How to Cut a Cigar: 2025 Edition

How to Cut a Cigar: 2025 Edition

Cutting a cigar may sound easy, but it often trips up new or inexperienced cigar fans. Thankfully, we’re here to help. Here’s the complete guide on how to cut a cigar accurately so you have a fantastic smoking experience every time.

How to Cut a Cigar

One of the biggest mistakes that new cigar smokers make is cutting off too much of the cigar cap before they light up. Cutting off too much from the head of a cigar can damage the wrapper and cause the entire cigar to unravel. 

Instead, make a small, sharp incision at the very top of the cigar — think in terms of millimeters instead of inches. If you’re new to the cigar hobby, we recommend using a guillotine or “straight” cutter. This is simply a device with two blades attached to it. Make sure to place the cigar within the cutter between the two blades, line up where you want to make the cut, and make one forceful, sharp cut.

Why Do Cigars Need to Be Cut? 

When cutting a cigar, remember that the only reason you’re doing it is to allow for airflow to travel through the cigar. Most cigars have an exposed foot (the end you light) and a closed cap (the end you draw on). By making a cut at the cap, you enable air to travel through the cigar so you can puff on it and generate smoke. 

How to Cut a Cigar Without a Cutter

Sooner or later, all cigar fans will run into this problem. How to cut a cigar without a cutter? There are a few ways to go about it. First, you can use a sharp object like a good knife to make the small cut needed at the top of the cap. A quality pair of scissors can also do the trick in a pinch.

If you don’t have any blades or sharp objects, though, you can still “cut” a cigar by biting off the very tip of the cap with your teeth and spitting it out. Or, if that’s a bit much for you, you can use your fingernails to poke a hole in the cap. 

Cigar Cutting Techniques

There are three traditional methods for cutting a cigar. These cigar cutting techniques are: straight (guillotine) cuts, v-cuts, and punch cuts. 

Guillotine Cutters (Straight Cutters)

Straight cutters produce a clean, even cut across the entirety of the cap. You pretty much can’t go wrong with a straight cut, and they’re also nice because they work for both traditional parejos and non-traditional figurados like torpedo-shaped cigars, too. 

V-Cutters

V-cutters are also a popular method for cutting a cigar. They work in much the same way as a straight cutter, except instead of making a straight cut across the cap, v-cuts make a “v-shaped” indentation into the cap. The downside: you usually can’t use v-cutters with figurados. 

Punch Cutters

Finally, punch cutters aren’t really “cutters” but rather sharp cylinders that poke a hole in the end of a cigar. Punch cuts are a solid option because they’re super portable and versatile. Many cigar fans carry a punch cutter on their keychain — just in case of cigar emergencies. But again, it’s not possible to punch a hole in a cigar with a pointed cap like a torpedo.

As we touched on before, cutting a cigar with a knife isn’t ideal, but you can do it. Just make sure the cigar is on a flat surface and that you make a sharp, clean cut at the very top of the cap. 

Conclusion

What’s your favorite way to cut a cigar? Sign up for Cigar World and let us know with a comment!