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Newbie Struggling

hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

First post so be easy. Just getting into the game and have already bought a handful of lighters with mixed results. I have a single torch Xikar and just ordered an Allume Double to replace the new Verano that I can’t keep lit. I’m having one heck of a time getting a proper light. I see everyone toasting, puffing, flames shooting, etc. I do that and all I’m doing is burning the stick. Is there anything wrong with just slowing toasting the edge, blowing on the end, and then continuing the toast focusing on the center getting hotter with a few puffs until fully lit- but not actually puffing with the flame applied? Putting the cigar in my mouth and puffing while managing the flame is something that isn’t working for me right now. I do find I’m having to re-light frequently- likely because I’m not getting a proper initial light. Anyone else not using the puff while lighting at the same time method that can give me some tips? Would buying an in-line triple (Xikar HP3) be a better option to ensure I’m getting an even light? I generally smoke 52 RG of less cigars. Thanks!

Comments

  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks- patience has got to be the key I’m guessing. Since puffing and lighting at the same time isn’t in the cards for me right now- I will follow those steps. I am using a torch (single and double) and not a soft flame. I’m probably not allowing the cigar to get fully lit before starting the smoking. Thanks again!

  • PatrickbrickPatrickbrick Posts: 7,722 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ^^^^ what he said, but I flick my bic to finish.

    "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Winston Churchill.
    MOW badge received.
  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 15,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Could be over-humidified cigars too...

    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 25,527 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2020

    Jump on the vHerf some night and you'll get some real-time brotherly cigar advice, and you'll be able to see the glow of the cigar onscreen after you light it to give you feedback if you've toasted it enough.

    The vHerf is like the forum on steroids as far as knowledge and shenanigans goes.

    I'll gladly bomb you Tuesday for an Opus today. 

                  Join us on the New Zoom vHerf (Meeting # 2619860114 Password vHerf2020 )
  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Yakster said:
    Jump on the vHerf some night and you'll get some real-time brotherly cigar advice, and you'll be able to see the glow of the cigar onscreen after you light it to give you feedback if you've toasted it enough.

    The vHerf is like the forum on steroids as far as knowledge and shenanigans goes.

    This is my first Cigar Forum So I’m not familiar with vHerf. I’ll check it out.

  • YaksterYakster Posts: 25,527 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2020

    We're using Zoom now and it's pretty easy to join. It's so easy that your kids may already be using it for school and can help you out. :D

    I'll gladly bomb you Tuesday for an Opus today. 

                  Join us on the New Zoom vHerf (Meeting # 2619860114 Password vHerf2020 )
  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Appreciate all the help guys. I decided to quit drinking a few weeks ago and picked up cigars. I already own 2 cutters, 2 lighters, Boveda acrylic humidor, travel humidor, 4 ashtrays (just ordered a Stinky Jr.), all within two weeks. Still figuring out what sticks I like- right now I’m enjoying Brick House Double Connecticut and a few different Fuentes. After all that, lighting these darn things properly is more difficult than I could have imagined.

  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @hoghunter said:
    Appreciate all the help guys. I decided to quit drinking a few weeks ago and picked up cigars. I already own 2 cutters, 2 lighters, Boveda acrylic humidor, travel humidor, 4 ashtrays (just ordered a Stinky Jr.), all within two weeks. Still figuring out what sticks I like- right now I’m enjoying Brick House Double Connecticut and a few different Fuentes. After all that, lighting these darn things properly is more difficult than I could have imagined.

    @Patrickbrick hit on a very good point. If you are keeping your humidor//cigars at 70%, that is probably most your battle.
    Try some perfectos. They tend to be far easier to light.

    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @0patience said:

    @hoghunter said:
    Appreciate all the help guys. I decided to quit drinking a few weeks ago and picked up cigars. I already own 2 cutters, 2 lighters, Boveda acrylic humidor, travel humidor, 4 ashtrays (just ordered a Stinky Jr.), all within two weeks. Still figuring out what sticks I like- right now I’m enjoying Brick House Double Connecticut and a few different Fuentes. After all that, lighting these darn things properly is more difficult than I could have imagined.

    @Patrickbrick hit on a very good point. If you are keeping your humidor//cigars at 70%, that is probably most your battle.
    Try some perfectos. They tend to be far easier to light.

    My Bovada humidor should arrive Tuesday. Right now I have my sticks in heavy duty ziplock with a 69% Bovada pack. Hopefully when I get everything in the humidor things will even out. I will check out some Perfectos. Thanks

  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @0patience said:

    @hoghunter said:
    Appreciate all the help guys. I decided to quit drinking a few weeks ago and picked up cigars. I already own 2 cutters, 2 lighters, Boveda acrylic humidor, travel humidor, 4 ashtrays (just ordered a Stinky Jr.), all within two weeks. Still figuring out what sticks I like- right now I’m enjoying Brick House Double Connecticut and a few different Fuentes. After all that, lighting these darn things properly is more difficult than I could have imagined.

    @Patrickbrick hit on a very good point. If you are keeping your humidor//cigars at 70%, that is probably most your battle.
    Try some perfectos. They tend to be far easier to light.

    A perfecto and a plain old kitchen wood match. You just have to light the tip, and then it spreads itself from there. Prolly why the fecto was a default shape for gars back when guys were lighting from a cedar spill (think of an oversized splinter) stuck in the fire, or a candle, or an ember.

    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)


  • silvermousesilvermouse Posts: 19,044 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Welcome. Keep it simple.

  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @webmost said:

    @0patience said:

    @hoghunter said:
    Appreciate all the help guys. I decided to quit drinking a few weeks ago and picked up cigars. I already own 2 cutters, 2 lighters, Boveda acrylic humidor, travel humidor, 4 ashtrays (just ordered a Stinky Jr.), all within two weeks. Still figuring out what sticks I like- right now I’m enjoying Brick House Double Connecticut and a few different Fuentes. After all that, lighting these darn things properly is more difficult than I could have imagined.

    @Patrickbrick hit on a very good point. If you are keeping your humidor//cigars at 70%, that is probably most your battle.
    Try some perfectos. They tend to be far easier to light.

    A perfecto and a plain old kitchen wood match. You just have to light the tip, and then it spreads itself from there. Prolly why the fecto was a default shape for gars back when guys were lighting from a cedar spill (think of an oversized splinter) stuck in the fire, or a candle, or an ember.

    Makes total sense. I just watched a few videos on perfectos and they seem pretty idiot proof- even for a newbie like me. Thanks

  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @VegasFrank said:
    You bought everything but f****** cigars bro!

    LOL- yes it would appear that way, but I have started to accumulate a few different sticks while I figure out what I like.

  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My method is similar to the technique described in this video, except I don't like to use matches. It's too much trouble to keep the matches burning consistently. I use a soft flame butane lighter. I use jet flame lighters for re-lights. If' I'm outdoors where the wind has too much affect on a soft flame, I will use a jet lighter to toast. You'll get the hang of it. Just take it slow.
    https://youtu.be/YOem4JswMCk

    Do you hunt hogs? Where you located?

  • PatrickbrickPatrickbrick Posts: 7,722 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Texas?

    "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Winston Churchill.
    MOW badge received.
  • hoghunterhoghunter Posts: 534 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Bob_Luken said:
    My method is similar to the technique described in this video, except I don't like to use matches. It's too much trouble to keep the matches burning consistently. I use a soft flame butane lighter. I use jet flame lighters for re-lights. If' I'm outdoors where the wind has too much affect on a soft flame, I will use a jet lighter to toast. You'll get the hang of it. Just take it slow.
    https://youtu.be/YOem4JswMCk

    Do you hunt hogs? Where you located?

    I’m outside Orlando, FL. Used to hunt hogs all the time when I lived in south Florida. Haven’t hunted in a long time unfortunately....

  • Usaf06Usaf06 Posts: 10,932 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Where at? I'm near Harmony

    "I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form."
    -- Winston Churchill

    "LET'S GO FRANCIS"     Peter

  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yesterday's smoke was this Daily Habit #55, rolled last Sept, out of 100% T-13 filler, bound with Idonesian wrapper, wrapped in FX Smith's CT shade.

    Easy lighting is just a side benefit. The main attraction of fectos, to me, is their voluptuous shape. It's a sailboat among motorboats. I like to roll a fecto with extra filling in the middle, to encourage an imperceptibly plumper barrel. It makes a diff when you smoke a beauty.

    In one way, fectos are way more difficult to make; especially wrapping the pointy end. In another way, fectos are slightly easier to bunch, given that they more closely match the shape of a leaf. The hardest part is controlling the length of your bunch, since the mold is closed on either end; unlike a parejo which you can just chop to size.

    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)


  • YaksterYakster Posts: 25,527 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hemingway's have a tasty Cameroon wrapper, just like the AJ New World Cameroon.

    I'll gladly bomb you Tuesday for an Opus today. 

                  Join us on the New Zoom vHerf (Meeting # 2619860114 Password vHerf2020 )
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