Experiment: Which Smokes Faster a Cut or a Punch?

[Browns7213]

Salvaged from our previous home.

Experiment: Which Smokes Faster a Cut or a Punch?

I posted this question a while back and thought at some point I would actually do an experiment to see if there was a difference in smoking time between cutting a cigar & punching one. While I am a notoriously slow smoker I wondered if the fact that I punch most of my cigars rather then cutting them impacted my smoke time. So with a 77 degree day I decided today was the day.

Methodology:

In order to be fair I needed two of the same cigar, with the same amount of rest so I selected 2 Corona Cigar 10th Anniversary Tres Capas which clock in at 5.25" x 60 each as shown below. At < $4.00 a stick these are a great cheap smoke, however I will admit that the larger 6.5 x 54 size had more rustic flavors than this smaller brother.

One stick received a medium punch cut and the other I lopped the top with my Xikar xi.





I set-up my Ipad with the timer function and proceeded to alternate puffs between the two sticks at exactly 30-second intervals. In order to insure I did not double puff one stick twice, every time I took a draw I set the cigar down and picked up the other one and held it until it was time to take a puff and then repeated the process.



In the pictures below the punch cut is always the cigar on the right side.


15 Minute Mark:



30 Minute Mark:




45 Minute Mark:



60 Minute Mark:



90 Minute Mark:



Caveats:

Certainly there are always short comings to any experiment, here are the caveats to the results of mine.

* While I used 2 identical cigars, the choice of barber poles creates its own inherent challenges since there are 3 different wrappers that can burn unevenly
* Rolling- The cigars may have been rolled by different rollers creating draw or burn issues
* Lighting- While I tried to light them exactly the same one stick may have gotten off to a better start than the other
* Draw- I tried to draw each cigar at the same volume each time, but it would be impossible to take the same draw over 1.5 hours
* Burn- Each cigar required one touch up, but one may have gotten more assistance than the other

Results:

As you can see after 1.5 hours the punched stick burned significantly faster than the cut stick. I thought the cut top would have burned faster, my hypothesis is that the punched stick had a little more positive pressure in the draw which actually could have increased the burn rate. As they say in medicine, there is evidence that a punched cigar burns faster, but more research will need to be done. However, don't look for me to try this again! I was pretty loopy after taking a drag on two cigars every 30 seconds for an hour and a half. If you have the time and identical sticks with identical rest, you may want to try it yourself.

[WNYTONY]

Thanks for going back and grabbing this.
Would have bet on the cut - who knew

[ChiefIlliniwek]

Thanks for doing this man. Nice post. I too am surprised by the results of this.

You forgot one thing though: Where's the V-cut in this equation?

[gordo1473]

Thanks for doing this man. Nice post. I too am surprised by the results of this.

You forgot one thing though: Where's the V-cut in this equation?

Smoking 3 at once. That would be epic

[Browns7213]

Thanks for doing this man. Nice post. I too am surprised by the results of this.

You forgot one thing though: Where's the V-cut in this equation?

I don't own a V cutter, but sounds like a great experiment for you.

[Browns7213]

Smoking 3 at once. That would be epic

If by epic you mean hurling my dinner, yes that would be epic.

[Bshambo]

Nice, taking one for the team! I bet you felt a little loopy.

[ChiefIlliniwek]

I don't own a V cutter, but sounds like a great experiment for you.

If a good Xikar wasn't $35, you'd better know what you'd be getting in the mail.

[Demuths1770]

this was one of my favorite posts!! I may have to try it to back the findings lol