Trouble casting tobacco leaves

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ZanderPommo

ZanderPommo

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Oct 14, 2009
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Tenino, Washington
Owner of our BJJ gym ordered 3 cigar themed pens incorporating his own cigar bands. I want to cast them using real tobacco. I understand there are other ways to attach a label to a pen but I want to make this way work unless it proves to be completely impossible. I'm having serious trouble trying to cast tobacco leaves. The tobacco discolors significantly as though it's undergoing a chemical reaction and being "soaked" dark and translucent. FYI, neither coating with CA or coating with modgepodge caused this type of discoloration until it was cast.

Here is what I've tried that made no discernible difference:
Baking bone dry vs air drying for a day
Painting the tubes vs direct to brass
Alumilite CS vs Liquid diamonds

What seems to have made a small difference:
Coating with CA.
(This left some areas light but some still became dark and formed a "splotchy" look. The Cohiba blank is the one that utilized a CA coating. I know CA doesn't jive well with Alumilite but I'm just trying to see what can be done to protect it from this reaction.)

What I have yet to try but plan on doing next:
Casting modgpodge coated one (it's coated but not yet cast)
Coating with clear nail polish

Since LDs didn't perform any better I'm going to be focused on using Alumilite clear slow going forward with the experimentation. The universal factors so far have been:
Tobacco glued to tubes with Gorilla glue spray adhesive (and same with the labels)
Preheating the molds to ~130*
Casting under 60 PSI
Demolding after 4-5 hours

So far none of the blanks have changed since being demolded. Meaning, what I saw when I opened the pressure pot is what I'm still looking at. In the picture I have one tube that is how it looks pre-casting. I love the look and I'm trying to preserve it in the final product.

Anyone tried this before? Any advice or theories?

Thanks yall!
 

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Several years ago, we used a CA to adhere the leaf to a bare tube before encapsulating with polyester resin (Silmar 41). The leaf was moistened to reduce crumbling during the process. Memory serves that it was about a 50-60% success rate. Abandoned for the success rate.
 
Plants lose color when they dry, I am not aware of a process to prevent that because the moisture must come out completely for casting. Maybe reach out to Flower Girl Blanks as she casts a LOT of dried flower and similar things. She may be able to assist you with finding a way to do this more efficiently.
 
Several years ago, during a class at Arrowmont, Curtis Seebeck and Barry Gross dried and then cast shredded tobacco leaves in Alumilite Clear Slow which were then eventually turned into pens, IIRC. I'm not sure how well whole leaves or whole cigars would do as there will likely be some small amount of moisture left in the leaves/cigars; moisture and Alumilite Clear/Clear Slow are avowed enemies.
 
I made a batch of tobacco leaf pens several years ago. I watched YouTube videos to see how cigars are rolled. Used my Ulu knife to cut around the big veins. I did paint the tubes, did not do any oven drying. As you learned, wrapping the tubes is the easy part. After a few failed attempts because of discoloring after casting, I tried spraying with a clear enamel. That got close and probably would have worked if I have given it 3-4 coats of clear spray.

What did work was to smear a coat of ProPaste over everything. ProPaste is thick two part epoxy that stays where you put it. I found it when looking at supplies for making fishing rods. With the wrapped tube completely encased in epoxy with no discoloration I cast them in Silmar 41. I would not recommend Alumilite. I hardens quick, so that may help with the discoloring, but it won't shine enough for me.

I displayed them in a wood cigar box, they looked good, got a lot of attention, but were slow selling.
 
Chasper said:
I made a batch of tobacco leaf pens several years ago. I watched YouTube videos to see how cigars are rolled. Used my Ulu knife to cut around the big veins. I did paint the tubes, did not do any oven drying. As you learned, wrapping the tubes is the easy part. After a few failed attempts because of discoloring after casting, I tried spraying with a clear enamel. That got close and probably would have worked if I have given it 3-4 coats of clear spray.

What did work was to smear a coat of ProPaste over everything. ProPaste is thick two part epoxy that stays where you put it. I found it when looking at supplies for making fishing rods. With the wrapped tube completely encased in epoxy with no discoloration I cast them in Silmar 41. I would not recommend Alumilite. I hardens quick, so that may help with the discoloring, but it won't shine enough for me.

I displayed them in a wood cigar box, they looked good, got a lot of attention, but were slow selling.
Click to expand...
Hmm this gives me several things to try, thanks Chasper. Enamel coatings and/or a layer of thinner epoxy prior to casting. I'll give those a shot
 
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