They have to be usable for tobacco or head shops wouldn’t be allowed to sell them. Everything sold at a “head shop” is done under the (admittedly flimsy) pretense of being an aid to smoking tobacco. Paraphernalia specifically for controlled substances is illegal.
[QUOTE=AskNott]
Most papers are not self-extinguishing. The opposite is true. Take an unrolled cigarette paper and light it. Blow out the flame, and the glowing edge will burn all the way down.
In my early days, I used two papers per roll, and even some of those sweet flavored papers. Now, I see that as the sign of a rookie, or someone who loves the taste of paper smoke. Anybody can learn to roll a one-paper fatty; it’s just like a little bitty burrito. Get a couple extra packs, and sit down to practice. Roll it, tear it apart, and start again with a new paper. You’ll get the hang of it. 
[/QUOTE]
With most tobacco, rice paper will not keep burning unless you keep sucking.
The paper itself is not self-extinguishing the cigarette you roll with it is.
This is all very interesting. I have rolled quite a lot of both kinds and have only ever chosen one kind of paper. I know nothing of these “single-wides” or any other classification - I use the shortest and narrowest kind of paper (is that what you are calling a single-wide?), and I have never had any trouble with it.
When I have used other types of paper it’s because I bummed it off someone else, and the longer/wider ones caused me way more trouble. I am a whiz with the short blue rizla, a small square of cardboard and my ordinary fingertips; anything else won’t work out nearly so well.
I was told that the self-extinguishing ones contain asbestos. Is this true?
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I recently saw a vegetarian paper that was as clear as cellophane. Velly intellesting.
[/QUOTE]
They’re made out of cellulose, and they work well. Here is a picture.
Not much to add except that in the UK, rolling your own seems to be more common than here in the US. Whipping out papers in London wouldn’t get you as many wierd stares as it would in sunny Baltimore.
Does anyone remember the rolling machines for making your own ciggies? I had one because I was pretty crap at it.
[QUOTE=MrFloppy]
Does anyone remember the rolling machines for making your own ciggies? I had one because I was pretty crap at it.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, I had one, but it went by the wayside when I learned to roll better by hand than with the machine.
[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
In Canada, we used Players papers.
[/QUOTE]
If I had to go to the corner store to get papers when I was rolling my own cigarettes, I always went for Export papers. Maybe it was just me, but I found Players papers had a taste. Not an unpleasant one, but Export seemed to me to be more neutral.
But if I could manage it, I’d go downtown to a head shop where I could buy Rizla Mediums. Thinner than Export or Players papers, Rizlas were not as forgiving, but once I learned how to roll them, provided a good tobacco smoke. Of course, the shop where I bought my Rizla Mediums had plenty of others as well: chocolate, licorice, wheat, and so on; but I only ever rolled tobacco, so all I wanted was a plain paper. If I saw somebody smoking a flavoured paper or one that wasn’t just plain white, I’d assume he or she wasn’t smoking tobacco.
Everything is just a personal preference, but I knew lots of people who wouldn’t use Export papers, because they were like smoking writing paper. Ugh!
(Aside: I knew a Jamaican who could roll with a hunk of newspaper, and make it stick with his saliva. I always wondered how he got that to work. I couldn’t do it.)
[QUOTE=11811]
[slight hijack]The biggest pain about roll-your-own cigarettes is the ugly brown stains on your fingers and fingernails. [/slight hijack]
[/QUOTE]
Not quite. The ugly brown stains inside you lungs are a worse pain, eventually. But not as visible, until the day you start coughing them up.
[QUOTE=pendgwen]
In a conversation yesterday something came up about rolling papers and how a person who had them was accused of smoking pot.
[/QUOTE]
In related news, one cop was explaining to a judge that his search was justified because he observed the defendant using his thumb and forefinger to smoke. I found this amusing because I had just come back from Europe where this is common. Not to mention for those who roll their own cigarettes. Although I would tend to believe that someone using exotic rolling papers would more likely be using them for pot than for Buglar.
[QUOTE=Carson O’Genic]
The guide,definitely over 40, while steering with one hand, reached into his jacket,pulled out a paper and tobacco and had a smoke rolled and lit in a jaw dropping short period. All the while gesticulating and describing good spots.
[/QUOTE]
That is pretty impressive, but the ultimate cigarette rolling scene of all time was in the 1932 cult classic movie Freaks. A guy with no arms or legs rolls a cigarette using only his mouth. Then he lights it and smokes it too. It was the best part of the movie. And I don’t even like tobacco.
I smoked rollies for years, legal and illegal. In Vancouver around 1970, many people used a brand of papers called ‘Chanticleer’ (sp?), in a red pack with a rooster on it. They were nice and thin, and strong enough for even a clumsy roller to handle.
A couple of years ago, I tried looking them up on the Web, and found no mention at all. Does anybody remember them?