Tubes
Brand information and reviews are now in the Brands subcategory (gives this page room to grow, not sure how, yet). While manufacturer information is scarce, a Companies category will probably be added at some point.
There's a relatively small number of tube manufacturer's making a rather large number of brands. The biggest difference I have found is in quality control. When talking about quality (or construction), the manufacturer is more important than the brand. Unfortunately there have been a lot of changes over the last couple of years and who made a particular brand can depend on where you bought it (old/new stock).
Light tube types
White Tip
Plain: Laramie, Premier, Rave, Rayo, Smokers Gold, Windsail, Zen
Perforated: Gambler, TOP, Twister, Zig Zag
Cork Tip
Plain: El Rey (new), Escort, Gizeh Charbon, Ramback, Rave, Rizla, Three Castles, Vera Cruz
Perforated: El Rey (old), Mascotte (Gold), Silver Tip (Airstream)
St Vincent (Philippines):
17mm dense : Rave, Smokers Gold and Zen
20mm: Laramie and Three Castles
20mm dense: Ramback, Vera Cruz and Windsail
22mm: Cheap Tobacco
25mm: Zen 100's
RBA/Imperial (Canada, new: 15mm filter, porous paper):
El Rey, Escort, Premier, Rayo and Rizla
Gizeh (France):
15mm: Gizeh Charbon, Silver Tip, Twister
25mm: Silver Tip Extra
Austria: Gambler, TOP and maybe Zig Zag
Germany: El Rey (old) and Rizla (old)
Please correct or add missing brands via comments.
[ page | comments (2) - Saturday, 14-Jul-2007 | top ]
CTC style tubes
While there are still some CTC made tubes out there, they are becoming a thing of the past.
Filtered tubes are made up of 3 elements - a paper encased filter, tube paper and tipping paper (the cork or white paper wrapped around the filter end). CTC appears to apply their tipping paper before making the tube. The seam overlaps of the tipping paper and the tube paper are in the same place. The result is a bulk of four layers of paper at the single seam. Other manufacturers offset the tipping paper and tube paper seams, i.e. apply the tipping paper after making the tube. Another item is gluing the filter tube to the filter paper, CTC only spot glues the filter in place. I believe its the combined effect of the bulky double seam and the spot gluing of the filter that causes the trademark dimple/crease.
[ page | comments (2) - Tuesday, 26-Feb-2008 | top ]