Gentlemen, I'd be interested in hearing the most effective and least destructive methods you use to get plugged sticks to smoke. Anybody use any tools for this job?

The only ones I have ever had an issue with being plugged were cheap cigars that I left in the ashtray and moved on to another. It didn't seem worth the hassle. If this ever happened a primo cigar, I would try a poker shoved through.

John L

Pitch it! I just get pissed messing with it. Ruins the whole smoke!

as said above.. if their not to expensive a cigar.. pitch it.. now on the other hand if you paid a good penny for them... locate a cigar poker, these can be found on some websites and I'm not sure if CI themselves don't carry them?? I made my own from a prototype I seen... they work well, but your still not going to get the best value out of the cigar in question...

Hog

Determining what cigar is expensive is very relative.

One person may immediately pitch a plugged $3.00 cigar, while another may consider the same cigar one of his best.

Until 2003 production, there was an extremely good chance that any cigar coming out of Cuba may have either been plugged (usually a twist in the filler) or rolled far too tight to smoke comfortably. Because the larger vitolas could easily run to $20.00 each, it didn't make good economic sense to pitch a tight or plugged cigar.

I purchased several 6" long quilting needles and waxed dental tape (thicker than regular floss). I'd clip a cigar and draw on it before lighting. If it appeared plugged or too tight, and I was certain that the RH was 65 or less, I'd thread the needle so there were two 7" strands of dental tape hanging from the eye, then carefully push the needle from the foot to the cut cap and through. Using a pliers, I'd grab the needle's pointed end and pull it through the cigar, allowing the double strand of dental tape to remain inside the cigar. I'd put the cigar back in the humidor for a few weeks.

If you try to smoke the cigar immediately after running any poker through it, after the first 1/2", the tobacco will rebound and plug or tighten again. It really needs to rest with either a poker or floss within it.

After adequate rest time, I'd pull the floss through, and, in a majority of times, the cigar would be a perfectly acceptable smoke. Those that still remained too tight to smoke were field stripped and used to make a Habano added pipe tobacco blend.

Steve...you stole my thunder on this one.

I bought a box of (Cuban Government Has Authorized The Altering Of This Post)and almost lost favor with Cuban cigars altogether because out of the 25...14 had plug problems. Thankfully I had a Churchill size(and was able to use of all things quite effectively a wood shish-ka-bob skewer!)and was able to recover most of the cigar without crying.

Did I mention that domestic cigar manufacturers have made significant in-roads to capturing the "mystique" and various profiles that Cuban cigars have historically held?

Steve and DMV - i'll have to respectfully disagree with both of you. As you know, I travel quite a bit and I have smoked many Cuban cigars from varying years and have had very few problems with a cigar being plugged. It does happen every now and then, but not nearly as much as you're making it out to be.

At leat 80% of the Cuban cigars I've smoked were plugged, especially Cohiba ... but then MACS(SW) has had far more experience than I have with them.

From everything I've heard about Cuban cigars ... plugged ones are not uncommon. Hey, maybe MACS(SW) has been smoking the fakes all along, and just didn't know it ... JUST JOKING ... 😉

I use one of them bamboo shish-ka-bob skewers ... and they work just fine.

Throwing them away is a last resort for me. Besides skewering them with really thin guage wood shish-ka-bob stick, lately I've been having good luck with this technique. Once the cigar is lit and drawn on a few times, it'll warm up, you can then roll it between your fingers, sort of feeling out where the plug is (it'll feel like a hard knot). The heat causes the cigar to become plastic-like, so you can roll and knead it without popping the wrapper; gotta be careful though. You just roll it and massage it to loosen things up, usually up and down the whole cigar, and sometimes this will eliminate the road block, causing smoke to come pouring out. Often I find obstructions down by the mouth piece, a likely place because of the narrowing that occurs there. If poking it or kneading it won't work (and one method usually will), then it must be tossed.

if "plugged" cigars are a common issue for you, it's likely the humidity in your humidor is too high ... drop that 'dor to 65 and my guess is those problems will be history ...

MACS(SW): Consider yourself very lucky. The Cuban cigar industry, itself, Habanos S.A., admitted that production prior to 2002 was rife with problems; including cigars rolled by inexperienced torcedors that were of improper density and plagued with plugs. To that end Altadis S.A., with its infusion of European capital, pushed for the introduction of mechanical draw testers to substantially reduce the tight draw/plugged problems.

Only sheer luck would preclude anyone who smoked Habanos of any quantity during the 90s and into 2000-2001 from encountering severe draw problems in a significant number of Cuban cigars. This is not a simple RH problem.

Thankfully, the appearance of plugged cigars in 2003, 2004 production is minimal.

I wasn't smoking back in the 90's, although I have had a few cigars from 98/99 timeframe and a few even earlier. I have now a couple of boxes of 1999 production as well as 00, 01, 02, 03 and 04. I have had a few with tight draws, but none of them have been unsmokeable, or needed a skewer with the exception of 1 box I got from 2000, which was my fault because all they needed was a little 'dry-box' time.

Slim - about your fake comment... joking or not, I just want you to know that the box of Bolivar CG's I had way back when were NOT fake. They WERE plugged, but not fake. This is the 1 box I refer to in the above paragraph.

I wasn't smoking back in the 90's, although I have had a few cigars from 98/99 timeframe and a few even earlier. I have now a couple of boxes of 1999 production as well as 00, 01, 02, 03 and 04. I have had a few with tight draws, but none of them have been unsmokeable, or needed a skewer with the exception of 1 box I got from 2000, which was my fault because all they needed was a little 'dry-box' time.

Slim - about your fake comment... joking or not, I just want you to know that the box of Bolivar CG's I had way back when were NOT fake. They WERE plugged, but not fake. This is the 1 box I refer to in the above paragraph.

Ya gotta hate when ya double post...

I thought this was a thread for the folically challenged!?

Barry

Brilliant! Gee, how did you guys know my problem was with ISOMs? Too right it isn't an RH problem, but a production flaw, since I've rested them and monitor my humidors closely. And, yes, even a $3.00 cigar is worth saving if possible, though in this case its some Monte Especial no.2s that ran $10 a stick. As a side note, I once salvaged a Vantas corona which had been run over by a Ford Explorer by smoking what remained in both cigarette paper and a pipe. It changed the taste of the tobacco completely.

There is a commercial device called the "Draw-Poker" that advertises a guaranteed solution to the plugged/too tight cigar. I've considered investing in it because nothing is worse than having a very expensive cigar (ISOM or otherwise) not draw correctly. It sells for about $20, which would not be a bad price if you can save, say.......one ISOM! Unfortunately, I've never seemed to be able to get around to ordering one, so don't know how effective it might be. Has anyone else on the boards used one, and, if so, how well did it work?

same as slim, stand the stick on the table and with the gar in my right hand I than pull down the gar on the stick. you have to keep the stick steady with your left hand, hope that make's sense.