Pics of your sticks!!

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BigBonner

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I remember making those free hand .
Do you have a cigar mold ? They will help you a lot . Practice , Practice , Practice , Practice , you are doing good so far .
 

deluxestogie

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A cigar mold instantly helps your rolled cigars look better, but at the cost of diminishing their likelihood of drawing well--until you master the additional skill of binding a perfectly cylindrical bunch whose degree of firmness is matched for the ring gauge of your chosen mold.

Nearly all of my hand-rolled cigars tend to naturally end up slightly conical, and already compressed for a suitable draw. In order to use a mold, on those infrequent occasions that I'm rolling cigars as gifts, I have to alter how I bunch, and have to bind them slightly looser than I otherwise would.

Unlike the "entubado" methods used by some, I take up my filler strips in one hand, with all the leaf tips aligned evenly toward my thumb. (This will be the foot of the cigar.) Each strip is scrunched as it is added, and the "blending" occurs here. Then I tear off the bottom (pinkie finger end of my grip) of all the strips in one rapid snap. The severed part of the bunch is then aligned and added again at the foot (thumb) end, with no consideration of where in the bunch specific components end up. Again, I tear off the longer bottom of the bunch, and add it at the cigar foot (at my thumb). I repeat this until all of the length of the filler strips are added. This fairly consistently gives me a slightly conical bunch. This conical shape is maintained by the wrapper. Sometimes I reinforce the head only, with a single, additional wrapping cap. I usually close the head with a snug twist, since I immediately cut it, and smoke the finished cigar. I never use glue on these cigars. The case of the leaf I use for rolling is such that the cigar seldom requires drying, prior to being lit.

To bunch for a mold, I have to rotate the severed parts of the bunch so that the thicker portion alternates between the foot end and the head end. My final bunch thickness is regulated by how long I tear the bunch--keeping the ring gauge of the mold in mind. Truly handsome cigars require that at least the binder and wrapper be in a higher case than when I roll free-hand. So they need to be "rested" at least long enough to fully dry.

All in all, rolling with a mold is always a more complex and tedious process for me, with the final draw less certain. Added to this downside is the extra fuss of a triple cap, and the additional moisture that comes with using glue. These always require "resting," in order to be properly smokable.

Bob
 

Copenhagen Forever

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These thingS will BuRn gooD for ME NOw! HeY Haw!
DSC05731.jpg
No seriously, GDaddy had some single molds and I'd like to get one of them. I'd love to roll one of those perfectos some day. I doesn't look that difficult to make one mold out of wood.
I've been smoking one a day. It's hard to take the black gold out of my mouth long enough to smoke one.
 

Copenhagen Forever

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PS thanks Deluxstogie for the tootering. I'll study and try again. I've been watching video especially the one were the girl rolls one on her thigh. I thought that was brilliant.
 

webmost

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A cigar mold instantly helps your rolled cigars look better, but at the cost of diminishing their likelihood of drawing well--until you master the additional skill of binding a perfectly cylindrical bunch whose degree of firmness is matched for the ring gauge of your chosen mold.

Nearly all of my hand-rolled cigars tend to naturally end up slightly conical, and already compressed for a suitable draw. In order to use a mold, on those infrequent occasions that I'm rolling cigars as gifts, I have to alter how I bunch, and have to bind them slightly looser than I otherwise would.

Unlike the "entubado" methods used by some, I take up my filler strips in one hand, with all the leaf tips aligned evenly toward my thumb. (This will be the foot of the cigar.) Each strip is scrunched as it is added, and the "blending" occurs here. Then I tear off the bottom (pinkie finger end of my grip) of all the strips in one rapid snap. The severed part of the bunch is then aligned and added again at the foot (thumb) end, with no consideration of where in the bunch specific components end up. Again, I tear off the longer bottom of the bunch, and add it at the cigar foot (at my thumb). I repeat this until all of the length of the filler strips are added. This fairly consistently gives me a slightly conical bunch. This conical shape is maintained by the wrapper. Sometimes I reinforce the head only, with a single, additional wrapping cap. I usually close the head with a snug twist, since I immediately cut it, and smoke the finished cigar. I never use glue on these cigars. The case of the leaf I use for rolling is such that the cigar seldom requires drying, prior to being lit.

To bunch for a mold, I have to rotate the severed parts of the bunch so that the thicker portion alternates between the foot end and the head end. My final bunch thickness is regulated by how long I tear the bunch--keeping the ring gauge of the mold in mind. Truly handsome cigars require that at least the binder and wrapper be in a higher case than when I roll free-hand. So they need to be "rested" at least long enough to fully dry.

All in all, rolling with a mold is always a more complex and tedious process for me, with the final draw less certain. Added to this downside is the extra fuss of a triple cap, and the additional moisture that comes with using glue. These always require "resting," in order to be properly smokable.

Bob

Damn. You gotta love when a man goes his own way, can tell you why and how he goes there, and isn't led astray by the beaten path.

Me, I get pleasure from admiring as well as smoking. Oddly enough, I even get a perverse pleasure out of striving to roll the ever elusive perfect cigar. But then, I only smoke four or five a week.
 

MarcL

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IMG_0073_zpshxbpyhnz.jpg%7Eoriginal
 

MarcL

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San Vicente ligero, Piloto Cubano viso, Corojo seco, Mata Fina 2013, Piloto Cubano seco, Criollo 98 seco,Honduras Habano 2012 binder with Criollo 98 and Corojo oscoro wrappers.
 

MarcL

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thank you!

San Vicente ligero, Piloto Cubano viso, Corojo seco, Mata Fina 2013, Piloto Cubano seco, Criollo 98 seco, Honduras Habano 2012 binder with Criollo 98 wrappers.

IMG_0087_zpsrkivhjkr.jpg%7Eoriginal
 

RSG

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Rolled these last night and can't wait to try them.. 6 on the left are wrapped with Ecuadorian Maduro and the four on the right are Honduran Habano.
 
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rainmax

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I will actually smoke them in the near future. All cigars are draw tested. I roll them occasionally.
What is inside is written on bands cause I don't want to loose any brilliant recipe like it happens in past.
Mostly here is my own tobacco. Occasionally I wrap in some Habano 2000 wrapper or Connecticut shade but thats it.


_MG_7233.jpg _MG_7240.jpg _MG_7246.jpg _MG_7258.jpg
 

deluxestogie

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Maks,
You win the prize for self-control. I could never accumulate so many hand-rolled cigars, before smoking some. Although that slender stogie is not the most beautiful of the lot, that would be my immediate choice to incinerate.

Bob
 

Jtravis

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Thanks. just for clarity, they are Pyramids. but, for some reason the mold was designated a 56 to 48 X 6 1/2 Belicoso.



Interesting. I thought they might have been pyramids at first. Must not have looked hard enough at them.
 
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