Xikar Envoy Cognac Brown Leather Single Cigar Tube Case

Yeah...more Xikar.
I wish they didn't import such great products so I could buy another brand now and then.

Almost an inch and a half in diameter, Cedar lined top & bottom with stitching at both ends of the tube. It had that ubiquitous silica gel bag stuffed too far down towards the bottom, but I was able to retrieve it after using a pair of forceps. The smell inside was something other than the cedar. I am hopeful it will fade with time and carrying fresh smokes.

It is too large to jam into pockets and such. It is not my grand uncle's case. He had one of those leather cases that held three smokes permanently parked in his breast pocket. I also have one of them but it is too flexible to adequately protect an expensive cigar. This case has metal caps at either end. Protection plus.

It can accommodate almost any length smoke from five inches collapsed to eight inches fully telescoped.

It is also an inch in diameter, so it will hold a 64 ring size, although it'll be snug.
(Ring size is in 64ths of an inch - a 56 is 7/8s of an inch)

Good for your bag or briefcase or your very large pocket.
Another win for Xikar.

Tips For Looking Cool While Consuming a Cigar

I do not subscribe to "looking cool." I care little what everyone else thinks. However I do not want to lower my personal standards of cool.
(Distinction is looking cool versus being cool - Think Sylvester Stallone versus Cary Grant)

I do not leave a ring on a smoke. No one cares. I also do not toast the foot. My lighter with a few (five, six) pulls allows for a fully lit smoke.
(People with torches report having to refill their lighters after five to seven smokes. I have not refilled mine yet - three weeks and I light other things besides cigars)

1. Tip your head back when lighting your smoke. Otherwise you end up drooling on the head of the cigar or choking upon the smoke.

2. If the smoke is going up your nose, exhale through your nose so you do not cough it out your mouth - push it out.

3. Stop trying to inhale. Even a small amount of cigar smoke is far too strong for you to inhale.

4. Enjoy the aroma.

Care of a Lighter

Once you have decided to smoke, chances are shortly afterwards you will find a need for a quality lighter. Torch or candle flame, either way you will spend between $30 and $200 for a quality butane lighter.
Okay. Now what?

Care and feeding of your lighter.

Butane.
Used to be a can of butane was a can of fuel. Now, things have changed a bit. The hi tech lighters have ignition coils and such that ask a bit of care to make them perform as new even twenty years later. This means you should be buying the most refined butane you can find.

There are many brands. Since I have no access to a laboratory I cannot verify the veracity of the claims of purity. I do however, understand a less refined products will leave carbon deposits that eventually will clog fuel delivery causing the flame to sputter or not light at all.

Turn the Flame Down...

Turn the flame height adjustment screw down to the minimum.

Bleed before you fill...

You are trying to remove any air in the fuel chamber.
I use a small hex wrench, but you can use a small screwdriver or a specific lighter tool and depress the filler tube. Hold it for ten seconds or until the hissing ceases. This will release any remaining fuel and air.

Not Shaken, either...

Do not shake the propane canister before refueling. In fact, never shake the can. When you shake the can of butane you are mixing propellant with the fuel. In some cases the propellant is - butane?! But most of the time it is compressed air. We do not want to water down our fuel with air.

Now Wait...

After filling the lighter wait four to five minutes for the fuel to settle and reach room temperature.

Reset and Go!

Set the flame height.

Use it well.

Why Do You Smoke?

Aromas reveal memories for me.
I smell a wood fire and I am eight years old, walking back & forth with my father...trying to keep warm at three in the morning.

I smell a cigar and I am six...Far Rockaway.
A Great Uncle...Yossie Savetsky always had a cigar clamped in his mouth. It had a green wrapper and was very fragrant. Harsh to the nostrils of a kid and yet there was an invitation to smell.
In his home or in his fruit stand there was always that cigar. Rarely was it actively being smoked. If he puffed once an hour that was a lot.
But it was always there.

When I was a teenager my father put me to work during summer vacation at the firm he worked. The two partners that owned Unity Electronics, Harry Holtzman & Lenny Meltzer both smoked cigars. Lenny like Yossie always had one in his mouth. They both had those bits of tobacco sticking to their lips in perpetuity.
Harry smoked when the occasion called for it or if he needed to make an impression - which was most all the time. But it was almost never lit. I think he was too cheap to consume one.

As I light a cigar I smell them more than smoke them. A little nicotine is fine but the main draw for me is the smell. The memories that flood in as I watch the smoke wafting away in the night air.
My youth gone...up in smoke?

I find I have time to think. I unplug completely. I sit and look...and think. I watch the wind and listen to the night coming in.

At the beginning of the year, I took a five day course in concentrating, single tasking, the art of not flitting about. One cigar teaches the same lesson.

Mind blown.

XI1 Cutter, Silver

Cutters perform a simple and yet essential function in the world of smoking a cigar...They cut the head in such a way to allow for a good draw while leaving the cap structure intact. Not that easy a task, really.

Cigars are thick and packed and yet made from a very compressible material. How to snip the tip without distorting the shape or crushing the bunch inside?

Scissors were the first try. They compress the cigar while cutting - No.
Sometime after the French Revolution (I assume) someone had the initiative to see a peaceful use for the guillotine. A cigar cutter. Et voila.

For about $5 and up there are a myriad of cutters for sale. Most consist of two semi circular blades with a finger hold attached to each end. You insert your thumb in one hold and your middle finger in the other. Insert the cigar the desired length and compress your fingers to cleanly cut the tip without any compression to the body of the smoke.
Since my initial encounter with Xikar was a very favorable one I decided to pursue it to the rest of their line of accessories.
They make one sort of shape for the cutters and then use a variety of materials for the handles. Anything from redwood handles to carbon fiber.

The Xi-1 series have screws holding them together and a one finger opening latch. Other models...the 2 and 3 lines have solid bodies or images printed upon them.
Pull the latch down and the blades open. Insert your smoke the desired length and close the wings. It's now locked and ready to go back into your pocket et cetera.

The blades are touted to be 440 carbon steel. The slicing action is far and away superior to trying to close your thumb and middle finger simultaneously. With this you just  - close the blades back into the locked position.

The only downside I have noticed is that it tends to collect bits of tobacco at the edges of the blades - not a place you want to be wiping off with a finger.

Everything Xikar makes is backed with a lifetime warranty. I read of one person sending the cutter back for sharpening and receiving a new one instead. Xikar does customer service very well.

Post Script - I contacted Xikar about becoming a reseller of their products and was told they are seeking Brick & Mortar locations only as they are having issues with price cutting.
Unfortunate indeed.
Ah well.
Exhale.

Hmmm

I lit my first roll. It was an easy light, very mild until the second half and stayed intact.

Consistency of the fill has to improve.
Capping needs to improve.

Application of the wrapper was pretty danged good, even if I say so myself. The seams were nicely lined up although placing the finished cigar back into the mold to stiffen up while it worked, made new flash lines which is a no-no.

Using a nickel instead of a dime to make the cap is a must.

Flavor was inconsistent which baffles me at the moment. The smoke was incredibly mild during the first half and got spicier as the time lit went on. Some of that is expected. I think the bunch and the way it's made...how tight et cetera determines this.

Overall I'd give my roll a five or a six if the locals are tens.

More to come.
Enjoy the time spent.

Voila

Wrapper attached.
I cut a new cap using a nickel rather than the dime cap seen in the photos. It proved too small.

Wrapper application is easy. I need to use the same technique on the binder as that was my faux pas this time around. There is no layer that can be anything but as tight as possible.
I'll let it dry and take it for a spin.

Rolled My First

Straightforward process but the technique to obtaining a consistent build of the bunch will take time.

My first try was too loose, not packed with enough filler, even though I used the proscribed three filler leaves.

I think my misspent time as a young smoker, rolling my own gave me some small insights. Knowing that the tightness of the bunch was important allowed for less trepidation in beginning. Keeping my fingers in line, rolling with one hand while flattening the leaf ahead of the coming bunch with the other hand...all came somewhat easily. Felt familiar.

It also told me I did not roll it tight enough. I unraveled it a bit and retried. And again. Finally, I got to a point where it seemed compressed and tight in the center but the ends were less than desired.
Into the mold my prototype went. I could have re-rolled it entirely or try to compress the ends in the mold. I chose the easy way out.

Forty minutes later I opened the mold to turn the cigar a quarter turn and found the ends were getting harder, more full. But I believe re-rolling was the choice to have made.
We shall see.

Rather than using regular C clamps I employed two, one handed ratchet clamps.

One at either end of the mold, which is cut from pine and therefore easily marred. They seem to do the trick very well.

The cigar is in the mold, setting overnight after having been turned once to re-flatten the flash that accumulates.

Tomorrow, the wrapper gets applied.

Do not inhale, but enjoy.

Xikar EX Lighter Brushed Silver

Xikar EX Lighter Brushed Silver

Xikar started with the smaller accessories. Cutters, picks and the like. Then they decided to expand into lighters, humidifiers, humidors, et cetera.

When I decided to try cigar smoking, the first thing I found out was a run of the mill Bic wasn't going to cut it. The cost adds up and I have a callous from using Bics - enough is more than too much.

The word was, "torch." A blue flamed lighter that burns at 2500 degrees F.
The 'Cigar Elite' have decided that you need this hot, hot flame to toast the foot of the smoke and then to actually light it.

Torches have their place, no doubt. But for me, most of the time I am lighting a pipe and then an occasional cigar. The trouble with a Bic is they do not light every time. They blow out in the wind. And the are disposable with which I have a philosophical problem.

I bought a cheap torch ($10) and it worked fairly well, other than the need to depress the ignition button several times before it would light. But it really had only the one use for me.

I decided to look for a quality lighter. I knew if I pursued cigars I would be replacing the $10 lighter twice a year. I firmly believe in the adage - you get what you pay for. (Although you have to find the true quality)

Xikar was one of the names that was repeated in the categories of "service," "quality," & "warranty."
Hands on, substantive & lifetime. Okay, I'll investigate.
Their lighters range in price from $30 to over $150.

But one of them caught my eye. Aesthetically as well as functionally. Why?
It looks like a Zippo and has a "Candle Flame." It's not a torch. I can light my pipe or my cigar. I can take it on a plane...something you cannot do with a torch.

It's hefty. Has a flip top...I dunno why. Other than to keep the element (a titanium coil ignites the butane) clean, protected.

Rather than a tiny, ill fitting plastic ring to adjust the flame height like the cheap torch had, this has an easily turned large knurled knob. It also has a slot if your are nerd enough to adjust by the millimeter and tool.

Oh, and it lights every freaking time. EVERY FREAKING TIME?!
I adjusted the flame up & down. Lowest to the highest...it lit each and every time.
And it is not wind resistant...it is WIND PROOF.
Blow on it as hard as you like. Hold it at any angle. It lights and stays lit.

As to it's use lighting a cigar? It's perfect for me. I have no snobbery...I remove a ring, I smell them more than I smoke them. It is truly something to just plain enjoy in and of itself.
I would like to, at some point time lighting with soft flame versus a torch.
I think the torch is more an affectation of the dapper dans out there.

I ordered it on a Sunday and received it that Thursday.
Xikar seems to be a very small organization based in Missouri that found a vendor in China they could deal with. They hold standards well worth the price.

And that leads to my next venture.
I am trying my hand at hand rolling my own brand of cigars.

Do Not Inhale

But enjoy.
I tend to find myself smelling the burning cigar as much as I pull on it for a draw.

I can also cut the burned foot of a cigar that has gone out and smoke it an hour later. I am not fussy. But I do like what I like.

Spicy flavor. Less woody.

I also find myself scoring a smoke by its quality with regards to the roll itself. Far too often the hand rolled specimens produced locally are too tight and have no draw. Or they are loose enough to form huge white nebulous ash that is consumed in less than an hour.

Also a wrapper that peels off or breaks when the cigar is still more moist than dried out.
Quality.

I found a site called Leaf Only where you can buy a DiY kit and try your hand at rolling cigars.
I'm a natural. I grew up rolling more of my own smokes than buy Newports at Scher's.
Fine, I'll give it a shot.

I'll document it here and report on my progress.
Here's to me becoming the next Rocky Patel.


Kit