A Guide To Lighting Your Cigar

A Guide To Lighting Your Cigar - The Wooden Match

Written by James Payne

Friday, 30 January 2009

Tags:
•lighters	•tips and tricks
•tobacco faqs	•tobacco gift ideas

Article Index
1. A Guide To Lighting Your Cigar
2. Cigarette Lighters and Butane
3. The Wooden Match

Page 3 of 3

The Wooden Match

Wooden matches are entirely different than paper ones. Favored by many cigar fiends, wooden matches are inexpensive and after the initial stroke, there is no chemical smell. When using the wooden match, your best bet is to wait until the match begins burning the actual wood (this usually takes no longer than a second or two) before attempting to light the cigar. It may take a few matches before the cigar is lit, but no where near as many as the paper match.

These are good alternatives for the lighter, as they are inexpensive, and you can travel with them on a plane (lighter fluid lighters are banned). They also make “special” wooden matches for cigars that are slightly longer, so you don’t need to use multiple ones. And I’m not talking about those long ones for candles and fireplaces, though I suppose you could…

wooden

Conclusion

You should now have a firm grasp on the proper tools and techniques to light your cigar and get the best out of your experience. Which method/device you choose is ultimately up to you; you may decide, after all, that I am being a nit-picky Nelly. After all its just a smoke right?

Whichever method you choose, paper, wooden, lighter fluid, or butane, keep one thing in mind: enjoy it.

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Just sort of wondering since you talk so lowly of the guy using a Bic lighter to light the cigar he's bragging about, then tout the advantages of a butane lighter... why do that when Bic's use butane fuel? Who knows, maybe the guy's just more into looking at his cigar than his lighter?
Bic's do burn reasonably clean, and do burn butane. The lighter pictured on page 2 at the end of the cigarette lighter section however is a type notorious for an incredibly foul smell, even if you just hold down the button to let the gas out.
Granted a Bic may not be part of the 'puff lifestyle', but it's clean burning, it is the butane you brag so much about in the article and that is the widely accepted medium for lighting a cigar when one opts out from using a wood match, and most importantly, although it might not be stylish, it gets the job done.

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0 # Slips! — Mikael Taylor 2009-01-30 19:49

You forgot to mention cedar slips, my man! Not the most practical of things when out and about, but if you keep a stash at the house, I've come to find(since my whole Lighting Questions post over at the forums) that it really tastes very pleasant, and tends to lend a bit to the romantic qualities of sitting alone outside, watching the night sky, and smoking your favorite cigar.

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0 # Cliff 2009-01-30 21:16

I have become a fan of using matches to light a cedar spill. A cedar spill is a long, thin piece of Spanish cedar, usually from a cigar box divider, that is considered a preferred lighting method. A spill imparts a nice little cedar flavor to the cigar, and is an elegant way of lighting a smoke.

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0 # Tom Del Conte 2009-01-31 06:54

Good Article, just wanted to add a little clarification. The article said that butane lighters are not allowed on flights. That is partially correct. Torch type lighters such as the Blazer or Colibri models are in fact banned as carry on and not allowed through the checkpoint. Bic and Zippo types are. This rule changed about a year ago. Lighters are not allowed in check baggage unless they are packaged in a specially approved DOT (Department of Transportation) container that can be obtained in smoke shops and on line. The container is made of a plastic or PVC type of material and has a screw type lid to it making it relatively air tight. It looks similar to the device that swimmers use to put cash or ID or keys in that is water tight to protect those items when at the pool or beach. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain. So, to summarize, Bic type butane or Zippo type are OK as carry on, Torch types are prohibited. In checked baggage all lighters are prohibited unless properly contained in a DOT approved container. Hope this helps. Tom D. a cigar smoking TSA officer.

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0 # Christopher R 2009-01-31 08:53

Great article. I use wooden matches at home and in the car. When out and about on foot however, I find a cheap Bic to be better than nothing. I too thought that the Bics burned butane.

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+2 # James Payne 2009-02-09 11:55

Hey Guys,

Thanks for joining the discussion. I guess I did come off as a bit of an anti-Bic snob...and I definetly do like the look of certain lighters! Don't get me wrong, if all I have is a Bic, I won't turn it down. I recently tried a spill (after I wrote this article unfortunately) and enoyed it. A shame I hadn't tried it prior, as it would have been a nice thing to include.

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