Pics of Your Sticks

[webmost]

That's very interesting about the 1/4" overlap for a 45" angle on a 2-inch wrapper. For some reason I thought it was a 1" overlap. So once I pre-thought that, that's what I then measured. I made my measurement fit my preconception, your garden variety human cognitive bias. When I remeasure it now I see that it really is 1/4". I think. So from 90 to 45 not only doesn't give you half the overlap, but not even 1/4 of it. I need to go back to 6th grade geometry. But I won't.

Well I certainly don't attempt to wrap so accurately as their machines do. I simply use the Dunlap method. That's where yer one go round dun lap over yer last go round. Plenty. Long's you have a thin leaf, & yer not trying to fit thru a Davidoff ring gauge hole, then yer golden.

Dunno what you got against sixth grade geometry. Some of them geometries, that's about the age they started getting cute. I was in love with a gal named Patty Darling right then. Gave her a ring. Then, over the summer, dam bidge moved away. Man, it was hot in that school. Adobe buildings laid down by the padres a hunnerd fifty years before. San Berdoo in late August, 120+ degrees, we could smell each other. Glad to graduate to Jr. High, where they had A/C, and the geometry really rocked.

 

[blisscigarco]

Well I certainly don't attempt to wrap so accurately as their machines do. I simply use the Dunlap method. That's where yer one go round dun lap over yer last go round. Plenty. Long's you have a thin leaf, & yer not trying to fit thru a Davidoff ring gauge hole, then yer golden.

Dunno what you got against sixth grade geometry. Some of them geometries, that's about the age they started getting cute. I was in love with a gal named Patty Darling right then. Gave her a ring. Then, over the summer, dam bidge moved away. Man, it was hot in that school. Adobe buildings laid down by the padres a hunnerd fifty years before. San Berdoo in late August, 120+ degrees, we could smell each other. Glad to graduate to Jr. High, where they had A/C, and the geometry really rocked.

When I was 13 a great summer love bought me a ring (silver and jade inlay job, moons and stars), and it came off while I was jetskiing. I ended up dropping anchor from my Boston Whaler over the general area and diving into the 15-foot-deep murk, crawling along the bottom with my hands feeling for the ring, for five days. Needless to say, I loved that girl and still suffer the guilt.

Her:

And in the present, I just rolled six 54-gauge cigars during a super gnarly earthquake and an hour of nausea-and-headache inducing aftershocks. Worst wrap jobs I've done in five years.

 

[webmost]

When I was 13 a great summer love bought me a ring (silver and jade inlay job, moons and stars), and it came off while I was jetskiing. I ended up dropping anchor from my Boston Whaler over the general area and diving into the 15-foot-deep murk, crawling along the bottom with my hands feeling for the ring, for five days. Needless to say, I loved that girl and still suffer the guilt.

Her:

And in the present, I just rolled six 54-gauge cigars during a super gnarly earthquake and an hour of nausea-and-headache inducing aftershocks. Worst wrap jobs I've done in five years.

I do miss them quakes. Everyone out here is all paranoid they're deadly. Nope. Lightning is deadly. Tornadoes are deadly. Quakes are mostly just good clean fun.

That gal looks like a dude smuggling two boules. We need better pictures.

 

[blisscigarco]

I do miss them quakes. Everyone out here is all paranoid they're deadly. Nope. Lightning is deadly. Tornadoes are deadly. Quakes are mostly just good clean fun.

That gal looks like a dude smuggling two boules. We need better pictures.

There ain't better pix. This print (110 film cart in a Vivitar camera) is from 1976 and barely survived the burning down of my house. She's 12 here, and, during that summer got us into bars as my mom, to play pinball (Klondike) and drink beer (Coors). Yes, the 1970s were better.

 

[Jimmy_jack]

There ain't better pix. This print (110 film cart in a Vivitar camera) is from 1976 and barely survived the burning down of my house. She's 12 here, and, during that summer got into bars as my mom, to play pinball (Klondike) and drink beer (Coors). Yes, the 1970s were better.

Jesus! 12!

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[webmost]

Jesus! 12!

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

No wonder he fell in love...

 

[Jim D]

My two for today. The small one without a wrapper for the ride to work (condega ligero, rene seco, t-13 bound), and the bigger one for the ride home (condega ligero, piloto cubano volado, t-13 bound, American CT wrapper).

 

[YvanheTerrible]

Still working on my torpedos, not quite sure yet how to close the cap. Having mixed results. Couldn’t find videos where you can see up close.

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[blisscigarco]

Still working on my torpedos, not quite sure yet how to close the cap. Having mixed results. Couldn’t find videos where you can see up close.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Even with closeup video it's an extremely difficult technique to get to "Monte No. 2 level":

 

[YvanheTerrible]

Even with closeup video it's an extremely difficult technique to get to "Monte No. 2 level":

Skilled roller. I was looking at some of my commercial cigars and many looked like there is a second cap and others like the Cuban roller is doing in the video.


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[Jim D]

A quick roll with some favorite ingredients in a new blend. Corojo viso, T-13 viso, Nic habano seco. Can't recall if condega ligero is in there or not. American CT wrapper.

 

[BlackShuck]

Hello everyone! Since this is one of the most active threads I figured I'd ask a few questions if anyone has the time to help me out. I recently ordered about 100 bucks worth of leaf from WholeLeaf and when it came in, one of the bags had what looked to me like mold. (i'll upload a pic) I went through and everything else looks OK but I was worried that this would happen again. So i would like to hear from the veterans what I can do to stop this from happening again. I suppose theres a chance that it came like that but I have no way of telling that. I keep all my leaf in a sealed Tupperware with 69% Boveda packs. Is that too high? Do I need to pull them all out of bags and fan them out somehow?

(Pic of the mold)
Second question. I am still really new to this, and found a torpedo mold on ebay that was slightly cracked for around 20 bucks, I seem to be having trouble with how much filler to put in to get a good draw. Mine are all way too light. Is there any sort of resource that lists the size of cigars and the optimal amount of leaves to use for a bunch? I have been experimenting but with not much luck.

Anyways I've learned that starting with torpedoes was not a great idea lol. But a challenge is a challenge. Heres a pic of my first 3 finished ones, since this is technically a pics of your sticks thread.

 

[Jim D]

Hello everyone! Since this is one of the most active threads I figured I'd ask a few questions if anyone has the time to help me out. I recently ordered about 100 bucks worth of leaf from WholeLeaf and when it came in, one of the bags had what looked to me like mold. (i'll upload a pic) I went through and everything else looks OK but I was worried that this would happen again. So i would like to hear from the veterans what I can do to stop this from happening again. I suppose theres a chance that it came like that but I have no way of telling that. I keep all my leaf in a sealed Tupperware with 69% Boveda packs. Is that too high? Do I need to pull them all out of bags and fan them out somehow?

(Pic of the mold)
Second question. I am still really new to this, and found a torpedo mold on ebay that was slightly cracked for around 20 bucks, I seem to be having trouble with how much filler to put in to get a good draw. Mine are all way too light. Is there any sort of resource that lists the size of cigars and the optimal amount of leaves to use for a bunch? I have been experimenting but with not much luck.

Anyways I've learned that starting with torpedoes was not a great idea lol. But a challenge is a challenge. Heres a pic of my first 3 finished ones, since this is technically a pics of your sticks thread.

Blending Thread

Hey everyone, Figured I would start a thread dedicated to creating and developing blends which would be helpful for all of us home rollers First, let's start with the basics. There are an endless variety of tobacco plant breeds and locations these tobaccos are grown. For example Nicaraguan...

www.botl.org

I think you'll find @Hopduro listed a recommended filler leaf count based on ring gauge in the first post of this thread, hope this helps.
As for the mold question...well I don't know.

 

[blisscigarco]

Hello everyone! Since this is one of the most active threads I figured I'd ask a few questions if anyone has the time to help me out. I recently ordered about 100 bucks worth of leaf from WholeLeaf and when it came in, one of the bags had what looked to me like mold. (i'll upload a pic) I went through and everything else looks OK but I was worried that this would happen again. So i would like to hear from the veterans what I can do to stop this from happening again. I suppose theres a chance that it came like that but I have no way of telling that. I keep all my leaf in a sealed Tupperware with 69% Boveda packs. Is that too high? Do I need to pull them all out of bags and fan them out somehow?

(Pic of the mold)
Second question. I am still really new to this, and found a torpedo mold on ebay that was slightly cracked for around 20 bucks, I seem to be having trouble with how much filler to put in to get a good draw. Mine are all way too light. Is there any sort of resource that lists the size of cigars and the optimal amount of leaves to use for a bunch? I have been experimenting but with not much luck.

Anyways I've learned that starting with torpedoes was not a great idea lol. But a challenge is a challenge. Heres a pic of my first 3 finished ones, since this is technically a pics of your sticks thread.

You picked the most difficult kind of shape to learn with, because you can't just stick the thing in your mouth and check the draw immediately after the first couple rotations in the mold. Torpedoes still scare me for this reason. If I rolled them a lot, as you probably will, I'd get the groove going on. But since I change vitolas every day, I've never got it settled. You're just gonna have to roll and then cut and then suck. What you COULD do is go ahead and cut the end of the bunch and check the draw, before you waste a wrapper on it. You could still go ahead and wrap it if the draw checked out okay; just with a somewhat blunted "point." Nothing wrong with a blunted torpedo. If you don't do this it could take you doznes/hundreds of wasted bunches to get it into your system.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

You picked the most difficult kind of shape to learn with, because you can't just stick the thing in your mouth and check the draw immediately after the first couple rotations in the mold. Torpedoes still scare me for this reason. If I rolled them a lot, as you probably will, I'd get the groove going on. But since I change vitolas every day, I've never got it settled. You're just gonna have to roll and then cut and then suck. What you COULD do is go ahead and cut the end of the bunch and check the draw, before you waste a wrapper on it. You could still go ahead and wrap it if the draw checked out okay; just with a somewhat blunted "point." Nothing wrong with a blunted torpedo. If you don't do this it could take you doznes/hundreds of wasted bunches to get it into your system.

Agreed 100%. I’ve been lucky and haven’t had many duds but there is a serious learning curve. I use 3.5-4 leaves on my 52 x 6 torpedo mold if that helps

 

[BlackShuck]

Agreed 100%. I’ve been lucky and haven’t had many duds but there is a serious learning curve. I use 3.5-4 leaves on my 52 x 6 torpedo mold if that helps

Damn I was hoping that wasn't the case. Looks like I've got a lot of practicing to do! Damn my cheapness buying a 20 dollar mold... lol

 

[blisscigarco]

Starting to get the hang of this mofo. Been practicing it for 1.5 years now. Still suck at it, but sucking less. Baby steps.

 

[Hopduro]

Even with closeup video it's an extremely difficult technique to get to "Monte No. 2 level":

This is exactly how I do it. Screw the second cap, don't need it.

How's it going guys? I've been busy with the new job, I need to get rolling again this week

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[John]

I had a real breakthrough today. Been rolling for more than 5 years and just smoked the best cigar I ever rolled. Only 2 days old and it’s by far the most flavorful complex blend I’ve made. Honestly shocked how good it is. While I always enjoy my creations I firmly believe store bought cigars are better. The quality of the tobacco the pros use can’t really compare but this one cigar I truly believe is on that level. Has that spicy cedar flavor that I get a lot with medium strength Nicaraguan cigars along with a dark cherry flavor coming in and out.
I rolled the same blend but used CV Corojo Viso in place of the Nic Viso and it doesn’t come close to this cigar. Will be filling a few molds with these tonight.

1.5 WLT Criollo 98 Seco
1/2 LO San Andres Viso
2 WLT Nic Habano Viso
1 WLT Corojo 99 Ligero (From about 2 years ago. By far my fav ligero.)
WLT Sumatra binder
LO Honduran binder as wrapper (While this leaf has some green color around the veins I find it thin like CT shade but the strength and stretching ability and on it is crazy. The green should come out by bringing up the case and letting it sit in the sun for a bit.)

 

[blisscigarco]

I had a real breakthrough today. Been rolling for more than 5 years and just smoked the best cigar I ever rolled. Only 2 days old and it’s by far the most flavorful complex blend I’ve made. Honestly shocked how good it is. While I always enjoy my creations I firmly believe store bought cigars are better. The quality of the tobacco the pros use can’t really compare but this one cigar I truly believe is on that level. Has that spicy cedar flavor that I get a lot with medium strength Nicaraguan cigars along with a dark cherry flavor coming in and out.
I rolled the same blend but used CV Corojo Viso in place of the Nic Viso and it doesn’t come close to this cigar. Will be filling a few molds with these tonight.

1.5 WLT Criollo 98 Seco
1/2 LO San Andres Viso
2 WLT Nic Habano Viso
1 WLT Corojo 99 Ligero (From about 2 years ago. By far my fav ligero.)
WLT Sumatra binder
LO Honduran binder as wrapper (While this leaf has some green color around the veins I find it thin like CT shade but the strength and stretching ability and on it is crazy. The green should come out by bringing up the case and letting it sit in the sun for a bit.)

Thanks for sharing your amazing wonder blend. If possible please keep reporting on it, how it's aging and such, and whether the blend stays amazing. I'd love to try it but I'm currently lacking a few of those leafs and in no position to blow for more. Thanks again! P.S. Maybe it's moot, because they don't carry Nic Habano seco anymore. Might also be moot on account of you Corojo ligero being from 2 years ago. I once had a blend ruined forever when the Corojo viso changed drastically load-to-load.