Sticky Blotches in your Humidor?
If your humidor has Spanish Cedar lining, have you ever noticed that sometimes you get oily or sticky blotches on the inside of the lining?
Those blotches are actually aromatic oils, and they give the Spanish Cedar the spicy scent that is unique to Spanish Cedar. The oils naturally occur in this species of wood and can be more prevalent if your Spanish Cedar has been cut from the center of the tree (heartwood).
The drawback to having Spanish Cedar with abundant aromatic oils, is that the oils can get sticky, and bond to the wrappers of your cigars.
The best thing to do, is leave it, as that is the very product of the wood that creates the rich aroma. However if you find that your cigars are getting damaged then you may have to remove some of the oils from the humidor walls.
If you have to remove the sticky blotches you can do a few things.
1. You can take some fine 400 grit sandpaper, and lightly sand the sticky surface. This will remove the oil, and stickiness, however it may return after a few weeks.
2. You can use some lacquer thinner, which quickly removes the oils. Lacquer thinner also flashes off quickly minimizing the solvent scent to penetrate into your spanish cedar. If you use lacquer thinner to remove the spanish cedar oils, be sure that the scent of the thinner has totally disappeared before introducing your humidor with cigars once again.
Keep in mind, the more aromatic oils there are in the wood, the more rich the beautiful aroma you will have on the inside of your humidor.
We at Vanderburgh Humidors love to use Spanish Cedar with a high aromatic oil content. Because this could pose a problem with the oils showing up on the bottom of your humidor, we choose to line the bottom of the humidor with solid gorgeous black granite.
To see some of our humidors with solid granite, view our website here:
Eddie