What causes a wrapper to split?

Tonight while I grilled fajitas, I smoked a Fonseca Serie F. About half way through it, this happened:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...18_800x600.jpg

I kept smoking it - didn't seem to affect it any other than an uneven burn.

According to the news, it was about 85 degrees outside (didn't feel that hot though). The cigar had been in my humi about a week - my humi is staying at about 72 degrees & 70% (salt-tested/calibrated my hygrometer). None of the other cigars I've smoked did this, what gives?

Forgot to add - this one seemed a bit softer than the other sticks I've smoked & it was swollen (you can kinda see this in the pic) when it split, but not before I lit it up.

the temp and rh might be a bit too high.

what is the rh outside? the change in rh could have done it

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Originally Posted by mithril

the temp and rh might be a bit too high.
what is the rh outside? the change in rh could have done it

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Not saying that's not it at all, but all the others I've smoked have been outside around the same temp (10-15 degrees hotter when I smoked this weekend).

Right now the RH outside is 51% (I'd guess it was close to that earlier, but have no idea what it has been for previous smokes).

Hopefully the rest won't split like that... maybe I should go try another, gotta make room in the humi :smiley41:

:smiley25: could just be a bad smoke

I keep my humi at 65 and never have issues. Generally the core being to wet will split it.

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Originally Posted by guado

I keep my humi at 65 and never have issues. Generally the core being to wet will split it.

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Yep, as the cigar heats the filler up, the wetter the filler the more it will swell. Probably the vendor kept it too wet, once it hit your humi it started to dry and come down to a good rh. Due the nature of leaves and cigars, the wrapper will dry first and the cigar will dry from the outside in. If you had smoked it straight out of the vendors humi it probably would not have happened because the entire cigar would be at the same RH. Next time if you get a soft or wet cigar from the vendor let it sit for a month or so.

Body of the cigar is too wet. If your vendor has problematic humidors (up and down rh) the body will eventually hold more moisture than the wrapper. You light the cigar, it heats up and moisture expands..........BOOM! As stated before - let cigars sit a while (2 weeks or so) before smoking.

Thanks for all the replies! I assumed :smiley26: one week would be enough, I'll give 'em more time.

Were your hands wet....maybe drinking something were the glass or bottle was sweating . That may be stupid thought but it looks like it broke where you would have handled the cigar the most.

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Originally Posted by cinda

Were your hands wet....maybe drinking something were the glass or bottle was sweating . That may be stupid thought but it looks like it broke where you would have handled the cigar the most.

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Could've been - I was drinking a glass of coke that was sweating lots... It's also around where the band was, maybe I damaged it taking off the band.

Is this one from the newbie sampler? If so, it was kept in my cooler at 65-68% and 70 f prior to shipping.

It was - maybe it was just a lemon... smoked pretty good for a lemon - good enough, in fact that I might just buy more :smiley4:.