Anyone used a draw correction tool before?

[brasmuss]

Hi guys,

I speak with inexperience on my side........... Last night I enjoyed a Petit Punch that had a very difficult draw(sorry for the obscure description)...... Anyhow... aside from gently rolling the cigar in my fingertips, would i benefit from investing in a draw correction tool or would i be better off with another alternative?

Any advice gratefully accepted.

BTW I loved the idea from the partagas d4 video review about finishing the nub in a pipe..

Cheers,

Rastus

[tigger]

Those tools work pretty well, but in my experience, the majority of draw problems are within an inch or so of a cigar's head, and a longer thin nail works just as well.

[android]

I have not had a draw problem for years ever since I corrected my humidity down from 68-70 to 65-67 and also at least a day or two of dry boxing. It's amazing what that slight difference makes in flavor/draw.

[Jimmy2]

If a cigar is plugged bad nothing will help it as the whole cigar needs to draw by just making a hole with poker or drill bit all it will do is tunnel.I know others will say differant but my mind is made up just throw it away and grab one that draws..

[Stormin691]

never used one...... dont think its necessary... like Android said- get your humi conditions dialed in and you should be golden

[Jesuscookies]

If a cigar is plugged bad nothing will help it as the whole cigar needs to draw by just making a hole with poker or drill bit all it will do is tunnel.I know others will say differant but my mind is made up just throw it away and grab one that draws..

Exactly!

I have never successfully unplugged a plugged cigar. It just does not seem to work.

[kilroy]

I like to take a paper clip and straighten it out but leave a tiny lil bump near the end... when I push it through the foot I make sure to twist it around on the way out... the little bump in the clip acts like a crank shaft and makes sure the opening stays clear.

[FlyFishingDude]

I have not had a draw problem for years ever since I corrected my humidity down from 68-70 to 65-67 and also at least a day or two of dry boxing. It's amazing what that slight difference makes in flavor/draw.

Ding, ding ding, we have a winner. Draw issues, more than likely are humidity or temperature related, 64 - 67 RH with an ambient temp of 66 F seem a good mix in my part of the world.

Mike

[tigger]

I'm definitely a proponent of making sure that humidity's right, and age can help with some tighter cigars too.

But anyone who lived through late 90's/early 00's production should be well versed in the art of "poking."

[ilgatto]

I used a worm threader on a plugged PSD4 yesterday. I had dry boxed it for at least 5 days. The draw was much better but still limited.

[Jimmy2]

The whole cigar needs even air flow to taste all the flavors the cigar has to offer period !! Making a hole down the middle is not solving the problem 99% of the time of a plugged cigar they are man made product which are sometimes never perfect.

I remember when I use to use one years ago all that work to get some flavor ah my poor cheek muscles ..LOL I soon found out the Draw poker was a waste and nothing but a joke...

The humi conditions remarks are so far off and to say you will never have another plugged cigar again is so false.Most of the long time smokers like me and others here I am sure we all been keeping our humidity at 63/65 for years and still get plugged cigars from time to time.

There is a difference between a PLUGGED cigar (nothing will help it !) and a cigar that has a tight draw that is a little to moist and with time at a lower humidity yes it will open up .

Also if you take a draw poker and stick it in a truly plugged cigar most of the time that cigar will split open like me hitting someone over the head with a blackjack.

[tsolomon]

The whole cigar needs even air flow to taste all the flavors the cigar has to offer period !! Making a hole down the middle is not solving the problem 99% of the time of a plugged cigar they are man made product which are sometimes never perfect.

I remember when I use to use one years ago all that work to get some flavor ah my poor cheek muscles ..LOL I soon found out the Draw poker was a waste and nothing but a joke...

The humi conditions remarks are so far off and to say you will never have another plugged cigar again is so false.Most of the long time smokers like me and others here I am sure we all been keeping our humidity at 63/65 for years and still get plugged cigars from time to time.

There is a difference between a PLUGGED cigar (nothing will help it !) and a cigar that has a tight draw that is a little to moist and with time at a lower humidity yes it will open up .

Also if you take a draw poker and stick it in a truly plugged cigar most of the time that cigar will split open like me hitting someone over the head with a blackjack.

I have owned several draw pokers and they just don't work, so I agree with Jimmy on this one. Lower humidity and dry boxing can help, but a tight draw just can't be fixed by poking holes in the cigar.

[Smooth]

I agree completely with Jimmy... Creating a tunnel down the centre of a cigar is like smoking a cafe cream and saying you smoked a cigar... ie: Doing it wrong.

I have had my fair share of plugged cigars, as we all have and also been fortunate enough to have 100++ other cigars readily at my disposal. If it doesn't draw, its in the garden and i grab another one. Life is far too short. Smoking should be a pleasure, not a chore that requires a tool to make the cigar even work!

Only exception was a 25+ year old Bolivar Gold medal about 3 years ago... I got out the longest 1mm drill bit I had a drilled away to make it at least smokeable.

[n2advnture]

I have found that since switching to 65% RH nearly a decade ago that virtually all my draw and burn problems have gone away.

With that said, I do occasionally get a super tight draw which is why I recently contracted to have these made (they DO work).

http://www.cigarmony.com/index.asp?PageAct...amp;Category=81

The difference is in the serrations. Other tools merely used a smooth rod to try to push the tobacco out towards the wrapper. This tool actually removes a tiny bit of tobacco creating room for the remain tobacco to expand which loosens the draw.

I hope this helps

~Mark

[thechenman]

I don't know about anyone else, maybe it is just my level of immaturity, but after having viewed n2adventure's link...I find that the tool that is recommended looks very similar to a woman's vibartor...just an observation.

[Jimmy2]

There is a big differance between a tight draw and a Plugged cigar and i think most here dont know the diffrance .You stick anything in a truly plugged cigar it will bust right open also it will never draw it is what it is a PLUGGED cigar.Hard as a rock no way ever air will be passed through ever no aging or magic hunidity setting and so on will do any good.

The low Humidity only holds true if your cigars are over moist which will hurt the draw of a cigar or even sometimes have no draw but at a lower humidity over time it will open up.But again for us who have been smoking for many many years we do not call this a PLUGGED cigar which i think some here think so.

[SixburghDynasty]

I have heard of some people taking a 1/16" drill bit and drilling out the center of a plugged cigar, actually removing some tobacco and then letting the cigar sit so the filler can rearrange itself and then smoking it later. They say it works but I've never tried it and seems to me would change the tastes of the cigar among other things. I usually just pitch the dowels myself and shrug it off as a cost of something I enjoy.

[Van55]

Jimmy2 is right about there being a difference between a plugged cigar (physical obstruction present, such as a bent or twisted filler) and a overstuffed cigar.

The first will benefit from a cigar poker, nail, small drill, paperclip. For the latter, my experince is that a draw poker is PRACTICALLY useless.

Always test the draw of a cigar before lighting it. If it's plugged, you will get virtually no air through it. If overstuffed the draw will be there, but painfully difficult. In this case, I have found that the only occasionally successful remedy ans use for a draw poker is to stick the poker completely into the length of the cigar and let the cigar sit in a dry environment for two or three days. If, after that, the draw is still painfully tight, toss the cigar in the bin and smoke something else.

Jimmy2 is also correct that, even if poking and dry boxing a too tight cigar is successful the cigar still will not taste as it was intended, as most of the smoke will flow directly through the poker hole and not in and around and through the filler leaves.

[jquest63]

Yes and successfully, however practice a few times on cheap smokes first. Tight smaller ring smokes can be especially difficult to execute without ruining cigar.

[smk819]

If a cigar is plugged bad nothing will help it as the whole cigar needs to draw by just making a hole with poker or drill bit all it will do is tunnel.I know others will say differant but my mind is made up just throw it away and grab one that draws..

I used to try a shish kabob skewer, but now I use Jimmy's method.

[Habanos2000]

Does anyone attribute plugged cigars to inexperienced rollers? I understand the art of making a cigar includes a mistake every now and then, but I would hesitate to guess that the Hamlets of the world don't roll plugged cigars, or even ones that draw too tightly.