Tag Archives: Bernie Parent

by | April 15, 2018 · 11:41 am

A Couple of BSB No. 1 by Bernie Parent Cigars, an Aladino and a Vertias 3 Blend

It’s been a weird week.  Readers who follow me on Facebook will already know that I’m currently exploring new employment opportunities. It’s time to get away from what I’ve been doing for the last 20 years and find something I like doing (that pays the bills, no easy feat, I think!). I appreciate everyone’s support, and I don’t put this out there for a pity party, but one never knows what opportunity might arise from making my availability public. Hopefully allows me to provide more content here for the time being. The casual observer will notice no change in my daily routine. Which brings me to Wednesday’s cigar. Since the Flyers were opening their Stanley Cup playoff series with the Penguins (I hate those guys), I decided an appropriate cigar was in order. As I had already had a very bad day, I thought a pick-me-up would be the broadleaf wrapped BSB No.1 40th Anniversary BSB_ConnSmytheBernie Parent by Rocky Patel Conn Smythe (mental note, I should review one of this series for a future Prime Living article as the name alone will account for much of the 300 word limit!).  This cigar came from a special box released in 2015, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bernie Parent winning the Stanley Cup, The Vezina Trophy (best goaltender) and the Conn Smythe Trophy (league MVP) two years in a row, something that has yet to be repeated. The box contains four cigars each of the three blends and an autographed puck. I bought a box at full price when they were released in 2015, which Bernie autographed and is still intact, and caught a deal on another box later that I’ve smoked/shared. The Conn Smythe has a Broadleaf wrapper and is a delicious toro, perhaps my favorite in the series, loads of dark chocolate and espresso. The cigar was just about the only bright spot of the day as the Flyers suffered a humiliating loss.

 

TJRE_AladinoMaduro_Torohursday I got some yard work done, laid some groundwork for some income replacement, and took a walk with a JRE Aladino Maduro in a box pressed toro size. I recently heard the guys on The Cigar Authority rave about this, so I ordered a couple each of the toro and lancero.  I generally let cigars rest, but I knew these were only in transit for a couple of days and the weather has been moderate so I felt confident firing one up. The Toro is a 6″ x 50 with a nice box press, and has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper and Honduran Corojo binder with Honduran fillers.  I’ve been distracted lately, but this was a tasty smoke, and I look forward to smoking more of them, especially the lancero. It was medium bodied, burned great, and nice flavors of cocoa and wood. This is from the Eiroa family, Justo and Julio specifically, and the Aladino line is an homage to the Corojo blends of days past. Personally, I think I enjoy the JRE cigars more than Christian Eiroa’s CLE line, although I haven’t sampled all of both companies offerings, this opinion is based on limited samplings. I have purchased every Eiroa cigar I’ve ever smoked, save for one CLE sample from their first trade show. Christian is one of those old usenet guys I’ve known for 20 years too.

 

BSB_VezinaFriday was a chance for the Flyers to redeem themselves, and they did with an exciting 5-2 win, which included at least one Academy Award worthy embellishment, proving my opinion that Penguins don’t fly, they dive.  I decided to try the BSB approach again (for those not in the know, BSB is an acronym for Broad Street Bullies, the Flyer’s nickname in the ’70s) and No. 1 is Bernie Parent‘s retired number. Interesting factoid: Bernie retired due to an eye injury, which led to massive improvements to today’s goalie masks. Anyway, I went with the Vezina, which is a Habano wrapped toro. Both the Vezina  and the Conn Smythe are presented in a round format, while the Lord Stanley is box pressed. Maybe I’ll smoke a Lord Stanley today for game 3.  Anyway, I think the Vezina was a tasty cigar too, although in a different way than the Conn Smythe. I think it’s more on the savory end of the spectrum, with more earth and wood notes. If you can find these stashed away anywhere I recommend trying them, especially if you are a hockey fan.  I can’t say that I think they are a good value at the original price of around $13 each, but at half that they are great.

 

Veritas_3Blends_ToroFinally, yesterday I rummaged through the humidor with what’s left of last year’s IPCPR samples, and came out of it with a Veritas 3 Blends, which is a barber pole wrapped cigar with Sun-Grown Ecuadorian Habano, Habano Maduro and Connecticut wrappers, San Andrés binder and fillers from Jalapa, Ometepe, Condega & Esteli Nicaragua. you’d think this cigar would have a lot going on given that blend of eight tobaccos. Maybe it had too much going on for my pedestrian palate to appreciate? I found it had a drying effect on my palate, and, as with many cigars wrapped in this style, it’s didn’t burn well. It sure was a pretty cigar, and it wasn’t offensive or really bad in any way, just not my cuppa tea, unfortunately.  I like all cigars, there’s some I love, and I almost always smoke a cigar to the (sometimes) bitter end, and I did with this one too, although the crooked burn made me leave more behind than usual.  Earlier in the week I had a Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars and a Nica Rustica, two “comfort food” cigars of mine, and all the other cigars I smoked during the week were pretty darned good, with this one being the least yummy of the bunch to me.

 

That’s all for now, I’m going to go out and make some money now, and fire up a cigar for the Flyers game later.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | April 5, 2015 · 9:42 am

A Room 101 Daruma, Bernie Parent’s Birthday and an Aged La Gloria Cubana Cigar

I’m going to try out a different posting schedule starting this week. I’m cutting my regular posts back to Sundays only, which will be the usual recap of notable (to me) cigars I smoked that week. I’ll post here and there during the week as something comes up, an event, an interesting cigar, or a news item, or not, however I feel. I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep the Sunday/Wednesday schedule going, and I have to admit, posting from my dying father’s hospital room put things into perspective for me. It may result in more posts that are focused on one thing, or I may take a week off, we’ll see how it goes. I’m also happy to post “Honorary Craig for a Day” posts if they come my way. I mainly want to avoid burning out, especially as the site continues to gain popularity. This plan should be better for everyone all the way around.

 

Room101_Daruma_LanceroLast July I was in Chicago herfing around town for a few days, and I was given a Room 101 Daruna Mutante Lancero. I managed to stumble into a herf at Tesa Cigars, there were folks there from the BOTL and Saints and Sinners groups, and they welcomed me into their event. I gave someone a cigar that they mentioned they hadn’t tried, it might have been a Leccia Luchador, and they reciprocated with this lancero, employing the time honored excuse of having to make room in the traveldor. It was not necessary, but much appreciated. This one had managed to migrate to the top of the lancero shelf in the humidor, so it caught my eye I needed to be smoked. The cigar is a beautiful classic pigtailed lancero measuring 7″ x 38, and smoked very well. The Screwpop 2.0 punch is about 10mm in diameter which made a perfect hole in the cap, no burn or draw issues were experienced.  It had a nice little kick with a hint of sweetness from the Brazilian Mata Fina used as the binder. It was an elegant smoke, both in shape and flavor. I’m reminded that I haven’t smoked this cigar’s cousins, Camacho, in quite a while and will have to scare one up.  Thank you to the gentleman who gave me this fine cigar.

 

BSB 40th_StanleyFriday happened to me Bernie Parent’s 70th birthday, In his honor I smoked the Lord Stanley from the BSB 40th Anniversary by Bernie Parent sampler. Of course, Bernie Parent is the legendary goalie who led the Philadelphia Flyers to back to back Stanley Cup wins in 1974 and 1975, winning the Vezina and Conn Smyth trophies in the same years. The sampler commemorates the never before and never since winning of all three trophies in back to back years.  Bernie is a great story teller and truly loves cigars, so much so that Rocky Patel created this line. I decided to smoke the Lord Stanley, the box pressed Sumatra wrapped cigar that’s about 6½” x 50 (I could grab another out of the box to measure, but the humidor is all the way across the house. Sadly nobody mentions the sizes of these online, more on that later). The cigar was good, very pleasant flavors, but nothing so spectacular as to warrant the $12 price tag in my opinion. I don’t regret the purchase though, I bought a imagesingle of each and the box containing four each of the three cigars and an autographed puck, and I had Bernie sign the box in front of me (and I got to spend a great evening listening to his stories), so it was worth it. I just have to decide if I will regret smoking through the box one day or if I should keep it intact. Not being a collector, I’m inclined to smoke them, maybe the Flyers will win another Cup in my lifetime, at which time I’ll have a great box of cigars to break out!

 

I often link back to the manufacturers websites in my posts as a reference to myself and so my readers can get more information if they desire.  I get frustrated by companies not having information on their sites about the cigars, as is the case with Room 101 and the BSB (I really searched through Rocky’s site, saw the HR500 listed, but no BSB, and there are a lot of lines to sift through!). It takes so little effort and expense to include information about the cigars, I don’t understand why in 2015 companies cant get the most up to day information on their sites in an easy to find manner. For this reason, I link to a sponsor’s retail website, or reputable information and review sites such as Halfwheel or Cigar-Coop, to fill in the blanks.

 

LaGloria_RetroCubanoYesterday I took a nice long walk with a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos Retro Especiale Cubano. I was given a box of these back in 2011 when I had the great pleasure of visiting General Cigar’s operations in Santiago, DR, and am down to the last few from that box. It’s a big cigar at 6½” x 58. The cellophane is now a nice amber color, and, all  things considered, these have aged nicely. The concept behind this line originally was to downplay the contribution of the wrapper to the flavor of the cigar and let the filler blend shine.  I can’t really comment on this without trying it with other wrappers, but the wrapper is a hybrid Connecticut seed grown in Honduras, so I can understand where it would theoretically be a very mild flavored wrapper.  I’ve smoked a bunch of these over the years and have always enjoyed the balance and medium bodied strength and flavor this cigar has. It’s right up there with my favorite LGCs, and I’ve been smoking La Glorias for almost 20 years. It’s a cigar that can be smoked at any time of the say and enjoyed, and they hold up over time, while it hasn’t gotten markedly better, it hasn’t lost anything either.

 

Happy Easter and Passover everyone! I’m off to load up yet another rental truck with furniture to move from the old house to the new one…one step closer to getting that job done!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | January 25, 2015 · 10:23 am

San Cristobal Revelation, Dubnium and Bernie Parent’s Vezina Cigar

To touch once again on the issue of Cuban cigars I brought up last time, or to expand upon it, I suppose, the issue of fakes was brought up.  I was saving that for a separate discussion, so here it is.  There will be no shortage of criminal behavior in this regard. How many people unfamiliar with cigars would be able to spot the difference between a Partagas Serie D No. 4 and a Rosa Cuba robusto without bands?  It may look like a worthwhile investment to have some bands made and but a bunch of cheap bundles and reband them. I hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas, but I would hope that anyone stupid enough to not have thought of this is scenario isn’t smart enough to run a business anyway.  So unsuspecting newbs wanting to try their fist Cuban cigar and willing to shell out a $20 to do it will get as much of a crappy experience as they might get smoking the real deal right off the truck! How many of us have seen everyone posting pictures of the Cohibas in the box with the sliding plastic lid that they got at a resort in Mexico? Fakes are already a big problem one that will get much worse when the embargo is lifted, and may already considering people misunderstand the recent relaxation of rules about what you can bring back from a licensed trip to the island. As always, I deeply appreciate the comments and discussion!

 

SanCristobal_Revelation_OdysseyOddly, I’ve been on a bit of a large cigar kick, at the time of year I should be smoking little cigars.  Thursday I reached for a San Cristobal Revelation Odyssey, an interestingly sized 5¾” x 60. This cigar was a Christmas gift from one of my vendors at work. This gentleman owns a steel company in Oxnard, CA and shops at Olde Oaks Cigar Co. in Thousand Oaks, CA. This is a really neat shop with a really good and well priced (for CA) selection of cigars, and what appears to this non-drinker to be an incredible booze selection. The lounge is nice as well. Anyway, this San Cristobal Revelation is one of his current favorites and he wanted to share it with me. I can see why he likes the cigar, the man may not smoke cigars more than once a week or so, but he has good taste, and this one is loaded with flavor. I found it to be medium bodied, smooth with a hint of savory sweetness. It started off with a hint of pepper, a signature of the manufacturer, the My Father factory. This size is round, but several other sizes have a box press, and it has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper and a really beautiful band.  This is a winner in my book and I would reach for this cigar without hesitation.

 

CE&M_DubniumFriday evening I thought it would be a good time to smoke the Foundry Compunds, Elements and Musings Dubnium: the Cheshire Cat.  As we all know, Dubnium is a chemical element with symbol Db and atomic number 105. It is named after the town of Dubna in Russia, where it was first produced. It is a synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature) and radioactive; the most stable known isotope, dubnium-268, has a half-life of approximately 28 hours (thank you Wikipedia), and a Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat popularized by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, not sure what one has to do with the other except that neither occurs naturally in nature, or has a damned thing to do with cigars. Knowing the beautiful mind of Michael Giannini as I do, one quickly learns not to question these things, the just are, reason and logic play no part, and that’s OK as the Foundry cigars, despite the gimmick and novelty, deliver in quality for me.  This was a cigar on the milder side, but heavy on the creamy soft flavors that I deeply appreciate on occasion. It had a sweetness and perfect burn and I found interesting and unique flavors as I frequently do in this line. That’s probably what keeps me sampling the Foundry line every chance I get, besides the fact that the Compounds, Elements and Musings series is generally wallet friendly, this 6″ x 60 box press cost me under $7 locally, and many are priced lower than that.  Innovative packaging, unique tobaccos (although, to be fair, it could be just about anything considering they rarely specify the tobaccos used), and a neat story and the trust I have in Michael makes me a fan.

 

BSBNo1 40th_VezinaYesterday, after a heavy, wet snow over night which was (thankfully) only a few inches, I opted for the second of three cigars from the Rocky Patel Bernie Parent BSB No.1 40th Anniversary set, the Vezina. It’s All Star weekend in the NHL, so I figured it would be appropriate, and I wanted to smoke it anyway, so there!  The Vezina is the trophy awarded each year to the goaltender “adjudged to be the best at this position”, and Bernie Parent won it in 1974 and 1975.  The cigar has a cedar sleeve, covering a beautiful Ecuador Habano wrapper, and is 6½” x 52. My friends at Halfwheel have a nice write up on this series of cigars, however they have spelt Vezina “Venzia” on two occasions, making it darned near impossible to find in a search, which isn’t pertinent to this story, just fun to point out.  I enjoyed the cigar, although it wasn’t as distinctively good as the Conn Smythe with the broadleaf wrapper. Not to say it wasn’t a wonderful smoke, but those aren’t hard to find these days, and I certainly won’t avoid it. Burned great, tasted great and evokes great memories of both a childhood watching the Broad Street Bullies win the Stanley Cup twice in a row, and times hanging out, smoking cigars with the legendary goaltender and wickedly funny story teller and friendly guy, Bernie.  Now I’m looking forward the the third in the series, the box pressed, Ecuador Sumartra wrapped Lord Stanley. Should I wait until June to smoke that? I’m not sure I can wait.

 

imageMy boss called me into his office yesterday morning, and instead of firing me, he gave me this interesting ashtray made from a well cap by a guy who works for a local well drilling company.  I’m more of a fan of having the business end of a cigar suspended over the ashtray, but this is an interesting design and will have a place in the smoking porch. It’s a much appreciated gift, much better than a pink slip!  That wraps up today’s episode, tune in Wednesday for more literary regurgitation as I meander through the wonders of the cigar world!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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by | January 18, 2015 · 10:14 am

Finishing Up the La Aurora Preferido Coronas and Bernie Parent at Goose’s

imageThursday evening I smoked the Ecuador (Sumatra) La Aurora Preferidos corona.  While this was an exceptional cigar, it had a hint of bitterness that put it in fourth place flavor-wise among the ones I’ve smoked thus far in comparison.  That’s not to say it wasn’t better than many cigars out there, it just didn’t hit my palate as favorably as the others. The construction was perfect and no oozing tar! I’ve got the Maduro (Brazil) and the Broadleaf coming up, I hope I didn’t set the bar too high and set myself up for disappointment.

 

Friday night I took a break from the La Aurora’s to visit Goose’s Tobacco Outlet and Cafe in Limerick, PA. Goose was hosting an event in his Montecristo Lounge featuring Bernie Parent and his BSB No.1 Cigars by Rocky Patel.  You may recall I had the good fortune to have been present at the launch of this line back in photo 1December of 2012 (here, and RIP Luca who hosted that event) and have had the pleasure of smoking cigars with Bernie on numerous occasions.  I’m not saying we’re buddies or anything, but he pretends to know me when we meet.  Rocky Patel account exec Mark Weisenberger was also on hand, taking grief from Bernie for being a Rangers fan.  One of the coolest things about this event was that the great Bernie Parent, with his ’74 and ’75 Flyers Stanley Cup rings, the goalie who “Only the Lord Saves More” than, was hanging out, smoking cigars, answering questions and telling stories.  I picked up one each of the three 40th Anniversary cigars, which come in a numbered box with an autographed puck, and four each of the Broadleaf wrapped Conn Smythe, the Habano wrapped Vezina, and the box pressed, Sumatra Lord Stanley, all in the toro size, and all named after trophies Bernie has won (all three back to back, which has never been repeated, not even by Wayne Gretzky).  I smoked the Conn Smythe as I was in the mood for a nice, sweet broadleaf and the cigar was exceptional. Sweet, cocoa and black coffee flavors and it burned well, although perhaps a bit on the moist side. I ended up buying the box at my wife’s suggestion, which allowed me to enter to win special luxury box tickets to the Flyers/Rangers game with Bernie and Mark. I fully intend to win this, by the way! Goose’s put on a great event, I came home with a ton of great cigars and a lighter wallet, and some great memories. Photos from the event below.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_MaduroYesterday I wrapped up the La Aurora Preferidos Corona project, smoking the Maduro in the afternoon, then the Broadleaf later in the evening.  The Maduro is a Brazilian wrapper which corresponds to the Ruby in the Preferidos line. I found this to be a nice, smooth cocoa maduro with no rough edges. I did get the bit of tar build up that I got with the Corojo, but I clipped it off and everything was dandy after that.  I did have a couple occasions where I had to relight it, but that wasn’t the fault of the cigar, I had a couple distractions while smoking that led me to ignore it long enough for it to go out.  Like it’s brethren, another great corona.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_BroadleafAfter dinner, and before the Flyers game, I tackled the final, and most anticipated, La Aurora Preferidos corona, the Broadleaf, or Diamond. I find it curious that they chose to name these differently from the line of perfectos. Instead of putting Diamond, Ruby, et cetera, on the bands, they used the actual wrapper name.  Nothing that bothers me too much, and perhaps they wanted to distinguish the coronas from perfectos.  I kinda like it from a cigar nerd stand point. The broadleaf was very different from any of the rest of the examples in the line. The wrapper gave this cigar a very pungent, almost cloying flavor, and I was torn between loving it and being annoyed by it. I ended up loving it.  It was also very different from the BSB Broadleaf from the night before. It had a palate coating quality much like licorice, not the flavor, but the texture. Very interesting and entertaining cigar to smoke, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

 

imageSumming up the experience of smoking the six La Aurora Preferidos Coronas, and thanks to Jason Wood and Gabriel Piñeres for getting these to me, if I were asked to put these in order of preference, I’d have to go, from top to bottom, Broadleaf, Connecticut, Cameroon, Maduro, Corojo and Ecuador, and that doesn’t mean the ones on the bottom of the list aren’t great, it’s just a combination of how they hit my palate and based solely on one sample of each. The experience was great, the size, 5½ x 42, was very nice, especially in the colder weather (which, no doubt, lead to the couple of tar issues I had). I believe these can be purchased via mail order, in addition to in the northeast region, I’ve seen that at Atlantic Cigars, with whom I have no affiliation, for around $43. Not a bad deal.

 

That’s all I have today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | April 17, 2013 · 6:57 pm

Breaking News, A couple Cigars From Joya De Nicaragua and a Room 101

Last night I was, once again, at the Flyers game, which ended in the Flyer’s favor, they played a great game against the Rangers. Afterwards we repaired to the cigar bar once again, and this time I ran into my friend Mark, who is the area Rocky Patel rep. Mark was there with enjoying the newest cigar in the BSB No.1 line-up, the “HOF-84” Box Pressed Torpedo. Of course, HOF stands for the hockey Hall Of Fame, in which Bernie was inducted in 1984. Last month Cigar Aficianado broke the news of the new sizes (http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/16982, actually I mentioned it here first!), but I have updated information, a “scoop” if you will. Apparently the “Between the Pipes” which was initially a 6½ x 56 toro (CA reported it would be box pressed which was incorrect, it was to be round, like a pipe on a hockey goal). Instead of the “Between the Pipes” coming out next month with the “HOF-84”, they are releasing the “Crossbar”, a 5½x56 robusto, again in the round as opposed to box pressed. The “Between the Pipes” will be a 6″x 60 and will be released at a later time. As far as I know, all of these will sport bands featuring Bernie’s crest, which highlights his Hall of Fame induction as well as his two Stanley Cup wins. I shot a little Keek video with Bernie when I saw him last night. Bernie’s a heck of nice guy, and he loves his cigars! I’m awfully glad I ran into Mark (he’s a Ranger’s fan, but still a good guy :-))and got to hang out with him and Bernie again, it’s always a hoot. There you have it, you heard this news here first!

 

CuencaYBlanco_ToroRewind to Sunday. The weather was stunning. Except for the occasional cool breeze, temps were in the 60s and I managed to get a slight sunburn from relaxing outside with a cigar after lunch. I chose a Cuenca y Blanco toro, one that was a sample from the IPCPR show, and had the old band as opposed to the new CyB band.  This is a cigar that I really want to love.  I know the players involved and have been to the factory, so I know it’s an exceptional cigar.  I enjoy smoking the cigar, and I’m not put off by it, it just doesn’t “wow” me.  There’s something in the flavor profile that just isn’t what I’m looking for in a cigar.  I still get a great smoking experience from the cigar, which is weird, isn’t it?  I’m saying I don’t like the cigar, but I still enjoy it, right?  I can say the same about a lot of cigars in the La Aurora line too, there’s something in the flavor that just isn’t my cup of tea (and the common thread isn’t lost on me).  I want to like them, there’s something I really enjoy about them, but the flavor isn’t it. This is a strange thing that I need to ponder repeatedly over as many cigars as necessary.

 

MUWAT_6x60Later in the day, after a nap and dinner, I decided to smoke a relative of the CyB, the My Uzi Weighs a Ton 6″ x 60.  Much the same as the CyB, this is another cigar that’s made in the Joya de Nicaragua factory, another cigar that I know the people behind, and another cigar that I enjoy, but don’t love.  I should love it, I just don’t.  The Digital Son 6 size was a winner for me, I’ve yet to try the Bait Fish, but the 60 ring gauge versions don’t excite me.  Great construction, great smoking experience, but the flavors don’t do it for me.  Go figure.  I love so many cigars that come out of the JdN factory, from the nice, mild Cabinetta to the heavy duty Antaño Dark Corojo, the Joya De Nicaragua cigars are among my favorites, but this, along with the CyB aren’t up there.  Still, a relaxing and satisfying hour and a half or so.  It’s not like I want to put the cigars down and get something else, I enjoy them, I just don’t get it.

 

Room_101_SA_305Monday, wanting a sure thing, I grabbed a Room 101 San Andreas 305 Robusto from my humidor and took it for a walk.  I love this cigar.  It gives me the chocolate/cocoa/coffee flavors I love.  There are a growing handful of San Andreas wrapped cigars  that I gravitate towards lately (one is the Chateau real Maduro, which is sadly discontinued, of which one in the Small Club Corona vitola was enjoyed at the aforementioned post Flyers Game cigar bar visit).  This one is a winner, I enjoy many of the cigars in Matt Booth’s Room 101 line, but this one is tops in my book.  Well done, sir!

 

More News

Renowned artist bringing work to Midwest Smoke Out

HutcHSome people might consider colorblindness a limitation, but Richard “HutcH” Hutchings has transformed that challenge into a skill.

As an artist who is colorblind, Hutchings directed his talent toward professional pen and ink drawing 40 years ago, taking advantage of his ability to shade and illustrate in great detail.

In 1994, he added another distinct genre to his repertoire – scrimshaw, the art of engraving or carving an image into bone or ivory. The carved lines are then filled in with ink to make the image stand out.

Hutchings will exhibit his work during the Midwest Smoke Out cigar show on April 25 at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.

“I was primarily a wildlife pen and ink artist, so I had accumulated a large collection of wildlife art,” he said. “When scrimshaw presented itself as an art form, I was more than ready to take it on.”

According to historical accounts, scrimshaw originated on whaling ships out of New England during the 18th century.

HutcH Cigar Cutter 5“Scrimshaw is the only art form that was made in America,” Hutchings said. “Out of boredom (sailors) would scratch designs in whale teeth.”

The scrimshaw work done by Hutchings includes handcrafted XIKAR-brand cigar cutters, custom jewelry and knife handles, much of which is carved from 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory that is delivered to his Louisville, Ky., studio from Siberia and Alaska.

He attaches his fossil ivory handles exclusively to XIKAR Xi3 cutter bodies, which he said have garnered a dedicated following. His products have also been showcased in several movies.

Hutchings has collaborated with renowned knife-maker Gil Hibben for a variety of film projects during the past 16 years. He did scrimshaw artwork on the handles of knives featured in the blockbuster “The Expendables,” and also made the cigar cutter used by Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2.”

For the past several years, he has also displayed and sold his scrimshaw artwork at cigar trade shows all over the U.S., including theInternational Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association Convention and International Trade Show in Las Vegas.

Hutchings said the Midwest Smoke Out would be an exciting new experience. He explained he was looking forward to the event because it will mark the first show where he can interact with individual customers rather than smoke shops and cigar companies.

“I will be demonstrating scrimshaw while there and everything I bring to the show will be for sale,” he said. “I’m excited to (participate in Midwest Smoke Out) because I get to talk directly with the customer.”

Among the cigar cutters Hutchings will offer at Midwest Smoke Out will be illustrations ofUlysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee for Civil War buffs, a Winston Churchill set, and the skull design that was used in The Expendables 2. His display will also include a new John F. Kennedy cutter, which will be offered for the first time at Midwest Smoke Out.

He added that he will be offering special discounts at the event. All cutters will 25 percent off, he said, and mammoth ivory cuff links and earrings will be 50 percent off.

Hutchings explained that he is proud of the enthusiasm he has garnered for his work since he began selling his products in 2002.

“That was over 2,000 cutters ago,” he said. “I have worked the custom cutters into a niche market so much so that in 2004 Cigar Aficionado called the mammoth ivory cutter the premium gift for the man or woman who has everything.”

For more information about Hutchings and his products, visit his website,www.scrimbyhutch.com.

The Midwest Smoke Out will feature premium boutique cigars from around the world, along with fine wine, spirits and craft beer, gourmet food, table games, luxury cars and more. For tickets, visit www.MidwestSmokeOut.com, or call 219-226-0300.

About Midwest Smoke Out

Midwest Smoke Out was launched in 2010 due to a need in the Chicago area for an event that allowed cigar lovers to light up and mingle. People are able to enjoy premium cigars from some of the best manufacturers in the world, along with tastings of fine wine, spirits, craft beer and gourmet food. The event also features live music, luxury cars, table games and a variety of surprises along the way.

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The Midwest smokeout looks to be a great event, another great event I won’t be able to make.  I have some info on a New Jersey festival someplace, I’ll try to scrounge it up for Sunday’s post.

 

That’s it for now, I need to take the dog for a walk, which means I have to find a suitable cigar for a beautiful spring evening!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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