If you smoke a cigar then you undoubtedly need an ashtray, and if you don’t have an ashtray then you really shouldn’t be smoking a cigar in the house. Smoking a cigar is all about enjoyment, but there’s not much enjoyment to be had from the nagging that will follow if you just drop your ash on the floor.

Apart from the lack of domestic bliss - or the ire of your cleaning lady - there are a few other reasons why you really need an ashtray if you’re smoking a cigar. Of course, if you’ve smoked a cigar before then you’ll understand why it’s important to have an ashtray, but if you’ve only smoked cigarettes then you’re probably wondering why on earth anyone needs an ashtray, so let me explain.

If you’re a cigarette smoker then you’re going to be done with your cigarette in just a few minutes. It doesn’t take a long time to smoke a cigarette and holding a cigarette in your hand while you smoke is no big deal. However, smoking a good quality cigar is going to take time -maybe 40 to 60 minutes or so - and cigars aren’t light. There’s some weight in them and holding a cigar for 40 minutes or more can become quite painful - literally.

There’s also the problem of your need to do other things with your hands at some stage in those 40 minutes of smoking time and it can be hard to do anything when you already have one hand taken up with holding a cigar.

Apart from your comfort there is also the cigar to consider. Smoking it slowly keeps it cool and doesn’t allow the taste to become bitter. Somewhere to place your cigar removes the subconscious desire to keep on puffing on it.

So you need an ashtray and while any ashtray will do in an emergency not every ashtray that you will come across is suitable for long-term use. An ashtray designed for cigarettes can do quite a bit of harm to a good cigar if it’s left in the ashtray for too long, while an ashtray that’s designed for cigars can really protect your cigar from damage.

If not just any ashtray will do for your cigar then what sort of ashtray is right? The obvious answer is that the right ashtray for a cigar is one that has been designed specifically for them and, even though you may not have seen one in the store, they certainly are out there.

Even when you do find a cigar ashtray there’s something about the design that you should look for and definitely avoid - but we’ll come to that in a moment. First let me say that cigars may look quite robust (no pun intended) but that doesn’t mean that you can just plunk them down in any old ashtray and the ‘right’ ashtray is a very specialized and well-designed piece of equipment.

The cigar ashtray is one that is designed to hold the end of the cigar above the receptacle for the ash. You should never place a cigar in an ashtray so that the lit end is resting in the bowl of the ashtray. You need to have it positioned so that there is a clear flow of air around the lit end at all times. The butt also needs airflow to stop it from becoming soggy from your saliva.

To hold a cigar in the right position a cigar ashtray is designed with a place to rest your cigar molded into it. This part of the ashtray is referred to as the trough and it’s just wide enough and deep enough to allow the cigar to rest in it without submerging in it.

Now many cigar ashtrays are designed with quite a long trough and you may think that, for longer cigars, such a design is perfect. There’s no doubt that a long cigar sitting in a long trough in an ashtray does have a certain appeal but it’s definitely not ideal. In fact in many ways a long trough in a cigar ashtray is nothing more than a very bad design fault.

That may sound quite strange but it’s a fact and it’s what I referred to just a few moments ago. But why is it a design fault?