Rolling your own cigarettes

Heyas. I thought I might write a little guide on how to roll your own, for the smokers out there.

Why roll you own?

Well, firstly it's cheaper! It's shocking how much the price difference is. A pack of 20 cigarettes now cost about £6 in the UK, while I can buy half an ounce (12.5g) of tobacco for about £2 from any newsagent. If you go to a tobacconist and ask for a slightly thicker cut, you can get it even cheaper, because of reduced tax. When you buy your tobacco from abroad, it's even cheaper again! Add about 50p for filter tips and rolling papers. With that I can make about 50 reasonably sized rollies.

The other reason is that rollies can be personalised more to your taste, especially if you get your tobacco from a proper tobacconist. You can make them pretty much any blend and even add flavours. It's also possible to make smaller rollies if you just need something to puff away in under a minute if you're in a hurry, or make a very hefty one to keep you going for a long time.

Finaly, rollies are actualy healthier for you. I'm not going to suggest for a second that there's a safe way to smoke, but you can reduce the risks by smoking rollies. Pre-rolled cigarettes contain tonnes of chemicals! Propellants to keep them lit, artificial herbicides, preserving agents, bleachs in the papers and all sorts of other nasties that just make a bad situation worse for your health. Rolling tobacco is usualy just dried and shredded tobacco leaves and nothing else.

Okay. Sounds good. So what do I need?

Well, some rolling tobacco and rolling papers and if you want a filter, some of those too. That's pretty much it. The whole lot will cost you less than a single pack of cigarettes. I'd personaly recommend using "green" rolling papers, as the cut corners make your life a lot easier and slimline filter tips are generaly easier to work with than the big ones.

So, what do I do with it?

(I'm typing this up for somebody who's right handed, you may need to swap it around if you're a leftie)
Okay. Lay out your rolling paper with the cut corners facing you. Make sure the gummed side is on the inside (which it should normaly be anyway so long as you dont try to fold it back on itself). If you've got a filter drop that in on the left side of the paper. Now hold it your left hand by lightly pinching the bit of the paper with the filter under if you have one, or by holding your index finger inside the paper and your thumb and middle finger straddling the outside if you dont.

Place a bit of tobacco ion the left of the paper and move your hand around a little so that your left hand now supports the bottom of the paper with your index and middle finger and your thumb is on top of the tobacco. Now, you need to tease out the clumps from the tobacco with your right hand. What you're aiming to do is create a uniform covering of tobacco. Slide the tobacco back together again if it gets too thin and move onto the next bit, left to right. Your left thumb should move up the paper as you're moving along to clamp onto it, so your right hand can tease out the strands.

Once you're happy that there's no clumps, or pockets of air, you can start rolling. You want to pinch the paper just above the tobacco with your thumbs and middle fingers and roll them together gently to get it nice and round. When it feels smooth enough, start rolling it further down right to the cut corners on the bottom edge of your paper. When you start rolling up again, it should snag under the rest of the paper. You can roll it all the way up now into a tube. Just before you get right to the top, give the gum a lick and finish it off. If you've got a filter in there, just check it's not poking out and give it a very gentle push if it is, but not too hard or you may make the rollie split.

Smoking a rollie

The first thing you'll discover is that rollies can go out a lot more then pre-rolled cigarettes. That's because they're not filled with inflamables to keep them lit. It's quite good in a way, not only are you not smoking what's effectivly petrol, but it'll also go out if you forget about it, meaning that you wont come back 5 minutes later to discover that your rollie's all burned away... or your house burnt down. So, if you want to keep them going, keep smoking it. You can pause, but not longer than about a minute.

Also be careful. The filter tips you can buy are usualy shorter than the ones you'll be used to on pre-rolled cigarettes, obviously if you're not using a filter tip then you'll be particulaly aware of this! So, keep it in mind that you should be very careful not to burn your lips when you get near the end. If you want to play it on the safe side, then there's no reason you cant put it out early and then unwravel your rollie to get the excess tobacco back again for future use.

Caring for your tobacco

Rolling tobacco will dry out if you're not careful. Dry tobacco is a very unpleasant experiance for most people, a friend of mine described it as like trying to swallow a cheesegrater! Pre-rolled cigarettes do contain some additional chemicals to keep them moist, but they do dry out too. The main thing that prevents them from drying out though is that they only last a day after you open then, as opposed to your rolling tobacco lasting maybe up to a week, or even longer for bigger pouches after you open the pouch. So, here's some tips to keep it from turning into sawdust:
- Never put your rolling papers in the tobacco pouch with your tobacco. It'll hoover out all the moisture
- Try to use a resealable bag to keep your tobacco in, if not, then use the pouch that it comes in. Tins are for storing your rollies and lighter in, not the tobacco.
- Keep the pouch/bag closed as much as you can
- If it is getting very dry then place a slice of potato in with your tobacco. Be sure to replace it daily otherwise it'll go mouldy and contaminate your tobacco. You could use a frozen oven-chip (or french-fry if you're across the pond), but to be honest, if you're buying uy frozen chips then let me tell you can just peel a spud and cut it yourself in less than a minute for a fraction of the cost. Obviously, you cook it for less time on account of it not bieng frozen to start with. And now I'm rambling...

And if things get really dire...
After you put out your rollie, see if there's any tobacco at the bottom you can rescue. Pull off the ask and any black bits from the top and hang onto any unburnt tobacco from inside. I've managed to salvage 3 rollies from my rather small ashtray in one go from doing this, although it is a very messy job!

Hope all that helps

AugustWest's helpful tips for rolling cigarettes (and other things):
1) Already been mentioned, but practice. The more you roll, the better your cigs.
2) Place the proper amount of tobacco into your paper; too much and it'll be hard to achieve a smooth roll, too little and your smoke will burn uneven. How much is enough? Practice and find out - basically, you want less on the filter side, and more on the end - but remember, when you pack (roll it down) it will compress.
2) Upon licking the gum, be sure to begin the fixation from the filter side. This will help you achieve the cone shape, also improving your smoke. Make sure your filter side is tight as can be, and when you fix the gum at the filter, work slowly up to the other end. Always continue to tighten the cigarette as you are moving up the gum, this will help maintain a slimmer cigarette.
3) When you have finished rolling, you aren't finished! Pack your cigarette. You can do this upon a table top by holding the cig like a pencil/pen and tapping it repeatedly. Or you can use a paperclip/small thin object to pack the top of the cigarette. This will make the beginning drags more pleasurable as the tobacco is packed tightly.
4) Inspect your cigarette upon completion. What can you do better?
If it's bulging in the middle, less tobacco next time (or spread it out better).
If it's breaking at the filter, more tobacco in that area and more saliva on the gum.
If it's unrolling, lick again and allow more time to dry.
If it's falling out the end, roll tighter next time.
If it drags really hard, roller tighter and slimmer.
If it's too hard to drag, less tobacco (you can also fix this sometimes by rolling the thickest parts lightly between your fingers - this will move the tobacco about and create air pathways).

Remember, practice makes perfect.

- August

I bought a little steel box for a tenner that rolls them for me.

I still suck at rollin

Practice makes perfect. If you botch it, then just unwravel it and put it into another rizzla and try again. Do it enough and eventualy you'll pick it up. I've seen a friend roll a ciggie with one hand in the rain before now (something that I can't do yet). More you do it, the better you get.

Up to you. I know some folks who roll thier ciggies first thing in the morning while they're watching TV and having a brew. Personaly, I don't bother as I've got to the point now where I can knock out rollies in less than 15 seconds. Again, that's down to practice though.

Really do recommend learning to smoke roll ups as it's literaly 2-3 times cheaper.

Took me half a week to master rolling cigs. Not only do they taste better than the most luxurious of pre-rolled cigs (Dunhills, Camels, etc) they're cheaper. Rollies own.

Camels are luxurious? Here in the States they're pretty much regular old cigarettes, like Marlboros.