What's new

Pics of Your Sticks

Rating - 100%
6   0   0
Joined
May 9, 2014
Messages
2,283
Location
Newark, Dull-Aware
Four coronas rolled in celebration of the Browns making the divisional playoff.
Wait... A Browns fan in Cheeseland? You got the Vikes right next door to ya, yet you're still a glutton for Browns punishment?

Used a flat pick as a template for the band label.
What's the St. Croix for?

Kitchen sink filler....
Blending counts, is my new theory. Course, I'm working from a badass stash I built up to deal with the inevitable tobaccolypse, so wastage is not crucial. If I live long enough to finish the leaf stash, I still prolly will not live long enough to finish the gar stash. But still. Blending is half the fun. Better yet, it's the aromatic half.

Switched from pectin to Acacia senegal sap (aka gum arabic) for glue. Beats the pectin for flow and stickiness, but leaves a gloss on the wrapper and my caps still suck anyway. Guess there is no glue that covers up the need for more practice.
I'm thinking the glue needs to go on the underside, so it doesn't shine up the gar. Under the wrap, under the flag, under the cap. Not where you'd see it, and not too much. Hence, no gloss. I have an old pair of ragged shop jeans w/ braces I often wear when rolling. Dab some glue, and if the rag ain't handy, my old jeans leg is. But every handiwork should start out with fetching a rag.

Nice cigar Jim D and I'm super impressed with how clean the you keep the floor of your wood shop.
Not a chip in sight. Must've shut down for Winter. Burnt them chips in the Franklin stove. Amazing clean.

Fergie, Are your gars numbered serially in order of production? i.e. are those the 60th thru 63rd gars you have rolled?
 
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Joined
Nov 19, 2020
Messages
16
Location
Minnesota
Wait... A Browns fan in Cheeseland? You got the Vikes right next door to ya, yet you're still a glutton for Browns punishment?


What's the St. Croix for?


Blending counts, is my new theory. Course, I'm working from a badass stash I built up to deal with the inevitable tobaccolypse, so wastage is not crucial. If I live long enough to finish the leaf stash, I still prolly will not live long enough to finish the gar stash. But still. Blending is half the fun. Better yet, it's the aromatic half.


I'm thinking the glue needs to go on the underside, so it doesn't shine up the gar. Under the wrap, under the flag, under the cap. Not where you'd see it, and not too much. Hence, no gloss. I have an old pair of ragged shop jeans w/ braces I often wear when rolling. Dab some glue, and if the rag ain't handy, my old jeans leg is. But every handiwork should start out with fetching a rag.


Not a chip in sight. Must've shut down for Winter. Burnt them chips in the Franklin stove. Amazing clean.

Fergie, Are your gars numbered serially in order of production? i.e. are those the 60th thru 63rd gars you have rolled?
Sorry for the slow response. I'm doing a lot of online teaching at the moment and that keeps me distracted from BOTL.
I grew up equidistant from Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburg, in Erie, PA so when the Vikings are out of the playoffs I shift my support to teams in those cities. I've been a Browns fan since I was a kid (dating myself...Jim Brown was a star at the time), so I keep them as a favorite team along with the nearest team to wherever I'm living. For a while that would have been the Toronto Argonauts.
The beautiful St. Croix River runs between Minnesota and Wisconsin and is just down a steep hill from my home. Plus I like the alliteration of the name St. Croix Cigars.
This kitchen sink blend is a half leaf of every filler I had (which isn't too many). In that way it was an intentional blend, but on the other hand it wasn't very focused on trying to achieve a particular taste. Too cold out at the moment to do much smoking so I haven't lit one of these up yet to see what I've got.
I found myself wiping the glue off my finger onto my jeans and thought to myself how no one else on BOTL would do that so I've tried to become a bit more refined :) Saying that glue goes underneath reminds me of the advice I got long ago as a young motorcyclist to keep the rubber side down.
Yes, the numbering is serial and I keep a database of construction and tasting notes. I'm trying to keep track of the first 100 as a learning strategy.
#64-67 were my first tries at a tapered head. I'm rolling freehand so they are more like Coneheads and look about as funny, or as weird, as old episodes of Saturday Night Live. I need to buy a few pro cigars with tapered head to dissect so I can see how they are constructed.
 
Top