William Henry Cigar Knives
MacGyver’s multipurpose contraptions notwithstanding, the simplest pocketknife will hold you in good stead for a number of uses—like cutting a thread, opening a package, peeling fruit and sharpening a pencil. William Henry has a more gentlemanly pursuit in mind for some of its blades: cutting the cap off a cigar. They combine expert workmanship and rare components with a specialized opening in the knife frame that is purpose-built for cigars.
“We offer our cigar cutters in a variety of materials like fossil woolly mammoth tooth, hand-forged mokume-gane, desert ironwood, aerospace-grade titanium and wood from barrels used for Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon,” says Christian Davis, the vice president of marketing and brand development at William Henry. “All of these are paired with a hand-forged Damascus steel blade and gemstone adornments on the thumb stud and button lock.” Natural variations in the wood, stone and fossil make every cutter feel unique, Davis adds.
We tried out William Henry’s Hurricane model (pictured, $2,250), a knife crafted with a mokume-gane frame, citrine gemstone embellishments and inlaid fossil woolly mammoth tooth. The knife’s Damascus blade measures 2 3/4 inches long, and its handle is 3 3/4 inches long. William Henry offers several versions of its cigar cutter, with prices ranging from $1,200 to $2,250. Each version is limited to 500 pieces.
In practice, there are a few available methods to cut a cigar with the William Henry cigar cutter. The easiest one uses the hole at the back of the handle to achieve a guillotine-style cut. The aperture can snip cigars up to 52 ring gauge. For larger smokes, the approach is to open the knife fully and rotate the cigar in your hand against the blade, surgically removing the cap. Finally, the single-sided grind on the blade is so sharp that it’s even possible to make a V-cut in the head of the cigar.
We never saw MacGyver try that.
