The Half Ashed Cigar Forum

How do cigar rollers get their cigars to be so perfectly straight and round? They use wooden, or now becoming commonplace, plastic molds. A rolled bunch of leaves is placed into a corresponding mold channel. When that row of cigars is full, a top is placed onto the mold. The cigars and molds are then tightly pressed, putting a straight, smooth, and consistent size to each cigar. You do not HAVE to use a mold to roll a cigar, but they will greatly increase your ability to roll attractive, consistent sized cigars.

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When you put your rolled cigar bunches into a mold and press the two halves together, your leaves will be further compressed. This often results in a narrow crease along each side of the cigar where the mold halves meet. Rollers will, after a period of time in the mold, rotate each cigar 90degrees and then re-press the cigars, thus eliminating the crease. In the photo below, you can see this crease on the cigars on the left, which have already been rotated.

Happy little soldiers waiting to be cut, wrapped, and capped. All Nicaraguan fillers, Ecuadoran binder and wrapper.

Very cool! Can't wait to taste your new blends

Thanks, Ian, but i think you've had these already, the Nicaraguan labeled ones?

Nope, I had c-c-d (11-13), mild bunch (2-14), and fire cured (9-13). They didn't say nicaragua on them as far as I can see…

Well, we should rectify that soon. I can add some to the trade you offered for the Fire Cured sticks...

The finished cigars from above. Ten 5 x 50s and eight 6.5 x 48. Labels soon...

If you are looking for plastic molds, WholeLeafTobacco.com has a few ("slightly used" they say) available on their website at a very good price:

http://www.wholeleaftobacco.com/Profess ... edmlds.htm

They also carry wooden ones, tho their prices are not very good.