Vertigo Victory V-Cutter

Billed as a “value” cutter line “targeted to budget minded consumers”, the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter is a standard v-cutter that is made of plastic for the covering and includes a stainless steel blade. The cutter can cut cigars up to 62 ring gauge, and comes in only one color—dark slate gray—with a retail price of $2.99.

Visually, the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter is nothing new, and in fact, looks extremely close to the XIKAR VX V-Cut Cutter. The slate gray finish covers the entire cutter, with “Vertigo” in capitol letters stamped on the bottom half under the blade in white. The cutter is quite light when held in your hand, and is obviously made of nothing more than plastic and stainless steel.

Operation-wise, the Vertigo is fairly simple to use, especially since the action of the blade is virtually identical to XIKAR’s v-cutters. I explained how everything works in my review of the original XIKAR VX V-Cut:

On a traditional v-cutter, the triangular shaped blade will have its tip break the cap, from the center of the cigar, and then continue to penetrate the cigar. XIKAR’s cutter uses a v-like blade where the side of the v are the first to touch the cigar, on the outside areas, and the middle is the final part to come in contact with the blade.

The end result is to reduce tearing and prevent the risk of cutting too deeply. Because the cap is left enact, the company also claims a smoother cut and less risk of tobacco shard being left over.

After more than a month of use, the operation is as stiff as the day we bought it, and I would say the odds of the track the blade is on becoming smoother anytime soon is nominal. In addition, while the blade gave me no problems at all for the first month or so, it was fairly obvious when it began to dull, a few days ago, I was began to have some minor issues with tearing of the cap when I cut cigars. I also had some issues using the cutter when both sides were not directly aligned with each other, as the blade gets caught up and refuses to budge until they are realigned.

There are other issues with the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter. First and foremost is the name that is stamped on in white on the front of the cutter, which began to show signs of wearing off after only two weeks of use, although to be fair, it still has not come close to completely wearing off. Those adverse to having logos on products could find this as an advantage. The cutter is very light, to the point where it gives no stability when you are actually cutting a cigar, which takes some getting used to and actually caused some fairly janky cuts the first few times I used it.

Having said that, there are some positives for the Vertigo cutter as well. While the weight—or rather, the lack thereof—works against you when trying to actually cut a cigar, it is nice when you are carrying it around. In fact, there were times when I forgot I had it in my pocket for extended periods of time, something that will never happen with a cutter like the Colibri V-Cut. In addition, the finish on the exterior of the cutter does not scratch easily, and comes nowhere close to wearing off as can happen with the XIKAR VX V-Cut Cutter. While I was unable to test the claim of being able to cut 62 ring gauge cigars, I can safely say I had no problems at all cutting multiple 60 ring gauge cigars and cannot imagine that a 62 ring gauge cigar would pose any issue whatsoever.

Cuts with Vertigo, Colibri V-Cut and XIKAR XV V-Cut

Compared to the XIKAR VX V-Cut Cutter. ($54.99/$64.99), the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter is both substantially lighter, noticeably thinner and has a smaller opening. The cuts on both the XIKAR and the Vertigo are very similar in terms of length and depth, although I found the XIKAR’s blade to be sharper out of the gate, giving a cleaner cut overall. More importantly, the XIKAR blade has remained sharped. The Colibri V-Cut ($39) is heavier than both the XIKAR and Vertigo and it also cuts deeper than the Vertigo.

The unfortunate part is there was once a cutter that combined the performance of the XIKAR with the lightweight nature and price of the Vertigo. XIKAR used to distribute the Wolf 313 V-Cut, a $15 plastic v-cutter that featured the same blade as the company’s flagship VX V-Cut Cutter with the only difference being the Wolf’s opening was slightly smaller. Unfortunately, XIKAR discontinued the Wolf, which makes sense, since it was only eating into the VX sales.

As is always the case, XIKAR has its famous lifetime warranty, while Colibri only guarantees its product for two years. Vertigo cutters do have a lifetime warranty against mechanical defects, but since the $9 fee that the company charges for “shipping and handling” is almost double what the cutter actually costs new, I doubt they have many people taking them up on it.

After using the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter almost exclusively for well over a month, I can safely say that it would work extremely well as a way for someone to inexpensively try out v-cutters for the first time to see if it is something they want to pursue, someone who travels a lot and needs a cutter that they won’t cry over if it gets taken out of their luggage or for a more seasoned smoker who is always losing their cutters. Yes, the blade does get a bit dull after some extended use, but at the sub-$5 price point it sells at, that is not overly surprising. In the end, the Vertigo Victory V-Cutter is exactly what it bills itself as: a solid, inexpensive, mostly easy to use V-cutter that will take a large amount of punishment and won’t break the bank if you happen to misplace it.

An earlier version of this review stated that the Victory V-Cutter retail price was $9.99, in fact the price is $2.99. The review has been changed to reflect the correct information.