For this review of straight cigar cutters, I stayed in the ‘under $15’ price range. These cigar cutters come in three basic types; single straight bladed guillotine, double bladed guillotine, and cigar scissors. In the single bladed cutters, I tried two different styles; a credit card cutter and a multi-blade. I also tried one double bladed guillotine cutter, and one scissors cutter.
Credit Card Cutter
2008 © Dr. Mitch Fadem Licensed to About.com, Inc.
The credit card cutter was in a nice leather sheath, and was small and convenient, but the blade was just not sharp enough. The cutter did not quite do the job, causing damage to the cigar cap and not giving a good ‘through and through’ cut. I generally do not like single bladed cutters for this very reason.
Rubberized Combo Cutter
2008 © Dr. Mitch Fadem Licensed to About.com, Inc.
The multi-bladed cigar cutter really only had one blade, but it was curved to give you two different sizes for the cut you want, and matched a hole and back-up plastic plate depending on your cigar ring gauge, and had an odd shaped ‘V’ cut on the edge of the cutter. As with the credit card cutter, the multi-blade cutter did not give a very good cut.
Double Bladed Guillotine Cutter
2008 © Dr. Mitch Fadem Licensed to About.com, Inc.
The double-bladed guillotine cigar cutter tested was a traditional ‘put your thumb and a finger in each ring on the ends’ and open and close quickly for a nice cut cutter. The interesting thing about this cutter is the back-up plate. The entire cutter was steel, including the back-up plate, which gave you exactly the right amount of cut for almost any type shaped cigar.
Cigar Scissors
2008 © Dr. Mitch Fadem Licensed to About.com, Inc.
The last cutter tested was a scissors cutter. It is the first one I had ever tried and quickly saw the advantage. I can cut a small amount or large amount and even fix a bad cut from one of the other single blade cutters (and I did). I also used it to cut the burning end off a cigar to smoke later. It is too big to carry, but looks great sitting on top of my humidor at home.
