A few years ago when I started smoking cigars, I always had trouble opening up the head of my smokes. Regardless of how sharp or how new my cutter was, I always seemed to get a cigar that unraveled on me. Not realizing at the time that I was clipping far too much off of my cigar, I decided to change gears and give a plug cutter a try.

The very next visit to my local cigar shop included a plug cutter along with my cigars. My new cutter cost me less than $4.00 and was made of plastic. The cutter was two sections that pulled apart, one section wielded a sharpened metal ring while the other had a long plunger to force scrap tobacco through the unit when reassembled.

This cutter was lightweight and immediately added to my keyring. I used this plug cutter for a couple of months before the metal ring fell out of the plastic housing. I grew fond of this style cutter and made a point to find one of better quality that would last longer.

While making a few purchases at Cigarmony, I came across an aluminum model almost identical to my previous plastic one. For around $5.00 I had it added to my shopping cart and shipped along with the rest of my order. It has been close to two years since that purchase and I still have my cutter in complete working order.

Weight:
This is what I like most about this cutter. The heavy feel it has in the hand gives me the impression that it is solid and well built.

Anodized Aluminum Body:
The finish on the cutter is pretty durable. For a long time it was kept in my pants pocket with keys and loose change, neither of which have beat it up too much.

Stainless Steel Cutter:
Within the anodized aluminum body there is a stainless steel cutter pressed into place. This cutter holds an edge for a long period of time before needing to be touched with sandpaper to re-sharped.

Plastic Retainer:
Held in place by the plunger is a small plastic retainer. This piece of plastic has a couple of small dimples on it which snap over the aluminum body as the cutter is closed. Over time this plastic wears out and the cutter falls apart while in my pocket

As time went on, I learned that to get a good cut with a guillotine cutter, I needed to take far less off of my cigar. As I got better with a guillotine cutter, my Vector Plug Cutter saw less and less action. I eventually made the switch to a Xikar MTX Multi-Tool that I keep in m pants pocket. After the switch to scissors, my plug cutter was only used on the rare occasion when a friend needed to borrow a user friendly cutting device.

Even while my plug cutter was seeing little to no action, I always kept it on my keyring just in case. It wasn’t until recently that I had to give up on it. The plastic retainer that holds the cutter tougher wore out and the two halves kept separating in my pocket. After loosing one half a couple of times and finding it a day or two later, I finally pulled it off my keyring.

All in all, this cutter has paid for itself time and time again. Its compact size allows it to easily hang from a keyring without being uncomfortable in the pocket. The single problem with this cutter is the plastic retainer, if it was made of something more durable, this tool would be kept with me day in and day out.