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Pics of your sticks!!

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deluxestogie

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Garden20200721_5278_cigar_JamastranPuro_700a.jpg


The Jamastran leaf in the sample I received from WLT is classed as binder. That's kind of true. The leaf size and general degree of intact lamina would land it into that class. But it is so very thin, so minimally stretchy, and so fragile, that it is really suitable as wrapper, over a sturdier binder. It's flavor is mild but complex, with a moderate nicotine. Burn is, of course, like lighting tinder.

I believe that Don has never offered this for sale on the WLT website. Since I have no regard for what somebody has told me to do with a particular leaf (home-grown cigar leaf is all wrapper--until there's a hole), I used the Jamastran as wrapper, binder (a tricky prospect) and filler.

Garden20200721_5279_cigar_JamastranPuro_closeup_500.jpg


Those little holes at the cut face of the foot are the result of greed. Had I clipped it about ¼ inch farther from the foot end, it would look nicer. But it felt solid enough to save that extra bit of tobacco on such a tiny cigar. As you can tell from the giant clothespin spring, this is roughly corona size. A mere hors d'oeuvre.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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It's been a while since I posted something to this thread (2½ hours!), so here's an evening cigar.

Garden20200721_5283_cigar_shortScrap_700.jpg


My handy bag of short scrap is almost entirely filler scrap (unlike most crappola commercial short-filler cigars, which seem to be mostly wrapper scraps). A lot of times I don't bother to save the small scraps from rolling a long-filler cigar, but I make a point to save the scraps of the best fillers. The blend is pot luck, but usually comes out well balanced.

This one was rolled free-hand. Since all binders are tapered at the foot end, and make it nearly impossible to free-hand a fist-full of short scraps, I lay out the binder, then overlay it with wrapper scraps or binder scraps in such a way that it all forms a square edge across the bottom, like a cigarette paper. Once the pile is evened-up, and surrounded by the first rotation of the square-end over all of it, then the rest of the binding and wrapping are just ordinary technique.

I think there are five key elements in a "premium" quality, short-scrap cigar:
  1. a well randomized mixture of filler scraps
  2. scraps are in distinctly low case
  3. a slightly narrow foot (to prevent bits falling out when you light it)
  4. a slightly narrow head (to prevents bits ending up in your mouth while you smoke it)
  5. a good, snug binding and wrapping (which will always draw well, if the filler is actually in low case)
I don't make these very often, but when I do, I'm usually pleased with the smoke. Just this afternoon, I smoked the last of the ammo box of Fast Eddie short-filler cigars from JR--a gift from a sibling, and gave up smoking the final 1/3 of the double-corona, when leaf bits kept falling into my mouth. Short scrap cigars just don't have to be crummy. After all, premium cigarettes are always, entirely shredded filler. It just has to be done correctly.

Bob
 

Yvan the terrible

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Another 10 just finished, slowly but surely getting closer to where I would like it to be with torpedo capping, still some practice needed. Summer holidays starting next week so should be able to work on them.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so might as well take a break and enjoy one of them. WLT puro BTW.
FE4F35AA-69D1-42C4-9D89-8A9B23C45E80.jpeg36C7E871-0FB6-4669-AC47-A30FA69A3EE4.jpeg
 

Knucklehead

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Another 10 just finished, slowly but surely getting closer to where I would like it to be with torpedo capping, still some practice needed. Summer holidays starting next week so should be able to work on them.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so might as well take a break and enjoy one of them. WLT puro BTW.
View attachment 31885View attachment 31886
Your caps are looking great. (y)
 

MarcL

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It seems the length has nothing to do with it. Just the rounder head. There seems to be length standards that vary. I like the varying. We get to choose. Vitola patents are tough to get if at all. I believe there is still just one. The LFD Chisel.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-gezt47mbq1/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/5530/12377/LFD_cabinet_cameroon_chisel__15779.1560528589.png?c=2&imbypass=on
 

Yvan the terrible

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It seems the length has nothing to do with it. Just the rounder head. There seems to be length standards that vary. I like the varying. We get to choose. Vitola patents are tough to get if at all. I believe there is still just one. The LFD Chisel.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-gezt47mbq1/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/5530/12377/LFD_cabinet_cameroon_chisel__15779.1560528589.pngc=2&imbypass=on
Yes, the chisel is surprising, never smoked one so I wonder how the mouth feel is. Traditional cigar shapes have been around for decades so if anyone had a patent it would have most likely expired a while ago. I often wonder how cigars shapes developed over the centuries, the perfecto shape or the culebra for example.
 

Mathaious12

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The right was rolled and smoked yesterday the left was today's, and I will be smoking it shortly. The work on getting the bunch more even paid off, the last three from the mold have been solid with no soft spots. Now off to celebrate todays accomplishment.

20200723_113318.jpg20200724_082531.jpg
 
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