snuff taking ’buys them time’ when answering a difficult question!

Talleyrand was a snuff-taker, not from devotion to the habit, but on principle. The wily politician used to say (and doubtless Metternich, who was a confirmed snuff-taker, would have agreed with him.) that all diplomatists ought to take snuff, as it afforded a pretext for delaying a reply with which one might not be ready; it sanctioned the removal of one’s eyes from those of the questioner; occupied one’s hands which might else convict one of nervous fidget; and the action partly concealed that feature which is least easily schooled into hiding or belying human feelings - the mouth. If its workings were visible through the fingers, those twitches might be attributed to the agreeable irritation going on above.

So there you have it, if you’re struggling for a reply to a difficult question; take a leaf out of Talleyrand’s book and reach for your snuff box, take a large pinch and think!

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