# cigar ash **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665 "2009-09-11T12:11:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/21 "2009-09-16T05:36:23Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Paper clip? According to Al Boliska in _Wipeouts!_ (1968), he ‘first pierced the cigar full-length with a long hat pin.’ Now that you mention it, a hat pin is what that book I read as a child said, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/22 "2009-09-16T17:17:35Z")
> [@srbeck13](#): > > The fact that the thinnest wire worked best in keeping a cigar ash from falling from the cigar makes me think no wire would be even better. If Una didn’t try this without a wire, her experiments don’t mean much. Funny how some peoples’ minds work!😃 As a reformed smoker, I can vouch for the results. We used this gag quite often with friend’s cigarettes. We usually improvised with everything from small finishing nails down to thin pieces of guitar wire and found that the thin wire produced the best results, besides the wire was sharper and easier to insert right up into the filter. I have vivid memories of drunk friends staring in awe at their lit cigarette trying to figure out why the ash was so long! ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/23 "2009-09-16T17:21:49Z")
I’ve smoked cigars and cigarettes in my time, and the types of smokes in-between models. The length of the ash sans wire (I’ve never used a wire) varies from cigar to cigar. A thick cigar that’s tightly packed will get a longer ash than a thin cigar that’s loosely packed. The length and moisture of the tobacco leaves inside the cigar also make a difference with how fast the cigar smokes. As far as leaving an ash on the tip of the cigar, it does keep it cooler, burning slower, and letting off less smoke. But how much of an ash you want on the end of the cigar depends on how much of this effect you want, and how dry and loose the cigar is. A loose and dry cigar will smoke quicker than a tight and moist one. A loose and dry cigar is less likely to go out because it builds up a long ash. It’s much tougher to do with a cigarette. Wasn’t there a scene in The Wall where Bob Geldoff has a cigarette with a full-length ash on the end of it? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/24 "2009-09-16T21:35:50Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Cecil asks me to do things, and I do them if possible. I thought that cigar smoking meant you didn’t inhale much. Just as an FYI, you aren’t supposed to purposely inhale at all. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/25 "2009-09-18T21:38:45Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Just as an FYI, you aren’t supposed to purposely inhale at all. Well then I’m confused, because the cigar goes out 100% of the time if you do not either draw air through it or blow air through it. At some point, air is drawn into your body through the cigar. If not, then how do you get any nicotine and resulting carcinogens? One may not take deep drags like on a cigarette, but surely one does bring the smoke into their body, right? (FTR, I tried lightly blowing through the cigar - it worked, but it also tended to destabilize the ash. I freaking hate cigars. Why couldn’t someone have asked questions about pipes?) ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/26 "2009-09-18T23:07:14Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Well then I’m confused, because the cigar goes out 100% of the time if you do not either draw air through it or blow air through it. At some point, air is drawn into your body through the cigar. If not, then how do you get any nicotine and resulting carcinogens? > > One may not take deep drags like on a cigarette, but surely one does bring the smoke into their body, right? > > (FTR, I tried lightly blowing through the cigar - it worked, but it also tended to destabilize the ash. I freaking hate cigars. Why couldn’t someone have asked questions about pipes?) Traditionally, cigars (and pipes) are smoked using a totally different technique than cigarettes. You draw the smoke into your mouth, but do not allow it to pass into your lungs. Any nicotine that enters your bloodstream does so by either 1) being absorbed right through the tissues in your mouth, or 2) being inhaled “secondhand” from exhaled smoke. Even a seasoned cigar smoker could get ill from inhaling the smoke of a whole cigar. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/27 "2009-09-19T04:23:49Z")
That was what I tried, but I evidently did it wrong. I’m thinking to be a cigar smoker you need to be some hairy behemoth named “Stan” or “Frank” who has a smoke whilst drinking sandpaper gin. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/28 "2009-09-20T05:07:04Z")
Just checking in to commiserate with Una. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/29 "2009-09-20T05:18:28Z")
I lived up in Mae Hong Son province in the North back in the 1980s, which were part of my smoking days. You could get these big packs of Burmese cigars, 50 in a pack, for maybe a buck American. These were fairly large cigars, too. I did inhale those into my lungs. No telling what damage I did to myself. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/30 "2009-09-20T09:49:55Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > That was what I tried, but I evidently did it wrong. I’m thinking to be a cigar smoker you need to be some hairy behemoth named “Stan” or “Frank” who has a smoke whilst drinking sandpaper gin. Some cigar smokers will dip the mouth-end of the cigar into a liquor, often brandy, between occasional puffs. Many who drink liquor with their cigars drink a single malt scotch, although it’s up to personal preference. There definitely is a technique involved with getting smoke just into your mouth as opposed to into your lungs. Most cigarette smokers pull smoke into their mouths first and then pull it into their lungs, kind of like when using a straw to drink a liquid. You don’t pull it straight into your stomach, you create a vacuum inside your mouth until you have a comfortable amount of liquid, then you swallow it. Smoking a cigarette is quite the same way - draw into your mouth with the same muscles, then inhale, then blow it out. With a cigar, you act like a wine taster. You don’t drink the wine, you just swish it around in your mouth, then spit it out. (I’ve never been at a wine tasting, just going with what I see on TV here…) Same thing here; you get the smoke in your mouth, take in the flavor (the fullness, the sweetness, the tanginess, whatever you like that cigar for) and then push it out of your mouth without inhaling any. You should have a “clean” (non-smoky) breath already in your lungs so you can exhale out your mouth and push it out completely. It’s what Bill Clinton says he did with MJ, right? If you practice more, you can even blow smoke rings, which used to impress people at parties. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/31 "2009-09-20T13:29:12Z")
What was revealing about the whole incident to me is even though I only did the experiments for one weekend and I ended up extremely sick, _the very next morning_ when I padded downstairs to start tea I thought “Huh, there’s still some cigars left…shame to waste them…maybe I should smoke then later.” This is the same thing that happened to me last time I took up smoking - nearly 20 years ago - for a day. I was sick the first day, but the second day, when I had no intention of smoking any more, I already felt the craving. Thankfully I have some pretty iron-clad self-control, so there was no way I was going to smoke, but feeling the cravings after that short of a time was again disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665/32 "2009-09-20T14:22:34Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > That was what I tried, but I evidently did it wrong. I’m thinking to be a cigar smoker you need to be some hairy behemoth named “Stan” or “Frank” who has a smoke whilst drinking sandpaper gin. …or [Marmaduke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmaduke_Surfaceblow)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigar-ash/509665.md?page=1)