Herf's Humi seasoning sticky from puff

**Lostmason** · 02-08-2015, 09:53 PM

How Herf N. Turf Seasons a New Humidor

Hi, Fellow Tobaccophiles,

As many of you know, I was just nuked, back to the stone-age. Ed Sallee, of Waxing Moon Wood, bombed me an absolutely beautiful, 50ct humidor. You can read all about the mayhem here (link).

Our Subject:

So now, guess what? You all get to go through the seasoning process with me.

First, I tested the seal... well, sort of. When I first opened the packaging and went to open the humi, it took a LOT of effort. When I spoke with Ed, he said that the only reason he'd put the latch on it, was because he himself had had difficulty opening the box. This is a very good thing.

For the sake of this tutorial, I did a paper strip test (akin to the dollar bill test, but more precise).

Here, you can see the results:

The seal is so tight that the test paper was no match. I tried hard to pull it out, but there was no give. The test resulted in catastrophic failure of the paper. Another reason not to use a dollar bill on a top-quality humidor I omitted the flashlight test and the whoosh test was pointless, since the lid won't close without a little down-pressure. Did I mention that this seal is t-i-g-h-t, tight? For others, using this as a reference guide, definitely do all the tests, until you are absolutely certain of your seal's integrity!

Next, I took a pre-doing-anything, hygrometer reading. This revealed an RH of 54%. Ed, was kind enough to ship it with three water pillows inside, which, no doubt, helped it a little from what the ambient humidity in his workshop must be.

Now that we've tested both seal and original RH, it's time to start seasoning.

Using a new, straight out of the packaging, sponge, I dowse it with distilled water and place it on a saucer. I use Corell, but almost any saucer will work

I placed the saucer and sponge in the humidor, with one of my calibrated hygrometers, at 1600hrs. First check was at 2300hrs, which rendered an RH of 64%. This doesn't mean that the wood's at 64%, merely that there is more moisture in the air inside the humidor. We're headed in the right direction!

Tomorrow afternoon, I will open and check again. I expect to see a reading of around ~70%, at which point, I will install a tube of DRY!, 70% Heartfelt beads. The reason I do this is because I don't want to spike the humidity. I install the beads as a buffer, to keep the RH from climbing above 70%. Otherwise, I cost myself several days of bringing it back down. I will then leave the beads in there until I can clearly see some of them turning clear (hydrated). At this point, it will be time to install cigars.

I will have to play some of this "by ear", since Ed uses thicker cedar stock than any other humidor maker of which I am aware. I will also have to determine the disparate absorption rates of cedar vs beads. If I put the beads in too soon, the beads will over-charge, before the wood is fully seasoned. The flip-side is the risk of over-seasoning the wood. The RH of the air inside the box, is no indicator of the condition of the wood. This is where experience, science and plain old guess work come in.

**Lostmason** · 02-08-2015, 09:53 PM

Re: How Herf N. Turf Seasons a New Humidor

Well, Guys, things are going along swimmingly and precisely according to schedule!

I opened the humidor again, at 1335hrs (day two) and, low and behold, we have a nice reading of 70%:

When I get home from my errands this evening, I will check again. I expect to be slightly over 70% by then and it will be time for the HF tube.

Re: How Herf N. Turf Seasons a New Humidor

Just a note, on hygrometer placement:

It is absolutely essential, that for all readings taken during the initial testing and seasoning phases, you place the calibrated hygrometer on the floor of the humidor, NOT, the lid! The reason for this is that humid air rises. The floor of the humidor will be the last to season properly, so it's critical that all readings are taken with the calibrated hygrometer on the floor!

Re: How Herf N. Turf Seasons a New Humidor

Alrighty! At 2300hrs, which is precisely 24hrs since placing the soaked sponge of distilled water inside, we've hit 79%. I know what you're thinking! "Haha, silly HNT went'n spiked his humidity after all!"

Not so, say I. Part of the guess work is involved in the fact that we're dealing with a lot of cedro here. We've managed to get the air inside the box up to 79%, but the wood is actually far behind it. Right now, my best guess is that the wood surface is around 70%, but the deeper/further outwards from the surface you go, the dryer things are.

So, now to install the beads. As I said above, the beads will help to stabilize the air inside the box, yet allow the moisture already in the wood surface to continue to travel outwards and stabilize the wood. Which is, after all, our common goal in this process.

**Lostmason** · 02-08-2015, 09:54 PM

Re: How Herf N. Turf Seasons a New Humidor

Update:

Last night when I checked the humidor, at 2300, It was reading 75%. The beads didn't appear to be putting up much of a fight, so I removed the sponge. Today, at 1100, I opened it up and it was still at 74%.

Time for a little impatience.

I opened the box and removed the hygrometer. Leaving the box open, I set the hygro on the table. I actually fanned the box to clear all humidity and waited for the hygro to drop below 70%, before re-installing it and closing the box back up.

After letting it sit for an hour, this is what I saw:

Wa-lah! We are now well into the stabilization phase, with a nice reading of 70% and some adequately hydrated beads. Yipee!

I will re-open tonight at about 2300 and if we're still near 70%, we might be installing sticks sometime tomorrow!

Final Chapter:

Well, as predicted, when I checked the box again tonight, we were right where we'd predicted.

A solid reading of 69% tells us our labors are done and it's time to install sticks. Total seasoning time: 3days, 10.5hrs. Not bad.

Someone asked what I was going to fill it with. Well, Ed decided that when he sent me the humidor. Along with this beautiful box, he also sent me an Arturo Fuente Anejo Xtra Viejo 55. So, the Fuente family has moved into my "Coco-Nut" Waxing Moon humidor (Black Walnut and Cocobolo woods).

...and the 55 from Ed, takes the top spot of honor!

So, time to close this up and grab something to smoke!

Thanks for watching!