Greetings!

[nicwing]

Steve, while you kick tyres (and I strongly suggest you do for a while) some of our number won't hear of spending money on burr walnut and that and prefer an Asda plastic box with a humidification tube (tube full of water retaining crystals). This device has some fancy name which I can't recall just now but it's a good cheap way to keep your stock in good nick while you check out the many humidor sites.

In terms of size, this place is littered with people who bought too small and were certain they would only buy 10 or 15 cigars and now have many many more.

Check out the sell/buy thread also, you can post a note of your requirements there and see if anyone has a spare, you will be amazed what's kicking around.

Good luck.

[Gary]

Welcome to the forum Steve

[stevecairney]

In terms of size, this place is littered with people who bought too small and were certain they would only buy 10 or 15 cigars and now have many many more.

I'll meet you half way at 50 cap

Thanks for the welcome Gary

Oh and daverave999

I saw your homebrew effort in another thread just now, where can I find an outline how what you need to make something like that? I did catch the name 'Bovida'...

[daverave999]

I'll tell you here if you like.

Get a sealable plastic box like a coolbox (24 litre for ?7 from Asda) or a large tupperware box. If it smells of plastic, clean it with very hot water then leave it to soak with a weak unscented bleach solution overnight. Then let it dry out.

You could just put your cigars straight in but they are far better inside a cigar box as this buffers the humidity and protects them from damage. Get these from your local cigar shop (cheap or free) or ask around on here.

Then you need a humidifier and a hygrometer. This is actually my best performing hygrometer. For humidification, use Heartfelt beads or Boveda pouches. Easy and cheap. Spend your cash on cigars.

[EDIT] An Oust fan is also good to circulate the air. Available from ebay or Heartfelt.

[stevecairney]

Spend your cash on cigars.

Nice one Dave. I like that mantra. You can be my friend.


What's the target humidity 75%ish?

[Simon-JG-hr]

Welcome aboard Steve!


You sound much like me when I first arrived on UKCF... I would smoke one or two cigars during a week-long holiday and that would pretty much be it. I'm now regularly smoking one cigar a week, and often a couple. Then there are the herfs, when a couple more get aired in addition to my weekly allowance...

As for humidity. There is a lot of debate - anything from 65-75%RH gets tossed around. Personally, I'm a fan of around the 68%RH mark, as are a few others. Generally it's probably best to be within a couple of percent of 70%RH. If you check out the wiki (link), there's quite a bit of useful information on humidors: how to pick them, set them up, maintain them etc.

Check out the threads about humidoro.de and tabak-pietsch in the 'Where to Buy' forum. They do very nice humidors, and are usually very good at sorting out excellent deals for UKCF members. It can often work out cheaper to get one of their (excellent) 100-150 capacity humis than it would to get a 25 capacity desktop from some of the main UK sellers.

[jdawg]

Welcome to our world, Steve! You have come to a great place. You will learn a lot here.

[stevecairney]

Thanks guys, I can tell I'm going to enjoy participating here. I've not seen any playground politics, which is rare on forums these days! Still, we should be all mature adults on a cigar forum!

Quick one, I know BOTL stands for Brothers of the leaf, but what's the dealio with folk having special member tags and awards and the like?

[skyhigh]

welcome the the forum Steve, i think you must be about steve number 9 now, theres bloody loads of us.

As for the awards, its Deano's way of making people feel special and loved for been nice and kind to the BOTL on here.

ps. please note i have no awards, i did try to steal the crazy Mexicans' but he set the dogs on me. i'm now of the conclusion i must just be the resident numpty.

[Paulie]

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. I have been away so a little late on this.

Smoked many a fine cigar in the valleys of Wales camping, and will be soon again!