I am not a regular smoker of cigars but opened a nice one yesterday (A. Fuente Gran Reserva - Chateau Fuente Natural) but with a cigar that is only 4.5 long (ring 50) it seemed to smoke just to the band would mean about 25% would be unsmoked. Since this for me was an expensive cigar I thought I would just remove the band but unfortunately it stuck to the wrapper a bit and unraveled it! I thought that the band would come off easy.....lesson learnt I guess, next time smoke to the band before trying anything that may damage the cigar