ironpeddler
Ye Old Newbie
I saw this Shuriken cutter in a email blast from a vendor last week and it caught my attention. I posted in the Humidor Forum to see if anyone actually tried it and no one had a definitive opinion on it...so I ordered one.
I received it via UPS this morning and figured I'd give it a whirl after it stopped raining. I grabbed a Padilla 1932, I think theses were the ones that were rolled in Miami. I found them buried in my humidor last week and figured this would be a great opportunity to sample one again since it was in there for a few years.
It was a nice sunny afternoon at the Jersey Shore, about 76 degrees with a relative humidity of 63%. Last nights rain storm blew the hot weather out to sea and.....screw this, I sound like Kingantz now! :laugh:
When you open the cutter up and look inside, you see 6 thin razor blades that are pointed at the top where you insert the cigar. I followed the enclosed directions and pushed it straight in until it stopped...about an inch or more. You could barely see the slits put in there when you looked at it up close after you take it out.
One word of warning, this thing is round a rolls around all over the place...a little more of a flat spot would have been nice to keep it in place.
I torched the end and began to puff...just as they said, it drew very well and produced a good volume of smoke.
Once I puffed for about 5-10 minutes, the slits became more visible
As I smoked the cigar and gently bit down, they were right, you can adjust the draw as you smoke. The weird thing is, as you smoke and glance down at the cigar in your hand, you don't see the traditional cut or punch! Very strange indeed.
As I continued to smoke, it didn't clog up at all...and I did put a little extra saliva on it just to test it out.
You would gently put pressure on the tip and the draw was perfect the entire time.
So, the final verdict...
Is it novel?...yes. Is it revolutionary?...ehhh. Did it make the cigar smoke cooler?...if I said yes I may be making that up. Is it cool as hell and will I use it?...definitely YES.
At no time did it clog or become tough to draw on.
Is it worth the money?...I paid $18.00 for it and I don't feel ripped off at all. I think it will be a great conversation piece when herfing with the boys and that in itself makes it worth it!
I can now say that I'm smoking with "I-Draw Technology" baby....
PS: That Padilla 1932 was really good, the time in the humidor did it justice. I liked them when I first got them and it tasted even better now!
I received it via UPS this morning and figured I'd give it a whirl after it stopped raining. I grabbed a Padilla 1932, I think theses were the ones that were rolled in Miami. I found them buried in my humidor last week and figured this would be a great opportunity to sample one again since it was in there for a few years.
It was a nice sunny afternoon at the Jersey Shore, about 76 degrees with a relative humidity of 63%. Last nights rain storm blew the hot weather out to sea and.....screw this, I sound like Kingantz now! :laugh:
When you open the cutter up and look inside, you see 6 thin razor blades that are pointed at the top where you insert the cigar. I followed the enclosed directions and pushed it straight in until it stopped...about an inch or more. You could barely see the slits put in there when you looked at it up close after you take it out.
One word of warning, this thing is round a rolls around all over the place...a little more of a flat spot would have been nice to keep it in place.
I torched the end and began to puff...just as they said, it drew very well and produced a good volume of smoke.
Once I puffed for about 5-10 minutes, the slits became more visible
As I smoked the cigar and gently bit down, they were right, you can adjust the draw as you smoke. The weird thing is, as you smoke and glance down at the cigar in your hand, you don't see the traditional cut or punch! Very strange indeed.
As I continued to smoke, it didn't clog up at all...and I did put a little extra saliva on it just to test it out.
You would gently put pressure on the tip and the draw was perfect the entire time.
So, the final verdict...
Is it novel?...yes. Is it revolutionary?...ehhh. Did it make the cigar smoke cooler?...if I said yes I may be making that up. Is it cool as hell and will I use it?...definitely YES.
At no time did it clog or become tough to draw on.
Is it worth the money?...I paid $18.00 for it and I don't feel ripped off at all. I think it will be a great conversation piece when herfing with the boys and that in itself makes it worth it!
I can now say that I'm smoking with "I-Draw Technology" baby....
PS: That Padilla 1932 was really good, the time in the humidor did it justice. I liked them when I first got them and it tasted even better now!
Since the toro sized cigar was fairly humidified from being in the back of a USPS truck, the thought of cracking the stick from me pushing down too hard or squeezing it between my fingers didn't worry me much. I think I pushed too far down as I heard it slicing the cap, but it being such a big ring cigar I kept on pushing until an audible "crack" was heard and felt in my fingers. UH OHHH, did I just fuck that up? I pulled Darth Vaders head off and looked at the cap, it showed those razor lines very slightly and at the end of it's slice there was more of an opening just beyond the edge of the cap. Phew, looks good to go so I put flame with my tabletop lighter to the foot and sucked. Nothing. Okay, let's try biting the tip a little and then I was able to draw the flame onto the foot until I had it all fired up. Grabbed my Vibram 5 finger shoes, clipped the dogs in and started down the street. I'm usually accustomed to free drawing smokes while walking so I don't have to fight the cigar in case it tightens up on me so during the initial walk I kept trying to use my lip pressure to open the slits, but it really wasn't getting me a good draw. I remembered the instructions said to turn the cigar while applying pressure and that's when the cigar opened up. I actually had good drawing throughout the walk, but a couple of things stood out mentally for me. Since the cap is still intact, the feeling of a smooth piece of tobacco on your tongue when smoking felt weird. Hahaha. I resorted to my yard gar style of smoking where I clench and bite the tip of the cigar and that made a lot of smoke, but it did end up making the end eventually lift off and when the last third hit, I bit the cap off and all kinds of tobacco got pulled out of the cigar. That kind of blown out, soggy end is what comes of me smoking that way, so I had to grab my guillotine cutter and clipped off the wet part. I ended up smoking it just beyond the band. The cigar didn't taste the same, but it's been 3 years since I smoked one and those used to make me spin something bad, but I guess my palate is tougher now, it was a not bad smoke. I think I should let the other 4 settle down before trying to smoke one again. Final thoughts, it's a nice novelty idea, I'm going to take it to the station tomorrow and try it with something a little drier. I'm so used to having a cap either clipped or punched, I have to mentally remember to start smoking a cigar a little differently. Not rocket science, but it makes me concentrate on the cigar more. It'll have it's place in my cutter rotation and I can even put my cholesterol pills in there when I go out smoking so I don't forget my medicine. 
I have no idea WTF is going on with the paragraphing, I double spaced between my thoughts. Oh well, just make believe I'm one of those guys that failed english and grammar class. Thanks Gary!
