How to build a cigar box humidor

My long and rewarding life has been graced by family and friends who tolerate my passions for bird hunting, bird dogs, baseball, brew pub beers, and premium cigars. In my senior years, paradise is a lounge chair in the warm autumn sunshine, a French spaniel dozing beside me, a cold mug of dark beer in one hand and a smoldering cigar in the other, listening to a radio broadcast of the opening game of the World Series.

That may come to pass this fall because – Hallelujah! – the doctor who leads my healthcare team has released me from a three-year prohibition on cigar smoking. Although he did not say I could light up a cigar whenever the craving struck me, he suggested that with my genetic predisposition for heart attack and stroke, an occasional cigar would make little difference in my remaining lifespan.

No, the traffic light did not turn green, but I am now rolling through a few intersections on yellow.

Truthfully, I never strictly obeyed the “no tobacco” rule. About once each month I would yield to temptation and fire up a good corona or Churchill, rationalizing that some achievements can be celebrated only in that heady blue-gray cloud of cigar smoke. A three-rooster opening day of pheasant season, for example.

Free to enjoy a cigar more frequently, I threw caution to the winds – well, at my age caution is thrown only to the gentlest of breezes – and bought a box of Honduran handmade Baccarat Belicoso Havana Selection. Twenty perfecto style cigars, six and one-quarter inches in length, ring gauge size 52, with that alluring tapered head and blunt foot. I opened the box, breathed in the sweet aroma, took out the top five, and was dismayed to discover that cigars longer than five and one-half inches will not fit in the glass jar humidor my wife bought me a couple months ago.

On one hand, this is clearly a First-World problem. On the other hand, most premium cigars are produced in Third-World countries, and the craftsmen who hand-rolled these perfectos would be displeased to learn I have failed to keep them in a humidor that cradles and pampers the products of their highly skilled labor. A handmade cigar should be stored in a humidor that maintains a 70-70 atmosphere – 70 percent humidity and 70 degrees Fahrenheit temperature – which promotes the final aging process and improves its flavor, smoothness, and burn rate.

Sidebar: As with wine connoisseurs, there is much debate among cigar aficionados about the correct humidity and temperature for humidors. There is also spirited discussion about whether a cigar should be placed in the humidor still wrapped in its factory cellophane or with cellophane removed. In my experience, the 70-70 rule works well, and because the cigar’s cellophane wrapper is highly permeable there is no discernable difference between sleeved and un-sleeved storage. Other smokers may have staunchly different views.

Because I am an inveterate tinkerer and also a collector of wooden cigar boxes, I decided to solve the undersized humidor problem by converting an old cedar-lined cigar box into a much larger humidor. I chose a box with brass hinges and latch made by the National Cigar Company that once held 50 cigars of the Cuban Rounds brand. National Cigar Company is a well-known tobacconist distributor based in Frankfort, Indiana. Cuban Rounds offers cigars in several different sizes and shapes.

This specific box has interior measurements of 8½ inches wide, 7½ inches long, and 3½ inches deep -- perfect for creating a humidor for the size of cigars that I smoke.

Four or five years ago I purchased this castoff box from an antiques and junk store in Silver City, New Mexico. Back home from the Southwest, I cleaned the box, repaired its latch, sanded it lightly, and treated it with tung oil. The lid closed tightly with no gaps, and the thin cedar panels lining the inside of the box were equally tight.

Today, to convert the wooden box into a humidor, I coated the underside of the lid with polyurethane varnish to protect it from the moisture I planned to apply to the square piece of sponge that would serve as a humidifier.

I attached the sponge to the underside of the lid using thick double-sided plastic adhesive tape. A battery-powered humidity and temperature monitor that cost $11 should fit comfortable in this humidor atop the cigars or attached to the underside of the lid.

I plan to open the old cigar box-humidifier in November and smoke a Baccarat perfecto while celebrating the 2026 Midterm elections that will hopefully be a Blue Wave, returning control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to Democratic majorities. If not, I will smoke two in mourning for America’s future.