Hard Ash

Yakster

Something's been bothering me lately, My cigars have been getting a hard, crunchy ash in the final third and becoming almost impossible to smoke unless I squeeze the cherry out with my fingers or cut the ash off the end of the cigar with cutters and start over.

@kuzi16, maybe you have some insight? I've been trying to use the -1, 2, 3 method (quick exhale, quick inhale, then a full inhale) and trying to slow my smoking down but it still happens from time to time.

I know that other's have also had this problem, but I haven't found much about this particular problem on the Internet.

kuzi16

its not the ash that is the problem.
Its the roll.

As a cigar roller bunches the filler, they line up all the filler leaf tobacco and fold /roll it to burn correctly.
They then have to apply the binder and that requires another hand. The roller will use their thumb to hold the bunch in place as they grab and apply the binder...
and this causes a tiny shift in the tobacco, influencing the burn and draw.
The thumb that is holding the bunch is doing so about where the band is.

That is the source of your issue.

If its only on some brands it is because not all brands hand bunch the same. Some factories use a Leiberman rolling machine, reducing a percentage of human error.

madurofan

@kuzi16 said:
its not the ash that is the problem.
Its the roll.

As a cigar roller bunches the filler, they line up all the filler leaf tobacco and fold /roll it to burn correctly.
They then have to apply the binder and that requires another hand. The roller will use their thumb to hold the bunch in place as they grab and apply the binder...
and this causes a tiny shift in the tobacco, influencing the burn and draw.
The thumb that is holding the bunch is doing so about where the band is.

That is the source of your issue.

If its only on some brands it is because not all brands hand bunch the same. Some factories use a Leiberman rolling machine, reducing a percentage of human error.

This is one of the many reasons Zino Davidoff said to never smoke the last third of the cigar. There are many other reasons. Not that I always heed that advice but basically anything that happens in the last third of a cigar you kinda have to live with it.

ShawnOL

I have also had this issue the last five or six months with cigars not wanting to stay lit into the last third. I was beginning to think that I was doing something wrong.

Yakster

Thanks, @kuzi16, this makes a lot of sense. Yesterday I had a cigar that had a thumb sized dent in the middle and that's where I had problems with it.