Drew Estates Flying Pig rolling photos

[T.G]

Over in Stephen's (zappaFREAK) review thread of the Flying Pig, Dave (Dave128) and I ended up talking about some things regarding the rolling of these cigars, and I told Dave I would post some pictures of the procedure, but I wanted to take the discussion over to it's own thread as not to completely jack Steve's thread, so, here we go...

First off, I'd like to apologize for the quality of some of the photos - there were a number of us crammed into a very tiny walkway between benches and each of us was trying to simultaneously listen to Jonathan, smoke a cigar, not burn the BOTL next to you with your cigar, watch what was going on and take some photos.

Here is the cigar being bunched and the capote (binder) being applied. As you can see, it's really not that different from any other cigar, EXCEPT for the final step before it goes into the mold. As seen in the fourth photo, the bunchero uses a loop hook, something resembling a very thin crochet hook or loop. He will stick the loop about 1/4" into the filler and then yank it back out, which removes a bit of the tobacco leaf. He'll do this in a circular pattern just in from the edge a bit and then a few stabs in the center. He then flips the cigar over and does the head. This allows the cigar to fit into the mold and be pressed with the rounded ends.

[T.G]

The application of the capa (wrapper) isn't really that different from any other figurado except for the extra wraps at the foot and the tail, which the rollera can be seen creating here.

[loki]

nice pics, just wish i enjoyed the cigars more

[Pat1075]

very interesting stuff there. thank you for the pictures

[longknocker]

Nice Pics & Story, Adam! Thanks!

[Zeuceone]

Nicely done.

[jesseboston81]

Excellent pictures! I really enjoy seeing gifted rollers performing their craft.

[jitzy]

Very cool pics thanks for posting

[Kreth]

Cool pics. Thanks for posting them.
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[muhren]

Love the thread and pics! very informative.

I'm curious...Has DE ever posted a video of it being done?

M

[muhren]

Another question!

I read through the other thread and noticed you said all buncheros were male, all rollers female. Is there a rationale behind the gender bias?

M

[T.G]

Originally Posted by muhren

Love the thread and pics! very informative.

I'm curious...Has DE ever posted a video of it being done?

M

I don't think they have. I'll shoot Johnny Brooke an email and ask though.

Originally Posted by muhren

Another question!

I read through the other thread and noticed you said all buncheros were male, all rollers female. Is there a rationale behind the gender bias?

M

Their hands.

Typically speaking, men have larger hands and much greater strength in their hands. Besides being able to hold the entire filler bunch of tobacco for a cigar while simultaneously folding the leaves, there's a lot of compressing of the tobacco that has to happen while rolling it into the capote (binder). They can also easier hold the bunch under compression mid-roll if they need to adjust the capote.

There's really no requirement for hand strength for applying the capa (wrapper) but a delicate touch, good manual dexterity and small fingers to right up to the edge of the cigar and smooth out the capa as it's applied is.

[thebayratt]

Cool pics!!

You should have yelled "ROLL FASTER!!!" hahaaaa
We need more piggies!!

[kelmac07]

Cool stuff...thanks for sharing.

[cigarlvr]

Great photos thanks

[wayner123]

Are those plastic molds?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by wayner123

Are those plastic molds?

Yes. Plastic or a polycarbonate of some sort.

In fact, all of the cigar factories I saw that had very special, difficult, unique shapes used plastic/polycarbonate molds like that for them. DE Eggs, DE Flying Pigs and the the Padron 80th, immediately come to mind.

Most of the other stuff used wooden molds. I think it's simply a matter of what's easier or more cost effective to produce. A shape like the FP mold would be difficult to replicate exactly by hand in a wood mold, especially for as many molds as they would need, yet a standard parejo shape would be easy and inexpensive to manufacture in wood, plus, no set up costs, unlike a poly mold. In fact, the box shop at the factory could easily turn out as many wooden parejo molds as they needed on demand.

[hscmit]

great info

[EricF]

Great Pics! Thanks for sharing them!

[bscottskangum]

Great pics, thanks for sharing!