Tuck Cutter (also called a Cigar Cutter)







Cigar making is a very repetitive process. Over and over, hundreds of times a day, the exact same dozen actions are performed. Anything that can be done to make one of those actions easier, faster, more efficient or more exacting puts money in the pocket of both the roller and factory owner. Let’s face it, cigar rollers didn’t do this for romance; cigar making is a JOB ... a job that pays piece rates. The more and better cigars you roll, the more money you make. Speed and efficiency are important.







One of the myriad steps involved cutting off the end of a hand made cigar to open an end for lighting (creating the tuck, the opposite end from the head) and at the same time trimming a batch of cigars to uniform length. Uniform length wasn’t critical in the 1700’s or early 1800’s because cigars were seldom packed in consumer size boxes; when they were, the boxes were sold closed, the cigars unseen. But after the Civil War, when boxes were required, cigar length became critical. Cigars had to fit in the box. Cigar boxes and cigar length are specified in



1/16ths of an inch, and in some cases by 1/32nds. so an accurate cut was important.







Using an ordinary roller’s knife for this operation often resulted in a crushed end on the cigar. It became necessary to have a knife that would support the bottom of a cylindrical object while it was being cut from the top. A knife that could also guarantee uniformity of length would be perfect. Hence, the “tuck cutter.” Early catalogs often call this tool a “cigar cutter” but I prefer the more descriptive “tuck cutter” to differentiate it from the pocket or counter-top cigar cutters used by smokers to open the mouth-end of a cigar.



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