Grasping At Burning Leaves

I'm Sure A Jumbo Paper Clip Would Have Worked Just As Well

I had a problem with cigar butts.

On a really good stick, you want to smoke it down to the nub and get all the toasty goodness out of it, but the odor of seared finger-flesh tends to distract from the experience. So, what to do when you run out of room to hang on?

I dug around in my junk drawer and found an old hemostat that hadn't seen use in conjunction with burning leaves since college, but it was better suited for left-handed cigarettes than 60 ring gauge cigars. I tried a jumbo set of tweezers I picked up at a gun show, but the sharp points poked holes in the wrapper.

These folks make a pretty nifty gadget, but it's kind of spendy, and a bit bulky to carry around in a pocket:


A buddy of mine has a cool little gadget for hanging on to the last little bit of a cigar. It's a little flat disk of metal that pops out two prongs that you can press-fit to the diameter of your cigar, and avoid the tearing & crushing of the wrapper like a hemostat or tweezers.

I searched in vain for a year, then made a point to ask him exactly what the gadget was called.

Surprise, surprise... It's called a pocket knife. Heh. Specifically, a round keychain sort of knife, not really designed to hold cigars, but it does the job admirably.


Enter year two of hunting for one. The company that made 'em had long discontinued the model, so it was a matter of chance that one would turn up on eBay.

I lost on two auctions, and finally got lucky. This one came with a bonus. Instead of the coin reproduction, this one was a souvenir from an old political campaign, with a way-cool logo.

Check it out: