You have your favorite cigar. Perfectly aged and humidified, just out of your personal humidor, or from local cigar dealer. Now it is time to smoke it. To prepare that stogie, you will want to cut it so you can draw on it when it is lit.
The purpose of a cutter is to open up the end of the cigar where you will be smoking from. When in a shop, you can get the cigar store owner to clip (cut) the end for you. At home however, you will need to do this yourself. Unlike what some believe, Cubans do not bit the ends off their cigar to smoke it. They use cigar cutters just like everyone else. Biting a cigar can be messy and can destroy the end of the cigar. You don’t want to waste your investment do you? Do not bit the end off your cigar – It’s bad etiquette.
Cigar cutters come in all shapes and sizes, and prices can be all over the map. Which one is best for you depends on your preference. Until you have one, you should know what kind of cigar cutters are available. They are:
- Guillotine or Straight Cigar Cutters
- Cigar Scissors
- Wedge or V-cut Cigar Cutters
- Cigar Punches
A cigar guillotine and cigar scissors are both known as straight cigar cutters. That is, it cuts the end off your stick straight. They just slice the end off through the cap at the head of your cigar to create the opening in which you smoke it. This is the most popular cutting style.
A wedge cutter or V-Cut creates a smaller opening at the head of the stick, and therefore reduces slightly the amount of smoke and draw a cigar can have. A V-Cut tends to avoid tiny pieces of tobacco in your mouth while smoking it.
Using a punch, you core the cigar creating a short tunnel inside the stogie. It reduces the amount of draw but reduces the feel of lose tobacco on your mouth as you are only contacting the wrapper of the cigar with your mouth.
I personally use the Guillotine type cigar cutter. It is actually more useful in my opinion. I believe this because you can modify how big the hole on the foot is by going further up on the cap for a large hole, and shorter for a smaller hole. If you need to re-cut your cigar due to getting it too moist with your mouth you can do so easier than any other. You can cut the smoked end off if you wish to keep the cigar to finish later if something comes up, like chores in the garage. And finally you can’t punch a torpedo style cigar if you have one, at least not gracefully.
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