When you are struggling on a tight draw do you....

[El Presidente]

When you are struggling on a tight draw what do you do?

We all have different levels of tollerance to a tight draw....I am talking about a bloody hard draw here.

I have no tolerance

[Bartolomeo]

Depends how expensive the stick is.....If its a high-end, premium stick I try to work through it.....if its regular production, I give it a chance for the first 1/3 and then pitch it if it shows no promise of opening up

Bart

[sharks]

Ditto what Bart said for the premium sticks. The regular production stuff I give it a chance then start cutting away...

Sharks

[Rehman]

If the draw's too tight on clipping, I'll put it back in storage. Sometimes plugged cigars lighten up with time. If not, I remove the band for my collection, then pull them apart to see if I can find out why they're plugged. I usually can't, but it helps satisfy my craving for vengeance.

[KarlJ]

I have a "poker" that was from a blow dart gun. I usually run that through a couple times and if that don't work I pitch the cigar.

As far as massaging goes, I've never had it work. If you really give it a go the wrapper comes undone and if the binder tears, it's game over. Even so, and Maybe it's primitive instinct but, I always give it a couple rolls between the fingers to try and loosen it before I go tribal on it with the blow dart

-Karl

[riazp]

i'll try to give it a chance and if it does not work out after the first third then its bye bye...Hapenned to me witha mag 50 on sunday, hopelessly plugged.

[CanuckSARTech]

Depends how expensive the stick is.....If its a high-end, premium stick I try to work through it.....if its regular production, I give it a chance for the first 1/3 and then pitch it if it shows no promise of opening up

Bart

Very similar here.

However, if there's no improvement after the first third, then I'll generally try a poker to open it up, and if still no go, it's chucked after that.

Speaking of which, I lost my old poker a while ago. Well, just about a year and a half ago or so, I put in an order with Mark Neff at Cigarmony.com, and I got one of his Aeolus cigar spears. Beautiful pieces of work - very fine craftsmanship, and wonderful materials (mine is bocote wood, contrasted with the lighter gray/white granite/marble base to it). A great tool to have.

However, I think it's jinxed, but in a good way....

Since I bought it, I haven't had a single cigar that was plugged to the point of me needing to use it.

[laficion]

I have no tolerance

+1

For many years I tried everything with a plugged cigars, today, Not even

the cost of the cigar will stop me from throwing it away.

I hate wasting my cigar time with useless efforts.

[cckandb24]

I keep my Coolidor at 62 percent humidity, started even dry oxing, and I feel at least 1 out 4 smokes out of the 15 different Cuban boxes I smoke from is super tight or plugged. This is becoming my biggest problem with Habanos. I have a special poker that has file like edges, it helps but anymore I'm just chucking them. Time is too precious to waste on shitty product

[kcheek]

I always try to work through it, poking and rolling it. Haven't had too many lately that were really bad, lucky run I guess.

[cookie_1978]

Life is too short. Pitch it and start with a new one.

[mattdivo]

I guess it depends on why it isn't drawing. If it is due to over humidity, I give the stick a chance to heats up and dry out a bit. If it is due to the construction, I likeswise give it a chance to open up. No matter the cost of the stick, I will put up with a poor draw until the halfway mark, out of respect for the cigar. I'm a tosser after the midway.

M.

[Colt45]

Ditch it - smoking a cigar shouldn't be a chore. Imagine a wine bottle or glass that you could barely get a drop out of......

(Ayala, it's just an analogy - no need for the cold sweats)

[CanuckSARTech]

Ditch it - smoking a cigar shouldn't be a chore. Imagine a wine bottle or glass that you could barely get a drop out of......

(Ayala, it's just an analogy - no need for the cold sweats)

LOL.

[mbrody]

Ditto what Bart said for the premium sticks. The regular production stuff I give it a chance then start cutting away...

Sharks

I'm with Bart and Sharks, but I will only cut unto the band. If it don't draw then, pitched.

[sactochris]

I just try and get through it as best as I can. I never pitch a cigar. The ones with the tight draw make the ones that are like sipping smoke with a straw all that much more enjoyable.

[krs]

after I take a pre light draw and find its unsmokable I carefully unravel the wrapper and binder and reroll using a cigar press that I made up, with a bit of practice it works great.

[OZCUBAN]

I will cut cigar further up. in an attempt fix draw issue ,if not successful i ditch it ,life's to short to struggle with bad cigars .

Still makes me mad though :angry: Zero tolerance

OZ

[Rushman]

I give it first third to open up with massaging but I won't waste my time or lungs beyond that point.

---

I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.631751,-87.070654

[Hohenthal]

To be honest, I had only very few (badly) plugged cigars so far, almost all of them I could handle by massageing them a bit.

In general I prefer a good resistance - as the burn does not overheat, I sense more flavour,

complexity and better balance / overall quality.

What I really had problems with - and much more, much more often than plugged - is underfilled cigars.

In fact I remember just recently tossing away a "windtunnel" RASCC - otherwise one of my all time favourites - but this example was hopeless.

But maybe that's just me.....

[dicko]

cut it under the band. lately Ive just started pitching though

[tsolomon]

I suffer for awhile and then pitch it in disgust.

[ewipper]

Truthfully, I usually test the draw after cutting and then if I'm not satisfied I put it back in the humidor and pick something else. Cut cigars tend to expand if stored properly and will draw fine. If the cigar is so overfilled that it will never draw, you have to pitch it. It affects taste.

[Squarehead]

I'm using a straightened paperclip since I don't know where the plug is.It usually works.A couple of weeks ago I had a stick and you could have put a vaccumcleaner to the end and nothing came through.After lighting up another stick and smoked that one I paid my attention to the plugged one,cut off the charred section and poked the cigar from both ends and I got a perfect draw.3/4 of a stick saved.

[IcedCanuck]

First I try and find the plugged area by gently squeezing the cigar from end to end. Then I will try and massage the plugged part out. If that doesn't work I clip the plugged end off and that has always fixed my problem. I have clipped up to 1/3 of a cigar off to get around this problem. If I end up with a second plugged stick from the same box I toss the box back in my coolidor and forget about it for at least six months. Doing that alone saved a couple boxes I had that I thought for sure were going to be complete write offs.