There are several different items you can use that achieve the same basic purpose, in various ways:
Cigar Cutter:
Cigar cutter are a guillotine style device used to cut the cap off of the cigar. Cigar cutter are available in single, double, and even triple blade, single and double blades being the most common. Double blade cutters are usually more expensive than their single blade counterparts, but they will last far longer, as they are self-sharpening. Most single blade cigar cutter are disposable, and should be thrown away once they have stopped making clean, sharp cuts.
Cigar Scissors:
Cigar scissors resemble double blade cutters in performance, but are not self-sharpening. Cigar scissors are known to crush or tear the head off the cigar if they are not kept at peak sharpness.
Cigar Punch:
A cigar punch cuts a small circle into the cap. Some have an ejection spring to push out the cut tobacco. The punch does not work well on thin cigars. It works especially well on cigars of 54 ring gauge or more. A guillotine cutter can not usually accommodate these wide bodied cigars. The punch hole also serves to relieve you from having to put the whole cigar in between your lips, which can be uncomfortable on the jaw. Rather, you can "sip" the smoke through the punch opening.
Cigar Wedge Cutter:
These cigar cutters notch a "V" down the center of the cap, about an 1/8-1/4" deep. Typically, they work very well on thin (less than 40 ring size) and tapered (torpedo shaped) cigars. They do not give a clean cut on wider gauge caps.
Cigar Poker:
Cigar Pokers are a great item to have when one of your favored cigars is hard to draw on. Occasionally, a bit of tobacco bunches up at the heart of a cigar and choices are few for getting a proper draw or burn. That's when you need a poker. You insert the pin-like rod through the head of the cigar as straight as you possibly can, to try and break up the clog. You should also use the poker at the foot of a cigar as well, and carefully penetrate in a straight line to ease the clog from the bottom.
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