Your accessory evolution

[herman]

I am curious how fellow cigar hobbyists/addicts have evolved over time.
For me, I put the carriage before the horse and bought a box of cigars before I even knew anything about storage.
I realized after 2 weeks my cigars weren't tasting quite the same so went out and bought a small 20 count humidor.
I kept this for a few months then purchased a 15 count herfador. I was pretty happy with this set up for a little while
then found myself with more sticks than room and just couldn't bear the idea of using a tupperware. I then ordered a couple
cheap 50 counts but got tired of maintaining leaky humidity so got rid of one, improved the other, then ended up with a
tupperware anyway. Plan to get a high quality 50 or 100 count eventually. Seems I'm pretty happy between 50-100 sticks so I guess
I'm a lightweight.

As far as other accessories I was using a cutter and soft flame for a good year or more, then switched to torch and punch, but still use my cutter for belicosos. I just have a couple cheap torch lighters I picked up at a smoke shop and one of them is solid. In fact I thought I lost it once, panicked, went online to replace it, but it turns out the name "Pocket Rocket" linked to an erotic adult store. Luckily I had just misplaced it.

For humidification I started off with sponges and Boveda packs, but recently switched to Xikar beads along with larger florist sponges held in a travel soap dish that I dremeled vents into. I like to run my humidity a little high, and together these seem to battle the leak better. I also use beads in my herfador now.

So, the current state of things, I'm still modest and practice moderation to budget for my other vices.

I'm curious how others started off and evolved over time though. Did anyone accidentally get into the hobby with an impulsive box purchase like myself? Did you carefully plan with a large upfront investment? How fast did you progress? Did you ever downsize? I know many own and have built some beautiful wineadors and walk-ins which I always enjoy browsing through.

What about other accessories? What lessons did you learn along the way?

So far my lessons have been:
- Humidor ct isn't in robustos.
- Cheap humidors are a gamble and probably not worth the headache.
- The more cigars you have, the easier it is to maintain humidity.
- The smaller pucks that come with humidors are often not adequate in the long run.
- Torch lighters require care, but soft flames are just annoying to use outside.
- Experiment with different cuts and punches. I rarely use just one for every cigar.

[JollyRogers]

Great topic, here's mine!

Started out after doing a little (very little) research on a different site, by ordering quite a few cigars from CI, including a glasstop humidor and a herf-a-dor with some cigars included. I also ordered a cutter and a lighter and their black ice humidification media.

The cheap glass top humi from CI has actually served me well, I'm able to maintain about 62% RH (with boveda) in it so I keep my sticks I want to smoke soon and the few cubans I've gotten from BOTL's in passes.

The cutter was a Xikar X8, this is one place where my brief research paid off and I've been incredibly happy with this cutter.

The lighter was a triple flame vector with a punch. Another area I've actually been very happy with my selection. Granted this was shear luck because I didn't really pick it based on research.

The herf-a-dor has been great for bringing cigars out and about and I'm definitely happy about this pickup.

The cigar assortment I got I probably wouldn't do again. I would have read more reviews and gotten a little more targeted with my selection as opposed to getting low range samplers with a varied selection that I ended up with.

Since that initial startup purchase I've picked up a few more accessories and modified my setup a bit.
Due to the recommendations on here I picked up a V-Cutter, which hasn't surpassed my guillotine but I'm still experimenting with it.
I made the switch to Boveda for all of my humidification.
I purchased a large Tupperware container for bulk storage. Currently I'm storing 7 cedar trays and 4 boxes with some room to grow in it.
Finally I purchased a cheap ashtray on CI, which I'm pretty disappointed in because it isn't very unique.

My lessons have been:

• Cheap humidors don't hold humidity as well
• Buy the boveda calibration pack and use it for all your hygrometers
• Use boveda for super easy humidity control
• Use cigar bid to buy those initial accessories, I would have saved about $30 had I bought my lighter and cutter on there
• start with a tupperdor
• A quality cutter and lighter allows you two less things to worry about when you're starting out on cigars so you can pay attention to cutting and lighting well
• For me don't go cheap on the ashtray, you'll end up disappointed. I'm finally working to get a wooden ashtray from our fine BOTL @Lynn and I know I'll be so much happier with that
• Get involved in the online communities as they are incredibly and generous folks and we all love seeing new people take up the hobby!

[allusred]

Down sizing may well occur [ as it has for someone who shall remain nameless here ] once the Humidor count reaches 5 -6, in addition to a cooler along with a few fancy jar humidors heavy thang them are.
And you spend a lot of time going from one storage location to the next because you've forgotten where you put that cigar. And at the end
[really would/could you have quit before the end, before ending the search? if the answer is: Yes...please explain in detail how you were able to do so]
stop searching when you realize you smoked *That Cigar* last week.
Make another choice...start search for this cigar.....
When and if you have the cigar you do want to smoke in hand, lighter,cutter,ash tray, etc at your side.......realize you dont have time to smoke....
gotta fetch the kids from the Kennel.


Thats when you downsize or do the Hari - Kari bit instead of cutting another cigar.
Yes that is when you downsize.

[herman]

Down sizing may well occur [ as it has for someone who shall remain nameless here ] once the Humidor count reaches 5 -6, in addition to a cooler along with a few fancy jar humidors heavy thang them are.
And you spend a lot of time going from one storage location to the next because you've forgotten where you put that cigar. And at the end
[really would/could you have quit before the end, before ending the search? if the answer is: Yes...please explain in detail how you were able to do so]
stop searching when you realize you smoked *That Cigar* last week.
Make another choice...start search for this cigar.....
When and if you have the cigar you do want to smoke in hand, lighter,cutter,ash tray, etc at your side.......realize you dont have time to smoke....
gotta fetch the kids from the Kennel.


Thats when you downsize or do the Hari - Kari bit instead of cutting another cigar.
Yes that is when you downsize.

Sounds like it's time to start alphabetizing or color coding.
I did forget to mention another important lesson. Don't wipe the inside of the humidor with a wet rag. My humidor;s instructions instructed me to do this to season, but this broke the seal. One was passing the flashlight test before seasoning, but not after.

[bluenoser]

It funny you should post this as I was thinking about this last night after ordering the wine cooler. When I first started lurking over at puff last fall I decided to go against everyone's advice and bout the smallest box I could find. figured I'd line it with spanish cedar and it'd be all I ever need. Then my first order showed up and I had to buy a large hinged jar instead so I could fit everything in. Problem with that was when my next order showed up I was in need of another. Then another. Then couldn't keep the infused in with the rest so I needed another. Now I'm contemplating some box purchases and tired of buying jars so I decided to jump both feet into a wineador. That should be all the space I ever need... right???

Humidity, I bought a %72 boveda to start with. Thinking that %70 was a good starting point and with the lack of humidity here in Saskatchewan the %72 would be good. I found my sticks had a lot of burn issues so I jumped down to %62's when I started multiple humi-jars. Now for the wineador I'm going to give the %65 HF bead's a go.

As for accessories I started out with a sharpened .308 casing (from my first white tail) and an old zippo. I wanted to give a guillotine cutter a go and bought a 50 cent single blade along with an order and that quickly found it's way to the trash. I ordered a nice spanish cedar cigar sleeve that I rarely use since I rarely smoke away from home. Then needed storage for travel so bought a setup from cheaphumidors that came with a 4 cigar caddy, torch lighter and dual blade cutter. the cutter still seems to maul the cigars a bit but its light years ahead of the single blade. Along with my new pipe smoker trade I was gifted a nice xikar torch lighter. I'll be on the search for a v cut here soon. Really want to give one a go.

As for lessons I've learned,
Want a 50 count humi go 100, want a 100 go 250, better to have more space than not enough.
Rely on the BOTL's knowledge and experience, I've learned more from the fine folks here than I could in a lifetime on google.
Research and try before buying large quantities.
Don't listen to me, I'm usually just guessing.

[allusred]

Have had couple higher quality,widely touted brand name guillotine cutters, that failed badly.
A zeno, cut fine...until screws fell out as it disassembled itself. A Xikar cut nicely, then got a tired,far too quickly, I think, started mangling the cigars.
Have been using a V cutter and a guillotine cutter both are from Craftsman Bench, work very well, don't think calling these heavy duty is right, but the blades in the first mentioned cutters, were very thin, the cutters looked far better than they performed.Craftsman bench cutters seem more solidly constructed without any clunkiness operate in what I'd call a crisper fashion, in that the cutting action is fast, accurate and clean. Don't recall the price, nor where I purchased them.Am pretty sure you'd be able to dredge up some information without too much trouble. They're reasonably priced as I recall. May not be what you want, but might well be worth checking out.