Shoe Peg Cigars and Their Many Makers

(Cigar History Museum) Shoe pegs are ¾” long wooden “nails” that in the 19th century and before were used in the manufacture of shoes and boots, especially to attach heels and soles. What do they have to do with cigars? And why name your cigar after them?
The answer lies in how a cigar is made. Cigars have rounded closed heads (the end that goes in a smoker’s mouth). The closed head requires a smoker to bite or cut the end of a cigar before he can light it and draw smoke through it. The bitten-off piece is spat onto the floor, where the small slippery lump stains the rug and otherwise annoys the woman of the house. A sloppy bite can loosen the wrapper or otherwise impair the smoking quality of the cigar.
Clever cigar engineers have worked on solving that problem almost as long as men have smoked cigars. Continued