by Wynne Hunkler, Cigar Enthusiast
On a steamy Saturday afternoon during the Summer of 2003 at a BBQ in North Texas, fellow herfers began showing up with coolers loaded with frosty beverages, garbage sacks overflowing with New Orleans hot and salty nuts, liters of every liquor and mixing concoction known to even the finest of bartenders, and travel humidors and boxes bursting at the seams with the finest premium cigars. Everything the gang needed for a successful BBQ herf … so we thought …
“Look what I have! Look what I have! You gotta have one of these!” hollered Timmy, opening one of his travel bags. “You gotta have one of these”, he repeated, tossing small odd-shaped blue boxes around the room. Well, Timmy’s generosity resulted in everyone at the BBQ taking home one of the newest, “cool” cigar toys of that year, the Xikar Multi-tool.
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As I opened one of these odd-shaped boxes, I was a bit confused at first, not quite sure what I had in my hand. This sleek new tool looked more like a magician’s key than a cigar gadget. However, unfolding the attachments one by one, I found a small screwdriver, a metal toothpick size attachment for poking cigars or bleeding lighters, a bottle opener, a knife blade and an incredibly sharp, scissor-type cigar cutter, which according to the manufacturer, can handle up to a 54 ring gauge cigar. The Xikar Multi-tool is just that—a cigar tool for multiple uses.
Xikar is the Mayan word for the large, dark cicada, from which cigars - supposedly resembling - first derived their name. But while the Xikar name harkens back in history, nearly every aspect of the company's innovative cutters are thoroughly modern - designed from the ground up, combining ergonomic functionality and contemporary aesthetics. The Multi-tool is no exception. Designed by Kurt Van Keppel and Scott Almsberger, they certainly had functionality and aesthetics in mind, with such a compact, sleek design and a varied assortment of “limbs”. (continued...)
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