Setting right what once was tight

[LawDog2006]

Ok, there's nothing that pisses me off more than when I'm smoking a cigar that I enjoy and the wrapper starts to unwrap on me. It never happened often enough to be of concern but now that I'm smoking more it does seem to occur more. There's probably something I should do while storing the smokes (I use the 70% humidity beads from Heartfelt), but it's still random and frustrating.

With that said, has anybody used the Cigar Wrapper Glue from Heartfelt, or another product like that? If you have, do you recommend it? What are your thoughts. Thanks all.

Here's the stuff I'm talking about
http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/p...r+Wrapper+Glue

[ashauler]

Pick up some pectin from the grocery store, works fine and is very inexpensive, I've used it several times.

[LawDog2006]

Is there any alteration of the taste when using the glue or pectin?

The other quesiton I forgot to ask was can this be done with cigars that unwrap while smoking or do they need to be unlit stogies? I'm thinking this would depend on the drying time of the gluing agent.

[ashauler]

Not that I've noticed......

[craig]

Besides pectin, a little bit of honey (the liquid kind from bees) works for immediate surgery.

How much of the cap are you cutting off? Unless the wrong end was capped - which happens - a cigar shouldn't unravel if the cap is secure.

[LawDog2006]

It's usually not at the cap but towards the lit end that is unwraps. Sometimes I've noticed a split in the wrapper that then unravels, however this has been with both fresh from the humi sticks as well as dry-boxed ones.

[ashauler]

It's usually not at the cap but towards the lit end that is unwraps. Sometimes I've noticed a split in the wrapper that then unravels, however this has been with both fresh from the humi sticks as well as dry-boxed ones.

Splitting after the cigar is lit is "generally" due to over-humidification or "un-even" humidification. How recently have you calibrated your hygrometer? How long are you dry-boxing before smoking? Kinda unusual, in my experience, for dry-boxed cigars to split from swelling.

[LawDog2006]

Uneven humidification??? I'm going to take a picture off my setup over lunch today so that might shed light on some things. I was dry boxing them for about 2-3 days.

Part of the difficulty is that there is no particular scenaro that keeps happening. The wwrapper comes off a different way almost every time. I've got a Gurhka that's in humi and when I picked it out of the humi I noticed that part of the bottom/bottom half wrapper was coming off.

[ashauler]

Uneven meaning the middle of the cigar is more moist than the wrapper.....as the cigar burns, the moisture in the middle creates steam, which expands until the wrapper can't stretch any more and then POP splitting of the wrapper happens.

If they are beginning to unravel while just sitting in your humi, I don't know what would cause that.??? Do you keep them in or out of the cello in your humi? Could some of the cigars just be getting "nicked" up from handling/storage and then splitting when lit?

[LawDog2006]

THey may very well be getting kicked or scratched sometimes. I keep cigars in the cello if they came that way.

[LawDog2006]

Ok, here's a pic of my humi. It's a couple months old but nothing has changed except the names of the cigars and their order

[craig]

Ashauler is right - it sounds like a humidity issue (or a temperature issue, which is more-or-less the same thing). So let's narrow it down a bit:

Besides splitting, how are the cigars lighting and smoking? Slow/fast/easy/hard?

What's the temperature in the room where the humidor is located? Does that temperature vary daily? (E.g., if you have A/C and set it to go off during the day.)

What are the temps like where you are smoking? Humidity?

How often do you open the humidor, and how long is it open for?

BTW, some Gurkha's are known for delicate (thin) wrappers. Thin wrappers are better-looking because they typically have little to no veins showing, but they are sensitive to changes in humidity (which contributes to splitting). (The same can sometimes be said for Cameroon wrappers.)

[LawDog2006]

Sounds good, here we go:
1) Normal cigars are lighting easily and smoking well. I haven't noticed anything there. The last couple that have come unwrapped have smoked loosely even before completely unwrapping.

2) I live in Western Ohio, so temperature does vary, and I do have an A/C that I turn off during the day while I'm at work. However, I'm usually able to go home for lunch and the temp is usually between 72-78 recently. That's until it gets over 85 outside.

3) Again, i live in Ohio so if you wait 5 minutes the weather will change. I smoke in beautiful weather, rainy weather, cool, or hot weather. When I notice the wrapper coming unglued prior to lighting I've been putting them back while I figure out how to rehab them.

4) I opent he humi about once a day or so in order to get a cigar out. and try not to keep it open for more than a minute.

I didn't know that about Gurkhas and cameroons, though that would explain why those are the two that seem to be the most affected (particularly the Cusano 59 Rare cameroons I got a few weeks ago).

[craig]

Okay, sounds good. Try this:
1. get a cooler.
2. put the humidor inside the cooler.

The idea here is to get the temperature inside the humidor to be constant, 24/7. That means the humidity will become constant too.

A cooler is just a convenient source of insulation. You can use anything. I used to use wadded newspapers placed inside roughtotes. Whatever works ...

[LawDog2006]

Alright, also how much temperature flux is acceptable to cigars? I ask because I'm thinking if I set my thermostat to something like 80 while i'm gone, will that help?

[Irish79]

Instead of keeping my entire apartment cool during the day when no one is there, I place an ice pack wrapped in a towel in my cooler each morning before I leave for work to help keep the temp down during the heat of the day. After the place has cooled down in the evening, I place the ice pack back in the freezer. Just an idea to consider trying and the $ involved: cost of an ice pack and cooler vs. paying to cool down the place in the summer. You're in Texas, so you might need a bigger ice pack though. Besides, aren't you ready for a cooler yet? lol

[ashauler]

Instead of keeping my entire apartment cool during the day when no one is there, I place an ice pack wrapped in a towel in my cooler each morning before I leave for work to help keep the temp down during the heat of the day. After the place has cooled down in the evening, I place the ice pack back in the freezer. Just an idea to consider trying and the $ involved: cost of an ice pack and cooler vs. paying to cool down the place in the summer. You're in Texas, so you might need a bigger ice pack though. Besides, aren't you ready for a cooler yet? lol

Law dog is in Ohio......craig is in canada.....I'm in Kansas. Texas?


ETA: http://www.cigarsmokers.com/showpost...9&postcount=17 some info on temperature swings and humidity.

[Irish79]

Man, my mistake. I was doing some other forum reading and it was camzben that is in Texas. Good catch Jamie. Keep me honest over here

[Diesel Grinch]

Man a lot of you put a lot of work into keeping your cigars. I have a coolador at home if I happen to be in the basement that week I might check to see if the beads are 50-50. At work I have a humidor that only gets open to add or remove something. Once again If I remember I check the beads. Cigars burn fine as long as I take a drag every so often.


Cigars shouldn't be so much work.


DG