Hi guys,
For those who don’t know me, I’m Rod Kurthy, the creator of the PerfecDraw.
This is the first time I’ve seen or heard a discussion about this topic. Nobody’s ever contacted me to ask about it. But I too have had this happen. Only rarely, but I have dealt with it a few times.
There is no question about what is going on when this does happen. It’s based on physics, and as a research scientist, I always go back to science. Air flow will follow the path of least resistance. So we know that, in these cases, there is a pathway through the cigar with less resistance to air, so as you draw air through the cigar, the burning air is brought mostly through that path of least resistance, and causes more burning inside that path, resulting in a tunnel.
So we know what’s happening. The guesswork comes when trying to figure out why we have, not only a path of least resistance, but such high resistance in all other areas of the filler tobacco.
Most of us here have found that this is quite a rare occasion. There are reasons why we do not find tunneling very often when using the PerfecDraw:
- I designed the PerfecDraw with circular blades that have undercuts, resulting in very sharp knife edges of approximately 28 – 30 degrees, just like a European or American chef’s knife. So these blades are intended to “cut” tobacco as you pull the PerfecDraw out of the cigar.
- I also created three longitudinal channels cut through the blades. This resulted in creating new edges where the channel cuts through a blade, and these edges too are very sharp. But they are only a 90-degree angle. So being sharp, they grab tobacco, but only being 90 degrees, they “pull” tobacco instead of cutting it. So as you pull the PerfecDraw out of your cigar, these channels are intended to “pull” on the surrounding tobacco, slightly loosening it up.
- Cigars are humidified. Some like the humidity of their cigars to be as low as maybe 62%, while others like a full 70%, and anywhere in-between. Humidity is water. The burning ember of the cigar is hot, causing the moisture in the tobacco to become steam. As you draw on your cigar, you’re drawing air, smoke and steam up into the cigar. That steam is absorbed by the remaining filler tobacco inside the cigar, causing the filler tobacco to quickly absorb more moisture as you’re smoking. As tobacco absorbs moisture, it swells a little. This swelling, combined with the fact that the “tobacco pulling channels” of the PerfecDraw has loosened up the surrounding tobacco a little, results in the center channel closing. So now you have a more uniform filler tobacco with less resistance to the draw because the PerfecDraw has removed some tobacco.
Above is what happens, in my experience, nearly every time. But again, there are those very few times that I too find some tunneling happening. And I too wonder why in those cases.
Certainly, the suggestion of rolling the cigar in your fingers, in an attempt to spread out the tobacco evenly within the binder/wrapper is a logical thing to do. And I know that I’ve found that sometimes that does the trick. But I’ve also noticed that sometimes it doesn’t work.
I believe the point is that if the tobacco was unable to follow the normal routine of swelling and filling in any looser channel, something’s going on with the filler tobacco that may resist spreading apart. I don’t know how many have ever deconstructed cigars. I sometimes do that when I come across a bad cigar, or sometimes just due to curiosity. Most of the time I find that the filler leaves all almost fall apart as I cut open the binder. But occasionally I find that the tobacco leaves inside are sort of lumped, or stuck, together. It’s more difficult to pull the filler leaves apart, whereas most cigars have filler leaves that almost fall apart themselves upon opening up the cigar.
My personal opinion is that, for some reason, when we do find that rare case of tunneling, it’s because that cigar is one where the leaves inside are virtually stuck, or almost “glued” together, so they can’t separate. That could be due to sugars and oils in certain tobacco leaves that cause them to adhere to each other more. Or some other unknown reason.
Now… for anyone who sees this happening more often than just rarely… I believe there are three possible reasons:
- There may be one particular brand of cigar that you smoke that is more susceptible to what we might call “lumping” of the filler tobacco. If you’re finding that your tunneling problems are most often with one brand of cigar, you could think of not using that brand.
- You may be using the PerfecDraw improperly. When you insert the PerfecDraw, while inserting it you should be either rotating it or “watch winding” it back and forth. This allows the pointed, flattened tip to sort of “chew up” the tobacco as it’s inserted, to prevent expansion of the tobacco, which could expand the cigar and crack the wrapper. But once you have it to the proper depth, you should STOP ROTATING it, and pull straight out. Some incorrectly assume they should continue rotating and rotating the PerfecDraw after it is to depth, and even continue rotating as they pull the shaft out of the cigar. When continuously rotating, it clogs up the blades and tobacco pulling channels, so you do not pull on the surrounding tobacco. In other words, it’s more likely to leave more of a “hole” without loosening up the surrounding tobacco. So just be sure – rotate on the way in…no rotating when you pull the PerfecDraw out.
- Or maybe you’re simply unlucky with the cigars you smoke.
So those are my thoughts.
Have a great holiday season everyone – and for you old farts like me, stay safe from the plague.
Rod