Cutting a cigar

Cutting a cigar means removing a small portion of the head, in order to create a hole where the smoke can come out from, thus reaching our mouth. Let’s see how to cut it.

TOOLS TO CUT CIGARS

Many tools are available on the market to cut cigars. Let us see which are the most used ones, and which are the advantages when using one device compared to another one. Basically 3 types of tools are available to cut cigars:

• Cutters
• Scissors
• Punchers

Cutters

This is probably the most widely spread tool. Among the most common models, such as the ones depicted in the below pictures, cutters can be split between metal and plastic ones. The metal ones are generally more precise, since blades are less movable. Specific cutters are also available in the market featuring one mobile blade only, which means one only blade which can be moved as a result of our fingers action. Personally I consider them the least accurate, thus I discourage the purchase.

• pro: possibility of using them to cut every cigar shape, as well as easiness of usage. Cutters cost may significantly vary, but rather cheap cutters are available working extremely well, even though the performance is less precise when compared to the metal ones.
• cons: the ring gauge which can be cut is inherently limited by the diameter of the hole where the cigar is inserted . Normally ring gauges up to 54-55 can be cut without any problem.

A special cutter shape is the one manufactured by Xikar. The toll in the picture below is a sort of cuter, which is however working in a slightly different way: the strength is not provided by the fingers, but rather by the entire hand. The price of this device is much higher than the one of traditional cutters. Other brands are currently manufacturing similar tools, but this brand if probably the one producing the most recognized one with this shape.

Scissors

• pro: it is possible to cut cigars of every shape, and the cigar can be clearly seen during the cut.
• cons: can be initially more difficult to use.

Even triple blade scissors are available. They are to be considered as hybrids between cutters and scissors, since the cigar is placed into a hole, and the activation mechanism of this tool is quite similar to scissors. It actually works as a result of the simultaneous cut of three different blades.

Punchers

• pro: the hole created by the puncher features a smaller surface where the smoke can come from, thus it is possible to better control cigar’s draw. Punchers are also available which allow to create different dimensions holes (the actual tool is constituted of multiple punchers), thus allowing to determine the hole surface dimension according to our taste. An extra advantage is the relatd to the fact that the cigar is not cut, but punched, thus there are no tobacco leaves small pieces which are left on the tongue when drawing for the first 2-3 times.

• cons: punchers can not be used to cut figurado-shaped cigars (the ones having a conical or pyramidal shaped head).