First hand rolled entubato cigar

[Texmo87]

Hello All,

So after receiving all my tools and tobacco I gave it a shot. I feel it went not too bad, I made three 42x7” lonsdale cigars. I used an Ecuador maduro wrapper, Dominican binder criollo 98 Seco, corojo Ligero, and Habano Viso for filler.

Issues I encountered and looking for advice would be getting the wrapper to be wrinkle free. The maduro wrapper was quite thin and very wrinkly which made it hard to work with and not tear. I cased them with distilled water and put in ziplock bags which helped but still didn’t fully get all the wrinkles out.

I also struggled to wrap the filler nicely in the binder but I think practice will help with that part of it for sure, the wrinkly leaves seemed to be the hardest to deal with.

Rolling is definitely harder than it looks but a lot of fun! I smoked one of them and it burned really nicely and tasted sweet with notes of pepper and cocoa. See pictures below!

 

[Atreat01]

Thats a good looking Stogie, nice work !

 

[waikikigun]

Your photos seem to show a greater degree of success than your text describes.

As you might've seen in some of my videos, you basically lay the wrapper out as smoothly as you can, and then you apply it smoothly by stretching as you wrap. But you can't get much smoother than your bunch is.

 

[deluxestogie]

I agree with @waikikigun. They look rather nice.

Time and practice will make it seem easy, and the results will make you more and more pleased. A challenge I've found is switching between wrapper varieties from one cigar to the next. Maximum stretch on one wrapper is a big tear in the next. It's taken me years to acquire a natural feel for the limits of the particular wrapper in hand, and yet I still tear some of them.

The skilled torcedors in all those impressive videos may wrap the exact same ingredients within the exact same wrapper variety (brought to exactly the same case) for dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of cigars in a row.

Keep up the work.

Bob

 

[CobGuy]

Well done!

~Darin

 

[DePasta]

I use a large piece of rectangular tile to wrap mine on. It will allow the moist wrapper to somewhat adhere to the tile and flatten and stretch out. Sometimes when I am lacking patience and the wrapper casing allows I will spritz the tile and the leaf will adhere to the tile and surface tension will allow it to be held in place and stretch. I saw this on a video somewhere.

 

[tullius]

I use a large piece of rectangular tile to wrap mine on. It will allow the moist wrapper to somewhat adhere to the tile and flatten and stretch out. Sometimes when I am lacking patience and the wrapper casing allows I will spritz the tile and the leaf will adhere to the tile and surface tension will allow it to be held in place and stretch. I saw this on a video somewhere.

Probably this feller's video:

View: https://youtu.be/TCqCESg3Q7c?t=965

 

[deluxestogie]

Yin and Yang. A tile surface allows your wrapper to adhere. A wood surface won't dull the fine edge of your chaveta.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

As others have said, that is a fantastic looking cigar, especially for your first roll. And everyone struggles with the variabilities of wrappers and trying to get them as smooth as possible without ripping them! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a perfect wrap and then ripped it 3/4 the way down a cigar. Grrr! When that happens I just splice the tear and put on a second wrapper.

Those small bumps etc are from the filler and binder irregularities telegraphing through to the wrapper. This is normal with a free hand cigar. The only way to prevent it is to use a mold to completely smooth the outer surface before applying the wrapper (that’s why commercial cigars are so pretty). I only do this when I’m giving my cigars away as gifts. Otherwise it’s just too much bother IMHO.

Keep up the good work, and above all have fun and enjoy something you made by hand.

Steve

 

[Texmo87]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It just seems the wrappers you see in cigar rolling videos are so much more flat and pliable. How important is it to have a hole free binder leaf? The bunch I received from wholeleaftobacco.com is full of many holes and seems to make it more difficult to roll with.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

How important is it to have a hole free binder leaf?

It isn't very important.

 

[waikikigun]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It just seems the wrappers you see in cigar rolling videos are so much more flat and pliable. How important is it to have a hole free binder leaf? The bunch I received from wholeleaftobacco.com is full of many holes and seems to make it more difficult to roll with.

Which binder leaf was this?

 

[Texmo87]

Which binder leaf was this?

It was the maduro leaf from Wholesaletobacco.com

 

[Charly]

You mean wholeleaftobacco.com ?