Hey guys I dunno if this question was asked before but i did a search and nothing came up. So, is there any way to cure a brittle wrapper? For some reason half of my stash in my tupperdor have developed a brittle wrapper. I know its due to high and low humidity changes, but is there anyway to restore the cigar to their original form?? All answers are appreciated

John

I've found that some wrappers are just really fragile and flakey due to extreme thinness, whereas others are thick and tough. I skewer plugged cigars with a 1 mm diameter wooden skewer to make them smokable. I tried this on a Gurkha Regent last night and found that the thin wrapper started to pop, someting that has never occured on any other cigar I've tried it on. The tensil strength of any dead, dried out leaf, even humidified ones, is going to be somewhat contingent on it's thickness.

CigarPrimate,

Thanks for the insightful answer. I was noticing thin wrappers on some of the ones I was inspecting. Like the sherpa diablos I got in the recent special. When it arrived I took one out and gave it a solid sqeeze to check humidity and the thing just crack right open. I've only experienced this one other time and it was with 1 La Vieja Habana. Guess I just have to be more careful next time.

You can be gentle when you apply pressure!

Some wrappers [eg Cameroon] have a tendency to be fragile

It is generally a good idea to stow your cigars after you first get them in an environment that is 70%+ RH and let them sit for a week or two. If your cigars are in a dry environment, the wrapper is obviously the first thing to suffer. By extension, it does not take much to dry out the wrapper. I have taken perfectly humidified sticks out with me when fishing or hiking in the winter and the wrappers dry out and crack within just aa couple of hours of leaving the humidor.

So the advice is to give your cigars a good long rest when you get them to let the humidity equalize, and make sure that they stay at +/- 70% as best you can.

Threadjack]

Herfman - Have you considered an OtterBox for your traveling gars?

****edited for competitor reference**** but I wouldn't get them from there. Check out Cbid. I got the $67 OtterBox for just $25!

-Wolfy

[/Threadjack]

Criollos seem to be particularly fragile. Just flicking with my finger to drop an ash can crack them. Because of that I don't like to smoke them in my car. When they get flaky little, wandering, stray ashes start to float around just looking for shirts to ruin.

I have the same problem with flaking. I bought 3 of the 1940 pre-embargo cuban cigars and 1 of the 3 there is a spot that is flaking at first I thought it was cracking but its not that but the cover it looks ok and the cover is really thin like rice paper. I thought the cover was supose to stronger, I guess just in some cigars.