Pics of your sticks!!

[DistillingJim]

Just to allow you to fully appreciate the beauty of the cigars posted here by other members, I show you three I rolled yesterday

View attachment 23870

These are small panatela style : Little Dutch (filler) + Bolivian Criollo Black (wrapper), all home grown.

We have similar rolling styles Charly!

 

[MarcL]

52 X 5.16 - long fillers : , San Vicente Ligero. Medium fillers : Piloto Cubano Viso , Cibao Valley Corojo Viso , T-13 Dominican Criollo 98/ Piloto Cubano Viso. Binders : Cibao Valley Dominican Seco , san andreas. wrappers, Corojo Oscuro Wrapper.

 

[GreenDragon]

Marc, do you put your cigars in the mold with only the binder on, then add the wrapper after you remove it, or do you put the finished cigar with wrapper in the mold?

Thanks - Steve

 

[MarcL]

Marc, do you put your cigars in the mold with only the binder on, then add the wrapper after you remove it, or do you put the finished cigar with wrapper in the mold?

Thanks - Steve

I have never put wrappers in the mold. I have seen those suggestions. I don't see that as necessary when done correctly.
A soft and stretchy wrapper goes much easier onto a properly filled and bound bunch after pressing. these are dried some so, they retain there shape.

Are you having a concern?

 

[MarcL]

 

[deluxestogie]

The last photo looks like a box of Malt Balls, only rounder. I could be persuaded to smoke one.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

Not before there time though.

 

[Charly]

Delicious ! (both mal balls and Marc's box of cigars)

 

[GreenDragon]

Those look like 60 x 7 size? How long does it take you to roll one of those bad boys?

 

[MarcL]

Those are 52 X 5.16. so I started on this box on june 12. and, on one not including any prep time I'd say 3 or 4 minutes to get it into the mold and, about the same to get the wrapper on it. I'd say I've had better times but, that's a fair guesstimate.

 

[deluxestogie]

I would guess that my typical, hasty cigars (no mold) take about 5 to 6 minutes each, not counting prep time. Of course, they appear hasty. But prep time is not trivial. The greatest time difference between a petite corona and a huge honker is almost all in the prep time. Once all the leaf has been selected, stemmed, and suitably cased, my actual bunching, binding and wrapping are pretty much the same, regardless of the finished size. Then there's the additional time of sorting the long scrap into its collection bag, and similarly for the short scrap.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

I hear you. I spent Tuesday evening prepping for my next batch. I spent over an hour flattening, de-stemming, casing, and bagging filler, wrapper and binder for about 12 cigars. Started rolling last night. I measure my progress by how many I can roll by TV episode. Of course, the more interesting the show, the slower I roll!

 

[col555]

Have you guys tried leaving the stems in your filler leaves? i leave mine in unless they are real thick, give it a try, you may get a nice surprise (only on leaves that are "frogged")

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Have you guys tried leaving the stems in your filler leaves? i leave mine in unless they are real thick, give it a try, you may get a nice surprise (only on leaves that are "frogged")

Yes. I actually think this is normal.

 

[waikikigun]

Yes. I actually think this is normal.

It's common but it's not exactly normal. I dissect all my favorite sticks (Cuban, Nica, and Dominican) and less than 50% of those have stems. But not tons less than. The consensus that I've been able to gather from articles and videos that mentioned the subject is that it's done for speed and volume but not for flavor, which it tends to worsen.

 

[deluxestogie]

I always remove enough of the thicker part of the frogleg stem to assure that it won't be exposed at the head of the completed cigar, once it's clipped.

Stems usually burn well (if dry), and add some rigidity to the cigar. Their nicotine content is generally low, so they don't contribute much in that regard. If the stem is damp and soft, I usually remove it entirely.

Another consideration is the risk of puncturing the binder/wrapper. With very stiff, wavy stems, I snap them out of froglegs at a point where the remaining portion is pointing parallel to the axis of the cigar bunch.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

Have you guys tried leaving the stems in your filler leaves? i leave mine in unless they are real thick, give it a try, you may get a nice surprise (only on leaves that are "frogged")

Depends on the leaf. alot of mata fina and, I'll save all of it and use it alone. I like to do that with PA stem too.

 

[deluxestogie]

Filler Schmiller

Reaching into a bag of WLT Cibao Valley Corojo viso filler, I extracted 4 leaves. One half served as the binder and wrapper. The other 3-1/2 became the filler. Not expecting a beauty, I pretended to bring the wrapper half into case by lightly misting it, and allowing it to soften during the time required to remove a portion of each frogleg stem.

What this stuff looks like:

Most of the leaf is large and relatively tame looking, compared to the Corojo ligero.

Most of what you see in my cigar photo is the viso binder. The "wrapper" begins about 2/3 of the way toward the head end--just enough to make a firm head.

I really like this Corojo viso. It's mider than the Piloto Cubano seco. When making up the entirety of the filler, it smokes down to my fingertips without a trace of bitterness. When used as the wrapper as well, however, there is a slight bitter edge. I usually wrap this in Criollo 98 wrapper or Habano 2000 wrapper or the Rosado wrapper, any of which makes a wonderful combination with the Corojo viso, and actually improve the flavor profile (not to mention that they look a lot nicer). I've found that my home-grown Corojo 98 lugs (seco) make lovely wrappers as well.

with much Corojo love,
Bob

 

[col555]

Have to agree on the Cibao Valley Corojo viso, im on to my second bag of it, i also like the Cibao valley vualeta abajo habano seco, i have the Corojo Ligero but have not tried it yet, all good stuff WLT

 

[deluxestogie]

Two Thousand!

This is the 2000th post in this Pics of Your Sticks thread.

Bob