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Fast consistantly blended Cigars

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SmokesAhoy

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Does anyone else roll this way? I just tried it out and it worked great, rolled up quite a few in hardly any time.

I take a stack of the frogged seco, and a small stack of the frogged viso. Cut perpendicular to the midrib every 4 inches. you now have a wide strip with the thinner midrib in the middle. take 1 viso and 3 seco cuts and lay them all in a stacked fashion all oriented in the same way with the midrib on the bottom, 3 secos deep with the viso on the top. start rolling at a side, parallel to the midrib and roll one tight cylinder. The fill is very low case, it should be breaking occasionally as it rolls, but not shattering, wet enough to allow it to roll, but only just. (i.e. the case it arrived in) Now take a very high case binder, such as the fancy types or a strip of viso, 1 half leaf trimmed to allow it to be used as a binder, and roll the cylinder up in this, mine were so high case that they held just by doing this, then add another half of your nice leaf to use as a wrapper, roll it nice and tight, add some pectin glue to the end strip and use a flat piece of wood to roll it many times to tighten it further. You just cannot roll it too tight to affect the draw if you add the filler in the right case. The filler also has the thin parts of midrib left after frogging to make a sturdy bulk so you can really clench down on it without ruining it.

Set aside in humidor until all the excess moisture has redistributed across the leaf and dissipated.

Once you have a stack of leaf all laid out and ready to roll, with binder and wrapper stacked nearby you can really set up a system here and start churning em out with good speed and consistency. It's easy to adjust the ratios since everything is so uniform. I'm using viso 1 strip down the middle, and I made a bunch with viso wrapper/binder, seco wrapper/binder, and viso binder/seco wrapper.

these are all around 45-55 ring and all about 4-5 inches long depending on the bushy foot.

if the description interests you but is not clear enough i'll do a pictorial, this is by no stretch of the imagination "better" than the traditional way in any way, but i found it easy for me to churn quite a few out in very little time while allowing me to really focus on blending ratios while still making a very nice cigar that is impossible to have a poor draw on.
 

Knucklehead

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Definitely would like a pictorial. Which direction are the veins running in the cigar filler? Somewhere on here it was recommended to run the filler veins the length of the cigar, ever since I've had the hardest time getting a consistent cigar. Mine have been lumpy ever since, but they do seem to burn better.
 

deluxestogie

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My filler leaf strips are always oriented so that the normal axis of the filler leaf (rather than the filler veins) matches the axis of the cigar. Just compact the bunch well. It's the veins of the binder and wrapper that should be aligned on the axis of the cigar. Cosmetics aside, veins in the filler and wrapper will tend to puncture and unwrap the cigar if laid across the length of the cigar.

Bob
 

Matty

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Smokesahoy, I think you just described a sort of book rolling method. Book rolling takes the stack you made, folds it in half and then rolls the cylinder.
 

SmokesAhoy

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wow i just rolled one like that, minus the newspaper and it was even easier than the method i was describing in post one, forget post 1, go with post 6. how did i miss this when i was watching all those how to videos?

i just switched techniques hehe. oh and the cigar i rolled was to die for, i smoked it down so close to my fingers where if i smoked any more i'd start to taste bbq.

fantastic jekyl, thanks!
 

deluxestogie

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That's an interesting video. He obviously ends up with nice cigars. The right way to roll a cigar is whatever way works for you, and provides you with a satisfying smoke. The right way for me to roll a cigar also aims at the lowest energy path. Any step of the rolling process that can be eliminated, without affecting the final outcome, is a big plus.

I do have a few criticisms of his technique, which tend to increase the amount of work that he expends on each cigar.

The wrapper (he calls it binder) is positioned with the leaf tip away from him. He begins wrapping with the stalk end of the wrapper leaf. This causes the wrapper veins to be applied at an angle to the axis of the cigar. As a result of this approach, he needs to vigorously "polish" the completed cigar, and then wrap it in newspaper, in order to keep those off-angle veins from standing out and perhaps spontaneously unrolling the cigar.

He applies glue to the entire outer margin of the wrapper. He admits that he occasionally cuts a cigar in half, for a short smoke. That alone is the only justification for gluing anything more than the final flap of the head. (Perhaps, without all that glue, the off-angle veins in the wrapper cause the cigar to unwrap.)

Of the...gosh...5000 plus cigars that I have rolled, I have used glue on fewer than 2 dozen, and those were for gifts. Granted, I usually roll one cigar at a time, and smoke it immediately. But on those that I used glue (fruit pectin), the binder was not glued, and only the final flap of the head was glued. On the rare occasions that I make several cigars at the same time--for myself, I twist a long tag of wrapper at the head, and tie it in a knot. Sometimes, when making a breakfast cigar the night before, after cutting the head, I clip it in a wooden clothespin, and leave it that way overnight. When the clothespin comes off the next morning, the non-glued wrapper still stays put.

I lay out the wrapper with the tip of the leaf toward me, align the filler bulk with the veins of the wrapper, then roll toward the base of the leaf. This keeps all the wrapper veins parallel to the cigar, and prevents them from lifting the wrapper away from the rolled cigar.

I do hand polish a cigar, but just enough to take it from lumpy and oval, to roughly round. I never use a press. I have no need for newspaper strips to keep it from exploding.

So:
  • Making glue is work, and using it is messy. For a one-off cigar, you don't need glue.
  • Position the wrapper tip toward you to begin rolling, and keep the filler aligned with the wrapper veins.
  • Using the leaf components in the case that he demonstrates (low case filler, medium to high case wrapper), the cigar can be smoked immediately, without resting, drying, pressing in paper, etc. It will burn just fine, since the filler generates enough heat to fully dry the combustion edge of the wrapper. (If you apply glue to the whole edge of the wrapper, then maybe it does need extra drying.)
  • If, instead of folding the filler, you just crunch it into a cylinder with both hands, the bulk starts off rounder, and requires less coaxing to end up with a round cigar. If your filler starts off as hanging leaf (not pressed flat) or leaf from a tied hand, crunching it to a cylinder is much easier than trying to make it flat, then folding it.
I would encourage every aspiring cigar roller to try a number of different techniques. Pick the one that makes you happy.

Bob
 

DonH

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All I know is that plain bunching didn't work for me. Accordion rolling worked OK but not so well if the filler was in very low case. And book method did it for me. That method rocks.

Also, I need glue. Not using glue makes them come unwrapped. But I was rolling with the tip away, so next I'll try it Bob's way with the tip facing me.

I don't mind a little extra work since cigars are not my main way of smoking.
 

Knucklehead

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By booking, do you mean cutting the stack in half, then reversing half? That does seem like a good way to get even thickness.
 

DonH

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By booking, do you mean cutting the stack in half, then reversing half? That does seem like a good way to get even thickness.
Booking includes folding the stack then folding it again when rolling. Like folding the pages in a book. Makes it easier to roll tight and still have good draw.
 

deluxestogie

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DonH is correct. It's the folding. An alternative is to accordiopleat the stack of filler--like a corrugated tin roof. As for cutting the filler prior to rolling, sometimes half the length of the original leaf is just what you want. But maybe not. If you make the first cut of the filler to whatever length cigar you desire, then you can just cut the rest to that length, evenly distributing the odd length pieces.

Also, to make a parejo (a cylindrical cigar), the filler is distributed equally throughout the length (as shown in that video). To make a trumpet (a gradual, conical cigar), place all the pointy ends at the head.

A perfecto foot (comes somewhat to a point at the foot) requires some fancy shaping of the wrapper, and lifting the cigar head off the rolling surface while starting the foot. I've made many efforts at a perfecto foot, since it makes lighting easier, but succeed only about half the time. My most common error with the perfecto is a frill around the foot wrap.

Again, all of this is just fluff. Find a way you like, and that works, and you're way ahead of buying the industrial sticks. My opinion is that a properly drawing cigar always beats a beautiful dowel.

Bob
 

BigMikeChevy

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mann that cigar looks lot like its growing anotherone....... hahaha Im not a pro yet so Im not going to post mine until its they look a little better. I could be wrong but that ugly thing prob smokes better than the reg roll. what do you guys think?
 

Knucklehead

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I can't taste the fruit pectin, but I only use it on the very end to keep it from unrolling. You don't need it down the whole side of the leaf. Sometimes, I don't use it at all, and just twist the end until I'm ready to smoke it.
 
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