Tools: Cigar Scissors

By Gregory Mottola

The scissors cutter occupies a revered niche in the realm of cigar clippers. It is a tool for the contemplative and ceremonious smoker who is willing to expend the time and effort to make an exacting cut. But this classic now has some fancy new twists.

Some new iterations can change the way you wield your steel. The triple-blade cutter by Pearl Tsubota (below, vandyketsubota.com, $78) comes from Japanese steel straight off the anvils of the legendary Seki company swordsmiths, who forge the blades as though still in feudal Japan. With this unorthodox design, three aperture-style blades come together like a camera shutter to shear off the top of your cigar with samurai precision.

If you�re intrigued by the idea of Japanese steel but require a more compact, portable design, consider the sleek Prometheus Cutter S (top right, prometheuskkp.com, $69.95), which streamlines a set of Japanese steel scissors that fold neatly into a thin sheath. It plays on the standard pocketknife platform and incorporates a spring-activated scissors you press with your thumb for a quick, clean cut.

Expanding on the theme of foldable scissors, Xikar has developed the Xi MTX (second from top right, xikar.com, $39.99) a multi-tool cutter with a paramilitary look. The bottle opener, screwdriver, box opener/nail remover and torch valve bleeder all nest unobtrusively within the handles. When folded up, the Xi MTX measures two inches long and a fifth of that thick to fit easily on a keychain or in your pocket.

Prefer a classic return to utilitarian simplicity? The Zino Cigar Scissors (top left, davidoff.com, $180) echos the overall design of Davidoff�s branding: understated elegance. Made of only two moving parts, the razor-sharp German steel scissors allows you to perform a surgically precise, controlled snipping. All the scissors come in various finishes and are sized to meet Transportation Security Administration guidelines (although your ability to get them on an airplane is up to the discretion of individual security officers). Each one has a distinctively different feel as well as weight and action, but none are cumbersome or unwieldy.

Once you find the cutter that suits your needs, and fits most comfortably in your hand, you can start to relearn the delicate art of cutting a cigar.

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