Shopping for a Cigar Journal/Notebook

CalvinAndHobo

So I have a bag of bands that I've saved of the cigars that I liked and wanted to buy again. I was looking through it and I realized I couldn't remember how some of them actually were aside from "good". I want to get a journal that has sections where I can write down what I smoked, what size it was, a rating system, and a place to glue the band. Anyone have recommendations of what they use that's a little more sturdy than a spiral notebook and will hold up for a few years? 

I was thinking of this one just because the size is convenient. http://humidornotes.com 

TNBigfoot68

Here on Cigar.com in the accessories section, then choose other, and go down and click page three, then look for the Cigar Dossier. I actually have this and like it.

CalvinAndHobo

That one is backordered, it's held up for you though? It isn't falling apart after owning it for a while? 

TNBigfoot68

No mines not falling apart, I have had it a year and a half, must confess, I don't use it as much as I did, but I do like it.

NorCalR1

Why not go the route of a virtual journal, create a word document and add whatever else you would like(Size, notes, duration of smoke, age of smoke, etc). Then place a picture of the band directly on the document. You can store them conviently on a file to access anytime.

IndustMech

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

NorCalR1

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

IndustMech

NorCalR1 said:

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

Some people can add a picture, but not me...

CalvinAndHobo

I also don't have microsoft word or excel. I could use google docs to do all that but it would take a while and I'd have to be by my computer when I was smoking it. I think I'm going to get the one I linked to, it's 3 little 3 by 5 journals that I could fit into my herfador or pocket. 

silvermouse

https://us.moleskine.com/classic-notebook-brown/p1204

NorCalR1

IndustMech said:

NorCalR1 said:

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

Some people can add a picture, but not me...

Would make it cumbersome IMHO. I like the sort ability of an excel spreadsheet myself. That’s how I store my forum targets. I mean addresses... 

0patience

NorCalR1 said:

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

Open Office. Open source office suite.
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

Open Office Calc is the equivelant of Excel and will save as so.
You can insert images in the cells with no problems.

CalvinAndHobo

0patience said:

NorCalR1 said:

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

Open Office. Open source office suite.
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

Open Office Calc is the equivelant of Excel and will save as so.
You can insert images in the cells with no problems.

So if I save a word document and email it to someone, they'll be able to open it in microsoft word with no issues?

0patience

CalvinAndHobo said:

0patience said:

NorCalR1 said:

IndustMech said:

Or an excel spreadsheet so you could sort by size, wrapper, age, whatever.

That was my first thought but you couldn’t add a picture. But I might do a spreadsheet for myself ( as picture isn’t necessary for me).

Open Office. Open source office suite.
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

Open Office Calc is the equivelant of Excel and will save as so.
You can insert images in the cells with no problems.

So if I save a word document and email it to someone, they'll be able to open it in microsoft word with no issues?

Yes. you can save it to .odt or.doc formats.
.doc has a couple choices and when you save, you click on the format you want and it will list the Word97 and other Word formats. All .doc files.

I use Open Office Office Suite for all my Word, Excel and power point.

jd50ae

https://www.cigarsinternational.com/p/ci-cigar-dossier-accessories/1514811/#p-211090

84CJ7

@CalvinAndHobo

I've been using an app called Cigar Scanner.  Just changed phones and everything showed up and didn't lose a thing.  Kept all my notes as well.

I have each humidor set up and listed with the cigars that are in them.  It even estimates the value in each humidor.  

It's about 75% on having a photo of the cigar and label but you can take a picture and store it.  

I found I was more apt to record one if I'm out & picked one up.

Mark

Markwell

I just stumbled upon this; don't always have time to fully explore the forum with my work schedule these days. I'm currently using a nice leather journal which I purchased from Walmart for less than $4. It's about 6"x10".

While I don't glue my bands to the pages, I do have a system including stock number (A for my Fuente Humidor, B for the cooler), brand, size and vitola, blend, price, and purchase/trade location. Then I just leave a few lines blank for notes. This system allows me to keep inventory of my stock for aging and trade purposes. Anytime someone wants to know if I have a certain stick, I just flip through the book. 

I do like those dossier journals though. It's basically the same setup I use, just a different layout.

CalvinAndHobo

Here's what I ended up going with. I like the small size of it and the back cover with the ruler and ring gauge measurement thing. It was $20 for three of these with thirty pages in each one. 

peter4jc

That's awesome.  If you fill in some of the info when you first get a cigar, it'll save a few steps and you won't have to label each cigar with a date.  Maybe you could start using all three books and have the cigars entered alphabetically; book#1 A-E, book#2 F-M, book#3 N-Z... or something like that.

CalvinAndHobo

peter4jc said:

That's awesome.  If you fill in some of the info when you first get a cigar, it'll save a few steps and you won't have to label each cigar with a date.  Maybe you could start using all three books and have the cigars entered alphabetically; book#1 A-E, book#2 F-M, book#3 N-Z... or something like that.

The plan right now is to enter them as I smoke them, because I can usually remember a general time frame of when I had a cigar and use that memory to find the right page. Also, I'm sure I'd mess something up alphabetically over time in terms of not having enough pages before or after a letter like p and having to put something that starts with o in the wrong spot. I've also changed some of the categories to something else. "food" is going to become "Time" (ex: 7:00pm) and "Weather" is going to become "Draw". and I'm going to score everyone on a 0-100 scale for things like burn and draw so there's a uniform system. 

peter4jc

Granted, your young memory is better than mine, but it'll get harder to remember things as your inventory grows.  

What about writing a page number at the top of each page and keeping an index of what cigar is on what page so that when you see a deal pop up somewhere and want to find your review, you don't have to flip through each book looking for it?

CalvinAndHobo

peter4jc said:

Granted, your young memory is better than mine, but it'll get harder to remember things as your inventory grows.  

What about writing a page number at the top of each page and keeping an index of what cigar is on what page so that when you see a deal pop up somewhere and want to find your review, you don't have to flip through each book looking for it?

I may have to do that at some point in the future. We'll see how it goes. 

Markwell

Thinking I might throw together a journal similar to the ones shown above using Microsoft. Would anyone have an interest? They'd be much cheaper than what these are going for.

BKDog

I'm a Linux user, so I just use Libre, post my general thoughts with a photo:

Then I take the cigar band and glue it to a painted canvas in a collage. When the canvas is full, I start another one. I don't know if it's "good" art since that's always subjective, but I own the memories.

What do you think?

Captain_Call

I did the same to my herfador. It's about 4 layers thick now