Not by any means, I am an expert, just a hobbyist I would say. There are people who had been growing their own tobacco, processing it and rolling cigars. The leaves I buy are readily available online for purchase. The recent one I smoked is from a blending kit. But thanks for the kind words.
I have no mold at the moment. Whenever I want to roll one, I grab a commercial cigar from my humidor, check the dimensions and feel it in my hand. After that I check the guide below:
It was shared by a fellow cigar roller on another forum. I usually use 3 Tripa leaves, so my cigars are somewhere between 41-44 ring gauges, sometimes even bigger. If you have a mold, you just roll the cigar and let the mold take care of everything, and you get a better looking cigar in the end. If you are not using a mold, then you have to roll something with a decent construction and draw. You may also wrap a paper around the bunch and let it sit for 15 minutes, that's what I do all the time. Paper also sucks the extra moisture from the bunch.
