Kentucky Tobacco Stick Pens

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JD Combs Sr

JD Combs Sr

Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
767
Location
Owingsville, KY
Friends of my Wife and I at our church have a couple friends in California that visit them about this time each year and again around Mt. Sterling Court Days. Three years ago they came by my shop and I made them both slim style pens similar to these photos using old local tobacco sticks for the barrels. The next year they order another one each because of lost/stolen... in any case they were replacements. They like them so well that this year they ordered four more each as gifts to family and friends in CA(not the glue:biggrin:). I went ahead and made 10 so that is what you see. A few nights later I got a call from one of them wanting a couple more including one similar to the faux cigar pen, plus he is going to provide me with some antler, aahhh, been a great couple weeks.

Those are the points off of the tobacco stick I used.
IMG_1392_1_3_Detail.jpg

Del-PonteCady.jpg CR0003.jpg
 
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I'm not sure what a tobacco stick is. I attempted some Google research, but it did not clear it up entirely. :bulgy-eyes: Can you enlighten me?
 
They look very comfortable to hold. :biggrin:
I would also like to know what a tobacco stick is please.
 
mecompco said:
skiprat said:
They look very comfortable to hold. :biggrin:
I would also like to know what a tobacco stick is please.
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Yes, please, and where can I get some?!

Regards,
Michael
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Random hardwood dowels picked up at a local craft store or hardware store or lumber yard ... species non-specific as long as it's not poisonous (like hemlock).

They shape the ends so that there's a point (rounded) to slip the loops over, and so that there's an hourglass figure near each end (to keep the dowel rods from rolling down the rafters and off onto the floor).

Hickory, ash, oak, maple .... whatever was handy is what they used. I've seen them as a kid, on the Marlboro Tobacco Farms out in Virginia... The whole 2nd grade class went there on a field trip to see how cigarettes are made.
 
Skie_M said:
And nobody comments on 2nd graders learning how to make cigarettes ....
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that was so 20th century...now they learn how to make meth

I actually work with a bunch of "not so young people" and they said that they used to get pulled from school, without choice, to go work the tobacco fields.
 
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Hi JD:

I agree that the profile of these are not seen often... but look like they would be very comfortable to use! NICE!

You do very nice work!
 
*sigh* ....


I remember working at McDonald's and coming across someone who didn't know how to roll a breakfast burrito until I said to him, "Just roll it like a blunt, man!" .... he was the fastest burrito prep person we had from that day forward, and nobody else knows why.
 
eranox said:
I'm not sure what a tobacco stick is. I attempted some Google research, but it did not clear it up entirely. :bulgy-eyes: Can you enlighten me?
Click to expand...
skiprat said:
They look very comfortable to hold. :biggrin:
I would also like to know what a tobacco stick is please.
Click to expand...
mecompco said:
skiprat said:
They look very comfortable to hold. :biggrin:
I would also like to know what a tobacco stick is please.
Click to expand...
Yes, please, and where can I get some?!
Regards,
Michael
Click to expand...
triw51 said:
I am also curious as to what a tobacco stick is?
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flyitfast said:
If I'm not mistaken, tobacco sticks were used to hang tobacco out to dry. The sticks laid over the rafters in the barns.
They have been popular in many woodworking projects. including pens and walking sticks.
gordon
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What is a tobacco stick?
There may be different versions of them as far as shape, I have not seen the hourglass shape Gregory mentions but he is correct in their usage but to add to the detail:
Here in Kentucky they are simply one inch square sticks about 4ft long sharpened to a blunt point on both ends. As Gregory also noted they can be any of a variety of wood species but Oak and Hickory are fairly dominate here. Back in the day they were made by splitting 4ft sections of timber into strips with an ax or similar device. They had approximately a one inch cross section so they tended to be rough and could be a little on the curvy side. More modern farmers bought them from sawmills or used their own sawmills to cut the timber into one inch squares. In use they were dropped in the field of tobacco between the rows of tobacco about one for 6-8 plants depending on the plants size. The farmer would then pick up a stick and stab it into the ground to make is stand vertically, he would then put a steel spear pointed cone over the top end of the stick. He carried a "tobacco knife" which was basically a tomahawk and used it to cut the tobacco plant at ground level, he would then place the tobacco stalk onto the spear point at about six inches from the cut end a push it over the spear and down to the bottom of the "tobacco stick". When he had about 6-8 stalks of tobacco on the "stick" he would remove the spear point and move to the next stick and repeat the process until the whole field was cut. Then a tractor and wagon(horse and wagon earlier) would come along and men, women, boys, girls(who ever could lift them) would load them onto the wagon. They would then be taken to the tobacco barn where the sticks were used to hang the stalks top down between to rails for a month or "few' of drying. After drying the tobacco leaves would be stripped from the stalk, graded, bundled and taken to market. The sticks would be piled up in the barn to wait until next season. See the attached photo of my Dad, Nathan(left), his cousin Tinnie(middle) and his brother Charles(right) loading a wagon after cutting the tobacco.
Dad Unkn Charles.jpg
I mentioned "farmers own sawmills". This is a pic of the same brothers using an old Case tractor and its PTO to drive a sawmill blade. In this case they are cross cutting not ripping. They are probably cutting 18" lengths of fire wood.
Dad Charles and Tractor.jpg
Skie_M said:
*sigh* ....
I remember working at McDonald's and coming across someone who didn't know how to roll a breakfast burrito until I said to him, "Just roll it like a blunt, man!" .... he was the fastest burrito prep person we had from that day forward, and nobody else knows why.
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I missed the relevance of this post.:confused:
Waggoner said:
Very nice. They look great.
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mark james said:
Hi JD:
I agree that the profile of these are not seen often... but look like they would be very comfortable to use! NICE!
You do very nice work!
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TurtleTom said:
We didn't have to go to Kentucky to learn how, we already knew how to make them. First, start with a mess of rabbit terbaccky....
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builtbybill said:
Skie_M said:
And nobody comments on 2nd graders learning how to make cigarettes ....
Click to expand...
that was so 20th century...now they learn how to make meth
I actually work with a bunch of "not so young people" and they said that they used to get pulled from school, without choice, to go work the tobacco fields.
Click to expand...
Appreciate everyone's comments and thanks for looking as well as commenting.
 
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