Why does this happen?

[Chubno]

Please help me understand something. Once in a while I will have a smoke that seams to blow up. What I mean by that is that it gets loose and falls apart. How do you know if it’s the construction of the cigar or the way it’s keep in your humidor?

[karmaz00]

does it just unravel? did you cut to much off? or could be a humidity thing as well.

[Chubno]

Originally Posted by karmaz00

does it just unravel? did you cut to much off? or could be a humidity thing as well.

No, it doesn't unravel at the head. It's on the burn end (foot) and the wrapper will crack sometimes. It's not on every smoke but I find it once in .. about 20 to 25 smokes.

My humidor runs between 65 to 70%.

[karmaz00]

are you using digital reader or analog. are they in Cello?

[Architeuthis]

I tend to keep my humidor more "old-style" at between 55% and 60% RH. Cubans become awesome at this humidity as do most darker/stronger smokes. I get the occasional burst wrapper but never any unravelling...

[Chubno]

Originally Posted by karmaz00

are you using digital reader or analog. are they in Cello?

Analog - Yes, the cigars are

[Webmeister]

I've seen this happen when the sticks are dried out. If you're depending on an analog hygrometer to monitor RH, you should probably double-check it with a digital. I found out the hard way when my analog read 75%, and the RH was actually 56%. Not a good environment for precious stogies.

[NullSmurf-cl]

RH in the humi is fine, but where are you smoking? Outside in the Michigan winter?

Natural wrappers don't deal well with the rapid dry out that happens when you step outside. You can cheat death doing something that should go against any Brother's grain - before you clip, give the cigar a quick shot under the tap. Give it a fast, but thorough spash. The water should bead so run the drops around the wrapper with your finger until the entire wrapper is a bit wet. Take it out, clip and smoke. I bet that will help.

[Chubno]

Originally Posted by architeuthis

I tend to keep my humidor more "old-style" at between 55% and 60% RH. Cubans become awesome at this humidity as do most darker/stronger smokes. I get the occasional burst wrapper but never any unravelling...

As you use the word "burst" I would think it's closer to that burst then unraveling. Sorry, about the misinfo

[Chubno]

Originally Posted by NullSmurf

RH in the humi is fine, but where are you smoking? Outside in the Michigan winter?

Natural wrappers don't deal well with the rapid dry out that happens when you step outside. You can cheat death doing something that should go against any Brother's grain - before you clip, give the cigar a quick shot under the tap. Give it a fast, but thorough spash. The water should bead so run the drops around the wrapper with your finger until the entire wrapper is a bit wet. Take it out, clip and smoke. I bet that will help.

Yes, it's in the Michigan winter cold. Oh, I didn't think about the change in temp from my humidor to outside. I will try the tap tick and see what happens

[The EVP]

Sounds like they are too dry to me.

[Webmeister]

Originally Posted by architeuthis

I tend to keep my humidor more "old-style" at between 55% and 60% RH. Cubans become awesome at this humidity as do most darker/stronger smokes. I get the occasional burst wrapper but never any unravelling...

Squid would be correct - cubans are definitely better at a lower RH (I keep mine around 62%). I've also found that many of the darker wrappers need to be dry-boxed before I smoke them or the burn is very irregular, and they just don't smoke as well.

[karmaz00]

sound like there dry, maybe get a digital RH reader. because thoses anolog readers are usually off

[kass]

There was another thread similar to this around here somewhere and someone said that if it is bursting on one side it could be because of one side getting more humidity than the other. Maybe being too close to the humidity source and not being rotated.

[Doogie]

this just happened to me tonight. i smoked three today and had one unravel. i think it was the construction. (gurka)