Getting binders and wrappers to lie flat

[ras_oscar]

I am looking for a way to make de-stemmed binders and wrappers lie flat. I generally pull my binders and wrappers out storage a day or 2 before the rolling party, gently open them, spritz them with DW and then fold them in half stem to tip and place them in a plastic bag. Next day I de-stem them and return them to the bag until its time to be used. Invariably the leaves want to shrink down toward the stem side and I fight to hold the tobacco with one hand, and stretch the binder or wrapper with my 2 remaining hands. I have looked at the videos of pros and they seem to have found a way to make their leaf lie perfectly flat. Am I missing a prep step?

 

[Hopduro]

All about prep work. Spritz, stretch, wait, repeat. Bliss has a video of his rendition.

Or just use a surface that you can "stick" the leaf to when rolling. Cookie sheet works for me.

 

[Dominican56]

for me (because I like working with leaf) I'll take an evening and prep the whole pound.
I bring the leaf to pretty high case, remove the stem and sometimes, not always, trim the outer edge off. I work the leaf a bit so it's flatter. I put the worked leaf in a pile so they dry a little.
Then I stack leaf, even if it's at a higher case in several piles and let them dry down. I keep rotating the leaf so it's pretty dry, but workable before I put it into a storage container.
If I feel the leaf is too moist for storage I leave the lid off of the container and rotate stacks of leaf every 30-60 minutes or when I think of it.
It works for me and no mold since I lower the moisture content.

When it's time to make a batch, I remove however many leaf I need, and bring it to a higher case. I smooth the few wrinkles out when I roll the bunch.
I do the same thing with wrapper leaf, too.

I'll post a picture of the container with leaf when I get home tonight.

 

[Dominican56]

Ec. binder prepped:

Ligero wrapper prepped:

 

[Dominican56]

Each of the 1.5 gallon plastic boxes will hold comfortably 1 pound of leaf prepped or not. However some of the big leaf like the Ecuadorian Seco may not fit. I need to try those in one.
I’m acquiring 1 or two of the storage boxes a month to hold all of my leaf.
The box cost me about 8.50 to 9 bucks each.

EDIT:
I have a couple halves of probably San Andres wrapper in that wrapper box as well.

 

[Dominican56]

All about prep work. Spritz, stretch, wait, repeat. Bliss has a video of his rendition.

Or just use a surface that you can "stick" the leaf to when rolling. Cookie sheet works for me.

I’m going to try that cookie sheet idea. I usually over-wet my wrapper and have to blot off the excess water with a paper towel before I use it.

 

[Dominican56]

Patience is your friend. A thing I’m learning......

 

[Hopduro]

I’m going to try that cookie sheet idea. I usually over-wet my wrapper and have to blot off the excess water with a paper towel before I use it.

@Marc_L has a video of someone using a marble cutting board i believe. Spritz and stick.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[Gdaddy]

Spritz and stick it down and stretch it out. I use smooth white granite tile.

 

[Fusion555]

I bought a 20x20 tile, spritz and stick as Hopduro said, works great

Lol Gdaddy beat me to it

 

[TommyTao]

I spray water on binders and then hand stretch them, not very hard, thats because I dont require my binder to be very flat.

For wrappers, I soak them into water, and lay them on super flat surface, like metal. The excessive water will stick leaves to the flat surface. All you need to do is carefully stretch the wrappers to flat and wait it to dry out to proper moisture. This method is definitely easiest for me, but the disadvantages are you need large space to lay out leaves if youre gonna roll many, and the leaves are so damp that you need to wait for a long time.

 

[webmost]

Snap your fingers, make 'em look you in the eye, say "Lie Down!" in a stern tone, then feed them a treat when they do.

 

[ras_oscar]

I spray water on binders and then hand stretch them, not very hard, thats because I dont require my binder to be very flat.

For wrappers, I soak them into water, and lay them on super flat surface, like metal. The excessive water will stick leaves to the flat surface. All you need to do is carefully stretch the wrappers to flat and wait it to dry out to proper moisture. This method is definitely easiest for me, but the disadvantages are you need large space to lay out leaves if youre gonna roll many, and the leaves are so damp that you need to wait for a long time.

so, do you do one leaf at a time, or can you stack up several leaves and do them in batches?

 

[Dominican56]

Way too much trouble and effort with wrapper some of you are doing. (but I'm new, what do I know?)

Mine are prepped ahead of time with stem removed and the edge trimmed (usually, not always- depends on how much energy I have at prep time)

When I wrap I get the wrapper only wet enough with spritzing, to get decent stretch. The wrapper doesn't have to be perfect (for me) at wrap time, like you see in some of the rolling videos. I do the final stretch when I'm applying the wrapper to the cigar. It works for me and the cigar looks really nice too. No wrinkles and no stretch marks if I take care when wrapping. It's not much effort, either.

I haven't taken the time to prove this, but I suspect some of the wrapper blotching or discoloration I used to get was from having the wrapper at too high case when applying it. I think the wrapper can "bruise" when it's at high case after applied then the cigar is rolled with hand or cheveta.
Cigars that haven't been molded have more small bumps in the binder. I noticed the areas with small bumps (high spots) have dark splotches in the wrapper exactly in those areas, which supports my hypothesis that wrapper can be "bruised." Since I'm making cigars for me and no one else, it's not a problem to have those dark spots, on the wrapper.

Thoughts?? Comments??

 

[TommyTao]

so, do you do one leaf at a time, or can you stack up several leaves and do them in batches?

I do 6-10 leaves at a time, all spread out on my balcony ground. I don't stack one on another.

 

[Dominican56]

so, do you do one leaf at a time, or can you stack up several leaves and do them in batches?

Usually I'll get as many wrappers and binders out for the number of sticks I want to roll. Mostly I don't have a hard and fast rule on how I do things since it's fun for me working with leaf.
Here's my usual process.

I'll Get a blend plan, write it down if it's a new one. If a previous blend, I get out the recipe
I'll pull out the number of wrappers and binders and get them to the proper case for the quantity I'm making. I spritz them individually and place them on the table with a bag or something covering them. At this point the binder is ready to go.

I pull out the proper leaf and put it in stacks starting on the left going to the right. (ligero, viso, seco) Usually there are more leaf than 3 but you get the idea.
I'll lay the binder down on my board, good side down, veins orented horizontally relative to the cutting board.
The bunch is created..
Bind it and put it in the mold or not, mostly not. I don't usually take the time and so far I'm able to hand roll a firm, even stick.
I'll get out the wrapper leaf, make sure it's cased enough but not too much and wrap the stick. If I hadn't trimmed the edge previously then I do that.
I don't cut the fancy crescent shape a lot of folks use and try to use as much wrapper as I can because I like it to add as much flavor as possible. Is this the right way? No clue, it works for me.
Working my way through all the leaf making the quantity of sticks I intend to roll.
The sticks sit overnight (24 hours) to dry.
My labels are nothing more than rectangle boxes on typing paper made using Excel. The blend number and date is written on labels, then I cut 'em apart and apply.
Into the 65% box they go.

 

[Dominican56]

so, do you do one leaf at a time, or can you stack up several leaves and do them in batches?

Each leaf type is in a stack from left to right at the top of my rolling board. Sometimes it's whole leaf, sometimes half or less.

 

[Jim D]

I haven't taken the time to prove this, but I suspect some of the wrapper blotching or discoloration I used to get was from having the wrapper at too high case when applying it. I think the wrapper can "bruise" when it's at high case after applied then the cigar is rolled with hand or cheveta.
Cigars that haven't been molded have more small bumps in the binder. I noticed the areas with small bumps (high spots) have dark splotches in the wrapper exactly in those areas, which supports my hypothesis that wrapper can be "bruised." Since I'm making cigars for me and no one else, it's not a problem to have those dark spots, on the wrapper.

Thoughts?? Comments??

I saw that blotching when using the chaveta to roll/smooth also. I stopped doing that and just try not to have any bumps in the bunch before putting the wrapper on now.
Just a thought,
Jim