What holds a cigar together?

[criollo]

This sounds like a crazy question but, when I think about the anatomy of a cigar, I am mystified.

The filler is wrapped in the binder.
The binder is covered with the wrapper.
What holds the wrapper together? Ok, there is the cap at the head, but how is that attached?
After careful examination of many cigars, I detect the complete absence of staples, screws, or duct tape!

Why doesn't a cigar unravel as soon as I pick it up? And not just gradually unravel, the way the wrapper sometimes does as you are smoking it. It seems to me a cigar should completely fall apart! Why doesn't it?

 

[Alwayslit]

elfin magic:grin: and cigar glue:smile:

 

[twenty5]

The wrapper is put on wet.. When it dries it stays put.

 

[JPManning]

there is some vegetable glue used to keep the wrapper and cap secure, but as far as I know it is just the stretchiness of the wrapper that keeps the filler and binder from busting loose. That's (I think) why sometimes they bust open as you smoke them, the heat dries it out and it can't stretch anymore.

 

[Nickerson]

I think certainly part of it is how its wrapped. Try wrapping a thin piece of fabric or something around a paper towel roll. As you wrap around and around the newer layers over laps the previous layers holding it down. The cap helps hold down the top of the cigar once its wrapped all the way around.

 

[Baldanders]

Spit :glassesgr

 

[thegoldenmackid]

There's the aforementioned vegetable glue on the cap, but the rest is just sort of the nature of cigars. When you roll things tightly, they stay together. They are placed in molds which help them settle a bit better, but that's just it.