The Complete Handbook of Cigarette Cases

Chapter 1: Understanding Cigarette Cases

A cigarette case is, at its core, a rigid container designed to carry pre-rolled cigarettes in good order. That simple description undersells the engineering involved. A well-designed case protects the cigarettes from being crushed in a pocket, keeps them dry in light rain, and presents them one at a time with a single, fluid motion. This is the entire job description, and it is surprising how many expensive cases fail at it because their makers focused on engraving or plating and ignored the mechanics. This book is about evaluating those mechanics, selecting the right case for a given job, and keeping it operational for years.

To understand how a cigarette case works, you have to understand its basic anatomy and the materials used. The standard volume is the flat case, which holds 20 cigarettes in a single row. Size is dictated by the product it carries: a standard king-size cigarette in many markets is roughly 84 millimeters long and 8 millimeters in diameter, which means the interior cavity of the case must be sized with enough tolerance to slide the cigarettes in and out freely without allowing them to rattle around. A case that holds cigarettes too tightly will tear the paper as you remove one; a case with too much internal play will let the cigarettes shift and break the tobacco rod. This tolerance is the first thing to check on any case, and it is often the thing that fails on cheaply made