Cigar cutting knife, advice needed.

Gody

Gody

Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
351
Hi everyone.

I´ve been thinking of making a folder that will double as a cigar cutter. The knife is intended to for a guy that loves his cigars and indeed, cutting the ends of theese things would probably be the main task for the knife. Other than that it would be used for opening boxes and other everyday tasks.
I have seen pictures of knives in a magazine a long time ago, with a hole in the handle, that allows the main blade to cut the cigar once this is inserted in the hole, and the blade is closed. I have however not been able to find pictures on the web of a nice handmade knife with this feature.
I´m considering the following design features:

- A Swayback Jack design somewhat sized up to accomodate a .8 " (20 mm) hole near the butt of the handle.
- I plan on doing a chisel grind on the blade to allow the cigars to be cut very close to the inside of the handle. Am I wrong here?
- A steel or Ti interframe handle design to counter the fact that the enormous hole will obviously weaken the handle.
- Locking liner inlaid into the interframe, lockback or slipjoint? What do you think?

The end result should be an uppscale gentlemans folder so any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Brian
 
Gody:

I cut my cigars with a knife, but it is a small (tiny!) whittler, and I make the old fashioned "V" cut. When the peanut is just off the strop, it cuts the notch well, too. The only cigars I cut with a guillotine style cutter are torpedoes or belicoso shaped smokes.

But there are cigar knives out there.

http://www.xikar.com/products/cutters/cigar-cut-knife/#

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Army-Cigar-Knife/dp/B000FNIL6C

http://grizzly.com/outlet/Kashmir-Cigar-Knife-Kaleidoscope/G7310

There are a lot of them out there. DAGS under " cigar knife " and you will find plenty of examples.
 
Grizz;

What? Cigars are hazardous to your health? I had no idea, but since its for someone else it does not really matter to me. What matters is that it would be a fun challenge to build.

Midnight Flyer;

Thanks for your input. I´m not a big cigar smoker myself, but the intended future owner of the knife is, and I know that he cuts all of his cigars guillotine style (right or not). The Xikar and the Grizzly are pretty close to what I want to do, but I think I would put the hole in the other side of the handle. I imagine holding the knife in my right hand, belly upp and insert the cigar with my left hand, snap the blade shut and cut the end of the cigar. This would however put the hole in the same handle side as the locking spring of a liner lock, which may pose a problem.
The google search did however not yield any results of handmade cigarknives and I´m also looking for inspiration and suggestions on how to make this piece as elegant and classy as possible. What do you think of my idea to go with a Swayback pattern?

Gody
 
If the knife is to be used only for minor cutting tasks and mainly for cigars, then make a Wharncliff shaped blade - thin and with a very acute edge angle. The best geometry would be a full hollow grind like a straight razor. Make a simple friction folder with the hole near the pivot end. I would just use Ti as the sides and a blade from .060 CPM 3V that is hardened at 2050F, run through cryo, and tempered at 400F ( just enough to remove any stress and brittleness). The blade should be about Rc62. You can make it with scales, but that adds another thing to design in the build. I would go with textured Ti and a blade only.
Here are some photos and links;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Combo-Cigar...370?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20bbbc936a
http://www.etsy.com/listing/81931320/antique-enraved-cigar-cutter-knife-watch
http://www.rubylane.com/item/161834-13842/Vintage-Valet-Auto-Strop-Utility


The photos are gone, but here is the text of my entry in a cigar cutter contest a while back:

............When considering this Cigar cutter contest, I first thought, “How simple can a cigar cutter be.”
It only needs one part. Either a nail shaped object to punch a hole, or a sharp object to cut the end. Fancy the blade idea up a bit to three or four parts and you have a guillotine cutter. Once my mind was up and running I thought, “How complex can a cigar cutter be!” Well ,with 91 parts, an exact, 3/4 scale replica of an 1856 LeMatt revolver turned into a cigar cutter evolved.

History:

The LeMatt percussion revolver was the brain child of New Orleans Doctor Alexander LeMatt and (Confederate) General P.G.T.Beauregard. They dreamed up the perfect pistol - a 9 shot ,.42 caliber ,cap and ball revolver ,with a 16 gauge percussion shotgun barrel underneath. The LeMatt was the favorite gun of J.E.B.Stuart.

Construction :

The entire gun is made from burl wood, and as close as possible, is an exact scale replica. The only metal is the cutters, one coil spring, and brass cylinder sleeves. The barrels and all forward parts are Snakewood, the cylinder and butt plate are African Blackwood Burl. The frame and all side plates are Buckeye Burl. All screws, bullets, percussion caps and nipples are Walnut. The trigger and hammer are Lignum Vitae. The guard is Cocobola. And for a little pizzazz, the handle grips are Blue Mammoth Ivory. The shotgun ram (which inserts into the loading ram arm) is capped in Gold Lip MOP. There is Ebony dust loaded in the cylinders for the gunpowder. It took about 100 hours of construction to make this. Tools used were a Carbotech lathe, disc and belt sanders, Rob Frink’s rotary platen ,drill press, band, hand, and table saws, flex shaft, files, and lots of sanding and polishing. There is no finish, the shine is just polished wood . The Buckeye burl for the side plates was selected to match the Blue Mammoth handles.

Cigar cutter:

The cutter is a “V” cutter which is spring loaded to return the hammer after the stroke. The cigar sits on the top of the cylinder and the cutter cuts a slit in the tip. Any tobacco shavings discharge out the shotgun barrel. There is a guillotine cutter in the butt plate of the handle. There is a punch cutter in the shot gun ram tip.
 
Gody, I would probably build something that looked like this instead of a swayback.

http://grizzly.com/outlet/Kashmir-Ci...idoscope/G7310

To get the handle large enough to accommodate a normal cigar (unless your friend smokes really small sticks) you need to have a fairly large handle. With a hole large enough to use on medium ring size to larger your swayback design might wind up looking like a hawkbill or pruning knife if you chose that pattern. In other words, too wide to look nice.

I think most cigar smokers like myself appreciate a nice cutter, and would be completely happy with a dedicated cutter for their smokes. It adds to the experience. I would be more concerned with the mechanics of making sure the knife would cut cleanly and accurately than I would be the style. I would be looking at function over form as I wouldn't want a cutter that looked great but mangled a good (read: expensive) cigar. I wouldn't use it.

Robert
 
I believe the original tobacco sampler pattern is a good sized sheepfoot in a congress frame.
Ken.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. Obviusly there are a lot of considerations but your advice will make it easier. I´ll be sure to get back to you with a result in a few months.

Stacy; its a petty you did not have pictures of your piece, but you are right: anything thats worth doing is worth overdoing:p

Chuck; thats a coll little knife. Whats the size of the hole?

Gody
 
I bought a dedicated guillotine type cutter in the dollar store.

I like that design.

Very flat, simple and smooth.
Very thin blade.
Chisel ground.

A cutter is like a shear, the closer the blade is to the clamp/anvil side - the cleaner the cut.
Have you ever received warped steel from the shear cut? - poorly adjusted shear

The angled edge means it has some slicing rather than chopping action.

8655-20517.jpg
 
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