A couple of links on some history...take them for what you will.

http://pages.ripco.net/~whizstrt/bandinfo.htm

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar...22,755,00.html
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For me it is strictly bands off. I really don’t have a reason, just my preference.
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Leave it on till the glue heats up !
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Band on until it is about to burn, to many ruined cigars
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Awesome links! Learned a lot I didnt know!
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as others have said - i tend to leave it on until the heat softens the glue....unless it is loosey goosey from the start..then i just slide her off.
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I leave the bands on and I like to rotate my cigar A LOT, that way everyone at the herf knows exactly how much of a swell guy I am by seeing what kind of cigar I'm smoking and how fancy the band is. In fact, sometimes I'll even move the band from a cigar I just smoked to a cigar that I'm currently smoking, that way anyone who missed the first band gets a second chance to see it.
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I leave mine on. I'll take it off when the burn is a .5" or so from the band, helping it come off easier. I don't really like my fingers smelling too much like a cigar, so the band gives me something to hold without that problem.
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I always remove my bands before lighting. I have never ruined a wrapper by doing it. I guess some folks are more ham handed than others! LOL
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That would be my only reason too. The fact that I've ruined some wrappers by removing them too soon. I just didn't want to "offend" anyone in a crowd..haha like I'd care.
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Being in Canada, I smoke mostly Cubans and the bands are glued to the damn cigars. The NCs I find come off a lot easier
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...x3:-)
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Its not ham hands. Its the fact that on lighter wrappers they can make a spot where when you get to it, the cigar wrapper comes apart. Heavy wrappers don't usually have that problem.
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I always take mine of usually, unless I can feel it's on there real good and may cause some trouble.....I have heard it is bad etiquette to keep it on around others, who gives a flying crap really.....Unless your buying cigars to be a snob and show off, I doubt anyone really cares....
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That's what she said:-)
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:-) Same here...if it's going to damage my cigar, it stays on until I can remove it. If someone is leaving a band on to "show off", I think they have a much larger issue lurking...or smaller. :-)
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I have heard some say it is snobbish to leave the band on, and it should be removed. I have heard that supposedly apocryphal story about the "white gloves" need for bands in the first place. I agree that sometimes the wrapper can be damaged when one removes the band, and I also agree that the glue can often soften once the cigar has been smoked for a bit.

As for me, I'm not anal about it either way. On, off, WTF. As long as the cigar smokes fine, what do I care?
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Band on for me!
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I worry about how the cigar will smoke if I take the band off, possibly damage the wrapper or get sweat and oil on the wrapper from my hands. I'm not sure it would make a difference either way, but I leave them on, but not to show off (I dont have many fancy cigars anyhow).
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There are a lot of legends about bands. Gustave Bock has been credited with the popularization of paper bands to identify the cigar makers in the mid 1800s. From all I've read, bands were added simply for branding.

The legend about cigar staining the white gloves of "Fancy Dans" or "Jim Dandies" comes from the late 1700s when cigars were finished with a chicory-shaded gum and rolled in a fine tobacco powder (pulverized dried leaf). This finishing process was necessary because the wrapper leaf [back then] was crude and uneven in color and finish. The powder finish provided a desirable even color but quite possibly stained the fingers or, in the case of "Jim Dandies" . . . their white gloves.

Brit's and some European cultures encourage the removal of bands as proper etiquette. However, I've been told that they remove the band and place the band on the table in front of them, thus showing what brand they are smoking! Doesn't that kind of contradict the idea of removing it for snob factor? :-)

I take bands off when possible with no damage to the wrapper. . . usually when the burn gets close to the band which heats the glue and makes it easier to remove.

I also save bands. . . but, haven't much interest in collages. However, I would like to make a poster size Photo Mosaic using the various bands as the color pixels. Just waiting to find the right photo. :-)
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