Great website on Cigar Education
I found this to be very helpful, with great tips. Has everything you can ask for about humidification, storage, cleaning, selection etc...
http://education.vigilantinc.com/cigar/
http://education.vigilantinc.com/cigar/
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This table is only correct if you measure absolute humidity, but the table is labeled F:RH%. I'm rather wary of believing this, as it flies in the face of my own experience, as well as common sense.
EDIT - it might be accurate if you don't have anything to absorb or release excess humidity - can anyone help out?
DO NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE ON THIS TABLE
The table by itself doesn't make any sense because there's no mention of the assumptions he's using to correlate Temperature to Relative Humidity.
For any given temperature (except aboslute zero) you can have a full range of relative humidity from 0% - 100%, even below the temperature at which water freezes. Relative humidity is simply the ratio of the amount of water present in a given volume of air, to the maximum amount that could be possible at that temperature. We're also assuming constant air pressure here, as that will affect relative humidity.
Absolute humidity gets rid of the maximum part of the equation and just measures how much water is actually in a particular volume. Rather than a percent, absolute humidity is expressed in terms of density, usually grams per cubic meter.
Reading through the information on the web page, the author is saying that 70F and 70%RH gives you the ideal absolute humidy. At those conditions there are ~12 grams of water vapor in every cubic meter of volume. The table above shows you what your relative humidity has to be in order to maintain 12g/cm of water in the air.
This table is absolute bupkiss and should be ignored wholeheartedly. More than that, it is BAD ADVICE. Evaporation and condensation are tied to relative humidity, not absolute humidity. At high relative humidity (regardless of temperature or absolute humidity) you WILL have water condense out of the air, which is going to put liquid water on your cigars. The threshold for mold growth is going to be about 75%, so looking at the table you can see just how quickly following this advice is going to ruin your whole stock.
On top of that, changing your relative humidity like this is going to cause your cigars to constantly give off and take on water. It's going to have the same affect as rotating them from the humidor, to a dry box, and then into the shower.
I'm not going to read another word of that website just based off the bad science in this section alone. Stick with RH.
There might be some good information on there, I'm just not going to look further than this. Sorry if my post came across strongly Zeebra, but that humidity advice is just bad news and I'd hate to see someone try to follow it and ruin some good stogies. Good catch Xmarco.
Just take anything you hear with a grain of salt and look for multiple sources on it, especially if it's significant'y different advice from what you've seen elswhere. I hardly ever trust a single source for anything
I have and will continue to wipe the inside of my humi's and the seal wood around the edges and have NEVER had a problem with warping wood or overhumidification or anything else.
The caution surrounding the wiping of the inside of your humi should be to NOT BE STUPID and over do it. A wipe is a wipe. That doesn't mean you continually go over the same spots and keep adding water. It means that if you dampen a cloth with distilled water and wipe the inside surfaces of the humi one time so that the wood is moistened and include the seal wood then you will have NO PROBLEMS.
Now for anybody who can't follow simple directions and goes ahead and "wets" the inside of your humi down then yeah, you'll need a new humi likely. But I tell you what, if a guy can't follow those directions properly without damaging his sticks, then he is likely going to find a completely new and creative way to damage them anyway.
I also add distilled water in a bowl to the inside of my humi's after the wiping and allow the humi to absorb the water. This step takes less time because of the wiping of the inside.
Now please don't get me wrong. I am NOT standing on a soapbox here and saying that this is the way it should be done. I don't deal in such hard and fast rules. I am just pointing out that there are some of us who DO, do the wiping of the humi insides and have had no problems with this method. I just keep reading that this is like the BIGGEST NO, NO a BOTL can pull off... and it ISN"T.
"Long ashes my friends."
Why the rush? We BOTL's need to be patient to enjoy cigars.
* We take the proper time when smoking - it's blasphemy to huff a cigar quickly - we relax and enjoy the experience.
* We take the time to properly age our cigars - you almost never hear anyone say "Gee, I loved this cigar fresh off the UPS truck, but now with some age on it, it's terrible". We patiently age our cigars for days, weeks, months, even years - all so we can properly enjoy them. We do this because we know that being patient yields great benefits
* Cigar rollers age their tobacco. It's an atrocity to hear a cigar roller was cooking their maduro leaves to speed up the aging process, or that the construction is shoddy because the cigar was rushed to market. The reason we're not able to buy MOW Virtue in boxes this month is because although the cigar is ready, the boxes got messed up, so we gotta wait an extra month
In short, enjoying the art of smoking a cigar takes patience - what do you really gain by wiping down your wood? If you do it right, you save a day; do it wrong and you ruined your humidor. When was the last time you heard someone say "Gee, I've had my humidor for a few months/years now, and I'm sure glad I saved an extra day when I first seasoned it"?
The fact is, that day you save will be forgotten within a week. So why would you wanna force the wood to drink by wiping it down? Be patient, do it slowly and let the wood soak up the moisture at it's own pace, instead of forcing it to season at the pace you want.
That's why it bothers me when I hear someone advising to wipe the wood down - it's just encouraging impatience and telling that person that it's ok to take a shortcut. In every aspect from rolling the cigar, to aging it, to smoking it, BOTL's need patience to enjoy this hobby, so why should the seasoning process be any different?
/end lecture
I don't recall telling anybody to rush or be impatient. You compared an agricultural product to wood. Not the same. By wiping the surface LIGHTLY as pointed out EVERYTIME you actually open the pores of the wood which results in the water in the bowl being able to absorb into the surface more readily. It isn't the wiping itself which adds the most moisture as it is done with a DAMP cloth.
I don't want to get into a down and out scrap about this as I and others have done this and it works very well, while others are more cautious and do it in other ways. I am just passing information, as to how others season a Humi and or the seal wood around the edge.
I agree the hobby is about relaxation and enjoying a good stick. That is why I don't get bent out of shape about every aspect of cigars... I just try to enjoy them and help others do so as well. Being stressed about cigars, their storage and all the other details down to the enth degree ADDS to the stress, it doesn't relieve it, IMO.