Cigar 101: Cigar Burn Issues

Many of us out there have had issues with this. We are sitting back enjoying a cigar and then notice that the burn line is out of control. Today I will cover some of those issue for you on common problem and suggestions on the problem. We all are looking for that perfect burn, while enjoying our smoke.

Proper Lighting Technique

A cigar burn issue is likely caused by rushing through the initial lighting stages. The most critical part of cigar smoking is touching your preferred flame to the bare foot of your cigar for the first time.

You can avoid by simply taking care while toasting the foot of your cigar with that chosen flame. To obtain a proper toast, hold your cigar between your thumb and middle finger while keeping the palm of your hand at a forty five degree angle to the floor. With your opposite hand, ignite your lighter and slowly bring the flame closer to the foot of the cigar.Slowly bring the flame to the foot and start with heating the foot to cause a small amount of smoke and once you did that stop the movment of the flame. Flame tip will be just touching the foot or a slight distance away from the foot. Roll the cigar to evenly heat the foot and you should see ashing even. You want a evenly ash on the foot with a small glowing on the burn line on the foot of the cigar. Then place the head of the cigar in your mouth and repeat the toasting process as you take gentle puffs. Remember to rotate the cigar to ensure even burning.

Burn Issues

1 Canoeing

A proper burn line should be thin and even all the way around the circumference of the cigar. An early sign of the canoe is a burn line that becomes irregular and wide on one part of the cigar. This generally means that the cigar is heating up unevenly and there is a chance that one side will begin to combust at a faster rate.

To prevent a canoe in this type of situation, try slowing down your rate of smoking. Take extra care to puff lightly and less frequently. Doing this will allow the over-heated side of the cigar to cool which will, in turn, allow the burn to even up across the foot of the cigar. If the correction is slow going, you may want to consider touching up one side to accelerate the slower burning side of the cigar. To touch up you lite the side not burning to bring the burn line back to normal even.

If you find yourself victim to a canoe, which is too far gone to correct by slowing down your rate of smoking, you can set the cigar down and allow it to go out. Once the cigar is cooled and completely unlit, use a guillotine style cutter to clip the foot of the cigar so that you have an even starting point once again. Once cut start over with a proper lighting of the foot.

2 Tunneling

Tunneling occurs when center of your cigar burns away the core (or filler) and leaving the exterior intact. The filler (or core) of your cigar is slowly burned from the inside out. As this tunneling occurs, the ash within the center falls out leaving what appears to be a hole or void within the body of your cigar.

This type of burn problem is common for slow smokers. When the cigar is left sitting in the ashtray, or not puffed frequently enough, the burning foot of the cigar partially goes out. As the outer part of the foot goes out first, the filler is left smoldering. The smoldering filler slowly continues to burn throughout the length of the body.

3 Coning

This is similar to the effects of the tunneling but in reverse, what I mean is that the outside wrapper and binder burn faster that the filler. The best way to correct this is to allow the filler to burn and get caught up with the wrapper.

4 Runner

This is a problem that many people can see from time to time. Often runners are cigars that have a vein that may be larger and acts like a wick and burns through the cigar and then causes a mouse hole burn.

If you do not see this right away this could go down your whole cigar. What a way to ruin a great smoke. These are just a few of the main issues that effect the smoking process. The best thing I can suggest to help keep all of these issue in control are to make sure you keep your cigars stored in a humidor with humidity at 65-70% and second proper lighting. With both of them controlled you will have a great smoke experience.