What do you do about this? Well, there is no need to suffer the smell. There are smoke eaters which can be purchased easily from your local cigar shop. These will do very well for the designated smoking room in the house. You could check out products that are sprayed onto surfaces to “eat” the smell of smoke away. However, this would only work if you spray all the surfaces that smell of smoke. If you have a large smoking area, then it might be a bit too costly.

There are also smoke eaters which function much like an exhaust fan. These are normally used in commercial areas where smoking is allowed in an enclosed place. Of course, they could be quite expensive as well.

My suggestion? Choose a smoking room that has good natural ventilation so that you can get fresh air in more easily. Clean up the room as soon as you can and make use of the cheaper “sprayable” smoke eaters.

Do you have any suggestions of your own?

The norm is to use cigar cutters like a guillotine cutter, which will chop of the whole head of a cigar. Another tool that is commonly used is a puncher, which will etch a hole at the end of the cigar. The hole is usually the size of a BB pellet.

Enter the Cigar Spike. It is made of plastic, with a pointed end. In order to use it, you push the sharp end down into the head of a cigar to create a hole. It is very easy to use and quite cheap as well. They are selling it over at their web site for $2.99 for 3 pieces. You can choose from several colors – black, orange, blue, and green.

I am sure that I got your attention at the price. It is VERY cheap! But how does it fare? I haven’t had the chance to use it myself, although I would have to say that the idea is cool. Then again, from what I have been hearing from those who’ve actually used it, you have to make sure you do it properly. Otherwise, you can end up with a cracked cigar. That’s the downside.

Still, it could make for a nice gift this Christmas.

Then I did some reading and I found out that cigar box guitars were actually used by “real” musicians! According to Dr. Tony Hyman, the curator of the National Cigar Museum, cigar boxes prior to 1840 were actually crates. These crates could hold up to 100 cigars at a time. As time went by, manufacturers realized that the crates were not an efficient means of transporting cigars. Hence, smaller cigar boxes were created.

Along with the proliferation of cigar boxes, the popularity of cigar smoking increased as well. Naturally, a lot of smoked cigars meant a lot of empty cigar boxes. At this point, enterprising people started picking up those empty cigar boxes and started making good use of them. From guitars to banjos and fiddles – empty cigar boxes were turned into useful things.

Whoever got started on this probably didn’t have any idea of what was in store for these nifty little things. Well known musicians like Carl Perkins, Jimi Hendrix, George Benson, Ted Nugent, BB King, and Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd have all, at one point, played with cigar box guitars!

So it may be easier to buy guitars these days, but if you have some spare time and you want to let your creativity flow, why don’t you try your hand at making a cigar box guitar? Check out this video at Walyou.

But did you know that Spanish Cedar is technically not cedar? As a matter of fact, it comes from the mahogany family. If you look at it, you will see a salmon red tight-grained wood. The aroma is very nice and spicy, making you want to smell it more. 
Another piece of trivia – Spanish Cedar is used not only for humidors but also for other building materials as lining.

Another advantage of using Spanish Cedar for humidors is its natural ability to resist molds. This is very important as no one would want any mold formation inside his humidor! In addition to this, Spanish Cedar is also resistant to tobacco beetles! Anyone who has had an experience with these nasty little critters will know just how important this is.

In modern times, however, developments in technology have made the use of other materials possible. Electronics and plastic have been used to treat cigars without the need for Spanish Cedar. As such, you will find many humidors today that do not make use of this wood at all.

That is not to say that you cannot find humidors made of Spanish Cedar. While this wood may not be a require material, many still find humidors made of it desirable over those using modern materials.

While we can’t do much about the smoking bans, there are workarounds to the increasing prices of cigarettes. For example, have you ever thought about rolling your own cigarettes?

Manufactured cigarettes, like the branded ones I mentioned above, are the ones which are taxed highly. However, you can buy tobacco leaves and rolling papers and create your own smokes, which are just as good AND definitely much easier on the pocket. Rolling papers are basically small sheets of paper which can be used to make cigarettes. They can be rolled manually or by machines. Rolling papers can be made of various materials, but the most common base materials are hemp, wood pulp, and flax.

The market is rife with both tobacco leaves and rolling papers. You merely have to know where to get them and which ones to get, and you can make considerable savings while enjoying your smoke.

A note of caution with regard to rolling papers – there are a LOT of brands that you can find in the market today. You have to know which brands are good however, as the material used to make the rolling paper can affect the flavor of your cigarette. There are also some papers which have been reported to contain elements that are higher in carcinogens. If you want to be sure, look for reputable suppliers such as Rolling Supreme, which offers some of the best rolling papers there are. They also offer tobacco and other accessories which will help you roll along and bypass the headaches of high cigarette taxes.

Try rolling your own cigarettes. You might never have to buy a pack from the store again, and have a fatter pocket for it!

The National Cigar Museum has this write up:

Each year, from 1880 to 1920, the eight week holiday season saw more than 25,000,000 boxes of cigars sold. By early November shelves were stocked with attractive holiday packaging in all price ranges, from two for a nickel cigars to those selling for a buck each (the typical turn-of-the-century domestic cigar sold for 5¢ to 2/25¢).

Cigars were popular gifts because they could be given cross-gender, cross-age
and cross social class. Cigars were an appropriate present from a robber baron to his chauffeur, a maiden aunt to her nephew, or an unmarried woman to her paramour. Sons could give them to their father, women to their tradesmen, parishioners to their priest, drunks to their bartender and students to their mentors.

Today, you can still give cigars to anyone. I just don’t know if you can find cigar boxes of this kind anymore. Why don’t you go take a look at them for yourself?

Here’s for my first find – a really awesome offer from Murphy’s Cigars. They have a special Christmas deal wherein if you buy $100 worth of cigars, you will receive a free 20 count cedar box humidor. And don’t you worry, it also includes the humidification unit! Everything can be shipped to anywhere in the United States, so you do not have to worry about physically going anywhere to get the deal.

I think that it is a really good buy, especially if you are planning on giving a cigar-related gift to a new smoker. More so, with $100 worth of cigars, you can keep some (that can be a LOT of cigars, depending on what you buy) and then put 20 in the humidor to give as a gift. Am not being a cheapskate here – just being practical and trying to make the best out of what I got.

PR Web has this press release:

The Daily Special is a single item active for just 24 hours (weekdays only) that can be viewed each day on the main website. Some of the specials include single cigars, cigar packs, cigar samplers, cigar accessories, or a combination; all of which are either discounted way below retail price or include a free gift with each purchase, like extra cigar packs or a cigar accessory. Mike’s Cigars is offering the Daily Specials on top cigar brands like Bauza, Don Diego, Fuente, Avo, Punch, Licenciados, Oliva, Perdomo, Camacho, Rocky Patel and many others.

This month Mike’s Cigars is also launching a couple new items, just in time for the holiday season. The first new item is the “Fever Five,” a five-pack of cigars for customers who prefer to try small quantities instead of full boxes, which also helps customers save money by buying smaller packs. The Fever Five packs are available in a wide range of cigar brands all in one compact web page. The second new items Mike’s Cigars is offering this month are the “Cigar Tins”, which consist of small cigarillos from the entire brand list, also in one web page for easy access on the website.

If you want to know more, head on over to Mike’s Cigars web site.

• When the lighter is empty, “bleed” it by pressing the tip of a ball point pen against the fuel filling valve to release all the excess gas. If you can, also do this by gently depressing the lighter switch and releasing as much gas as you can from that end, too.
• Using a can of compressed air, blow into the burner chamber (where the flame ignites) to clean out any sediment deposits.
• Check the flame height adjustment. Try to set it where it will light even when fuel is low.
• Never mix fuels and avoid using bargain brand butane. Use only premium butane made by a reputable manufacturer. The cheap stuff can actually clog the system.

The good thing about doing these things is that even if your butane lighter is not totally busted, employing these practices just might make it work like new.

The festival takes root in the fact that cigars are the main thing that put Tampa on the map. For this reason, the residents are celebrating cigars. The festival’s web site lists down some activities that will be featured on Saturday:

• Kid Zone
• Food Court
• Sicilian Wine Making, Sausage Making, and Cooking Demonstrations
• Cigar Dave Show Live Broadcast
• Cigar Accessories
• Museum Tours
• Cigar Rolling
• Dominos
• Live Entertainment
• Charity Beer Garden
• Authentic Cultural Food Vendors
• Cultural Activities For The Whole Family
• Game Zone Featuring NCAA Football, Poker, Dominos, & More

Naturally, the cigar-related activities hold the most appeal for me. Cigar rolling is something that you do not see everyday and I am sure that the cigar accessories to be found at the festival will be something else. It should not be hard to find something unique and collectible. Another thing that has caught my interest are the food and drinks – anything Italian when it comes to food is a good thing for me!

Are you going?