Pics of Your Sticks, III

[CaptainRon]

Thought I'd post a couple pics of my first half dozen cigars rolled over two days.

The first day earlier this week was the same day I received my tobacco order from WLT. I ordered the Azucarodo Oscuro and Melodioso Cremosa kits along with some latakia. I had a recomendation to try the Azurcarodo Oscuro first so that's what I opened.

My first two cigars were at least generally cigar shaped! And here they are:

I ripped the wrapper on the shorter one so just used a little glue and kept going with it. Being the impatient sort that I am, it was absolutely impossible for me to wait very long to smoke one of them! So I cut the end off of the short one and lit it up. It was definately too wet and the roll was definately way too soft, but I was smoking my own cigar! I've had more touch up lights required with premium cigars I've had in the past than I had with this one. Very cool.

Unfortunately I waited one puff too long before taking a picture lol

The next day I rolled up several more. My 6 year old son was itching to make a cigar with his Dad so he helped roll one too!
Cigars 3 through 6:

With the soft roll I had the day before, I thought I'd add a little moisture to the filler leaves - The small cigar is the one that had all moistened leaves in it and is the one my son rolled. He was able to keep a pretty tight roll on it - hopefully not too tight! The giant one I used all dry filler - apparently a lot of it. The final two had some moistened, some dry. I also tried using the entubado method with these cigars (day one I just stacked the leaves up and rolled them as a group). I also used a rolling pin on the wrappers this time - seems like it helped flatten the veins a little bit not to mention I think I was a little more careful about stretching the wrapper to get a better looking wrap.

So these are my first 6 cigars. I let them sit out overnight then placed them in a humidor without any humidification. The hygrometer says the box is at 62% right now - I'd expect that they're still a little too wet inside to smoke yet. Going to try to wait at least a week before I smoke one, but I have a feeling I'll be breaking that goal this weekend.

Thanks so much to everyone here that's posted so many helpful tips hints and videos. It's all been very helpful to make me feel like I've been successful already.

 

[Knucklehead]

Great looking firsts. No offense, but your son gets the First Place Trophy.

 

[waikikigun]

Well done and congrats on smoking your first home-rolled!

Looks like your kid's got skills too.

 

[waikikigun]

Great, Hooligan! Stoked to hear you're turning other people onto the most excellent hobby!

 

[CaptainRon]

BTW, BrewinHooligan is the one that sparked my interest in this. All the blame for this goes to him! hahaha (at least that's what I tell my wife!)

Thanks for the trophy knucklehead, I'll show my Son tomorrow

 

[waikikigun]

This is an oscuro y rico I rolled four months ago. Age really does these things wonders. The burn was flawless. This ash never fell; I only had an hour smoking time to spare and had to quit this while the ash was still there and the stick was still delicious. In the future I'd tweak this blend with a small strip of some variety of ligero, but for now I really appreciated the mild tastiness of it.

 

[MarcL]

This is an oscuro y rico ....

Now that's an ash! mahalo

 

[Birage]

How exactly do you 'pluck' the veins? Seems like I have either seen a pro roller do it in the past, or heard someone talk about it, but if you take the vein out don't you damage the leaf? Maybe I am not sure what you mean when you say pluck. All I ever do is roll the wrapper with a rolling pin to smooth out the veins, which works fairly well, but if there is a way to get them out, I wouldn't mind knowing how.

 

[LewZephyr]

How exactly do you 'pluck' the veins? Seems like I have either seen a pro roller do it in the past, or heard someone talk about it, but if you take the vein out don't you damage the leaf? Maybe I am not sure what you mean when you say pluck. All I ever do is roll the wrapper with a rolling pin to smooth out the veins, which works fairly well, but if there is a way to get them out, I wouldn't mind knowing how.

Post # 17 of this thread is a video of him doing this process.

http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/6074-Pics-of-Your-Sticks-III?p=112313&viewfull=1#post112313

Hope that helps. It was interesting to watch. I find myself inclined to not go that far. But he does make a very nice looking stick.

 

[j2rizzy]

Wow nice ash!!!

 

[deluxestogie]

Wow nice ash!!!

And stupid me! I've just been discarding them all these years.

They are a curious thing. What causes a cigar ash, which is composed entirely of carbon and residual minerals, to maintain its integrity vs. disintegrate? There are no longer any cellulose fibers. Some varieties of leaf hold a longer ash. Long filler always holds a longer ash than short filler.

Bob

 

[Muskrat]

And stupid me! I've just been discarding them all these years.

They are a curious thing. What causes a cigar ash, which is composed entirely of carbon and residual minerals, to maintain its integrity vs. disintegrate? There are no longer any cellulose fibers. Some varieties of leaf hold a longer ash. Long filler always holds a longer ash than short filler.

Bob

My Grandma's hundred year old cookbook has a recipe for cement to repair cracks in cast iron stoves. It's just sifted wood ashes and table salt mixed with water to a thick paste. You apply to hot cast iron and it hardens as the water (quickly) evaporates. It becomes pretty hard and adheres very well.
The insulating grommet on my BIL's woodburning stove door came loose one cold week-end evening and we mixed some up and it worked very well to stick the grommet back into place.
Gives me new respect for ashes.

 

[deluxestogie]

According to the The American Cyclopedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge [D. Appleton & Co. New York (1873).], the mixture of salt and ash will fuse at 600ºF.

I'm aware that casting salt alone onto red-hot pottery in a kiln will create a beautiful glaze. I'm not sure what the ash adds to the situation.

Bob

 

[Muskrat]

According to the The American Cyclopedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge [D. Appleton & Co. New York (1873).], the mixture of salt and ash will fuse at 600ºF.

I'm aware that casting salt alone onto red-hot pottery in a kiln will create a beautiful glaze. I'm not sure what the ash adds to the situation.

Bob

That's a curious thing, too. Wikipedia says salt melts at 1474 degrees F. and ashes surely melt at a much higher temp than 600 degrees F.
Must be something like solder, where a 60/40 mix of tin and lead melts at a lower temp than either metal alone.

I had thought that cement's properties were just the result of salt crystals bonding the ash together, which would happen just above 212 degrees F.
But actual fusing at 600? Whoa, sounds like experiment time.

BTW, did the Cyclopedia give a proportion of salt to ash?

 

[deluxestogie]

BTW, did the Cyclopedia give a proportion of salt to ash?

I don't think so. The scan of the document was a challenge to read at all.

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

Five coronas, three short robustos.

 

[CORoller55]

Wow, really super, waikiki! I remember you just joining the forum not too long ago, right? And now you must be one of the best rollers on here! Living in Hawaii you might also think about growing some baccy

 

[BrewinHooligan]

These seemed like they took forever, I need to figure how to roll faster.

 

[waikikigun]

Thanks!

The really talented guys here are doing the crazy shapes. I hope to try learning that stuff after a year or two of wrapping cylinders.

Unfortunately there's not a ton of soil in Waikiki. Some sand on the beach, that's about it. Maybe I'll move to Molokai some day or back to Kauai, where we have a tobacco plantation already.

 

[waikikigun]

Those are brilliant, though, even if you suffered bringing them to life! Awesome job. I just wrapped eight today too, and I feel your pain.

These seemed like they took forever, I need to figure how to roll faster.
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