sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

No real news to report as of late.  Instead, I'll just share a small trick I use to save money. I am a cigar smoker- to the tune of 2-3 cigars per week. I am not an expert by any means, but I do enjoy relaxing for an hour with a good smoke. One thing that will ruin a cigar before you even start smoking is a bad cut. Now I'm not a big fan of spending significant amounts of money on a fancy cutter. I had a decent Colibri cutter for a while, but it literally fell apart.

So instead, I use a cheap, 2 dollar cutter you can pick up at any tobacconist. Now a cheap cutter will not give you a lot of cuts before it dulls out. I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 before you really should do something about the edge on that cutter before it starts smashing your cigars apart.



By prying with a small flat-head screw driver on the lip of the cutter (highlighted in read) you can disassemble most disposable guillotine style cutters.  Then just remove the blade, sharpen it up, and put it back together. I find that the edge on the blades is generally a bit rough, and you want to smooth it out with the finest stones you have available. The angle though, is generally set pretty well - so I'd not try to reshape the whole cutting edge if I were you.

I've sharpened my little disposable cutter 4 or 5 times now, and it still cuts very well. If I do lose the cutter or it finally breaks, I've certainly gotten my money out of it, and it does help save a few bucks. Using your sharpening skills need not only be regulated to the kitchen and your pocket knives.  Once you have the basics down and a few tools, you can clean up the edge on most anything. Go ahead, resharpen your blender blades, your cigar cutters, your scissors, and your cheese slicer. It'll make your life easier in the long run, and really- is there any good reason to use a tool that you can maintain better?