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First free-hand cigars

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Ben Brand

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Hi all
Here are the first free hand cigars I rolled over the weekend. Decided to not using a press anymore, a bit more difficult but they are okay. Smoked 1 and the draw etc were nice. The first cigar was a bit thick, guess a ring size 60, but who cares.
The other picture is my son helping me preparing my new site for this years tobacco. Decided to plant all my tobacco in the sun. As you can see I`ve still got some work, but as I only will be planting in December, I've still got time.
Regards
Ben20130618_061519.jpg20130617_121448.jpg
 

Knucklehead

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Very nice rolling job. What did you use for filler and wrapper? Your future tobacco patch appears to be in a nice, sunny location. You should do very well with your crop. How is the soil there?
 

BarG

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I wouldn't know a ringsize I never rolled that many and not smoked them. How can you let them sit there like that and not fire them up.
 

Ben Brand

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Soil sandy loam. Will have to boost it a bit with compost and then fertilizer. My blend was Little Dutch, Shirazi, Pen Red, and a little Perique, wrapper and binder Flor Sumatra.
 

Ben Brand

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BarG,
I am sure they not going to be there for long. Really enjoy smoking my own cigars. We had a long weekend (youth day) in SA, so I had a bit of time to roll a few.
Ben
 

marksctm

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They look good enough to smoke, nice job.
That's whats cool about rolling your own, you can roll them any size you want, then smile!
 

johnlee1933

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Good job Ben. It's kinda fun watching others go thru the same steps I (and probably many others) have taken. I can remember when I couldn't get one smooth without the rolling mat. Now I hardly use it at all.
 

Ben Brand

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Johnlee
Please educate me on the rolling mat, never used one. How do I use it? Do I use it after the binder or do I roll the filler in it before tha binder as well? What material is it made off? Sorry for all the questions, but the more.info I get the quicker I can roll a good cigar.
Regarxs
Ben
 

johnlee1933

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Johnlee
Please educate me on the rolling mat, never used one. How do I use it? Do I use it after the binder or do I roll the filler in it before tha binder as well? What material is it made off? Sorry for all the questions, but the more.info I get the quicker I can roll a good cigar.
Regarxs
Ben
It is quite simple. The material I use is about 5 mm thick X 30 cm wide. I bought it in a roll that was marketed as shelf liner. It is black and very flexible and sturdy. There are several pics in my earlier posts but all they show is black, flat material. I took a piece ~ 30 cm long and fastened an edge of it to the back of my rolling board. I weigh leaf. Each cigar has 6/7 gm of filler. I cut the filler to length and arrange it on the nearest to me edge of this mat. I then compress the leaf and roll it inside the mat. Just take the edge of the mat, fold it over the leaf, firmly tuck the leaf in and bush the roll away from you (under your hand). It will roll and the harder you press down the tighter your cigar. I unroll it and have a nice compressed bunch of leaf sitting on the near edge of the mat. I spray water lightly on the mat and lay my binder in it.. The damp mat softens the binder a bit more, I then re-compress the filler and roll it into the binder. I use a bit of glue at the end, twist it tight and cut the twist off short. The cigar is now formed. I then again put a flap of the rubber over the cigar and roll it back and forth a couple of times. The minor imperfections blend out and I have a pretty uniform cylinder.

I repeat the last step with my chosen wrapper. The only difference is now that I have a formed cigar I can roll the cigar with one hand, pulling gently toward me while holding the wrapper with the other hand to stretch it as desired. Trim off the tali and cut the head square to the desired length and you are done. The wrapped cigar is again rolled in the mat to get a smoother finished surface. I generally dry the smoke over night but it is smokeable right then.

Hope this helps and doesn't confuse you too much. I do find the more cigars I roll the less I need the mat.
 

Ben Brand

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Thanks Johnlee.

I understand what you mean. I will definitely give it a go. My cigars don't look to bad, just a little bumpy and so on, I don't mind that because only I smoke them, but I want to make a few and send it to my son in the UK, and those I would like to look better. I used to press my cigars and they look good, but struggling a bit to keep the draw consistent, that's why Deluxe suggested I roll them freehand.
I like the weighing of the tobacco you do as well, need to look for a scale, but living so far from a big city I will have to wait for one of those.
Thanks again for the help.
Ben
 

Knucklehead

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Thanks Johnlee.

I understand what you mean. I will definitely give it a go. My cigars don't look to bad, just a little bumpy and so on, I don't mind that because only I smoke them, but I want to make a few and send it to my son in the UK, and those I would like to look better. I used to press my cigars and they look good, but struggling a bit to keep the draw consistent, that's why Deluxe suggested I roll them freehand.
I like the weighing of the tobacco you do as well, need to look for a scale, but living so far from a big city I will have to wait for one of those.
Thanks again for the help.
Ben

If you're weighing for consistency, you can make your own simple balance beam scale just for the tobacco. Use a nice amount of tobacco, then find a small rock or something to balance the beam, then use that same rock to balance the beam with tobacco on the other side each time. It won't be pretty, but it will get the job done.
 

webmost

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That right there is a darn nice looking box of cigars.

And a great how-to Johnnie Lee
 

ChuckP

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Howdy Ben,

Nice looking cigars and plot of land! Very nice looking country. Are those mountains in the background? How do the cigars taste and smoke?

JohnLee - I second the nice read-up on using the mat rolling process.
 
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