AWGB Woodturning Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bill21 on January 07, 2021, 10:01:40 PM
-
Anyone tried it? From what little I’ve read it’s difficult to turn but rather needs sanding to size and shape.
-
Being soft flexable and unstable I think it would be a challenge and a half
-
I think you should start by drinking the contents first !
After that you can turn anything!
-
I've done it. Bought some optic corks for making bottle stoppers but got wrong size. Made a sort of mini Jam chuck, slid cork on (nice and tight). Used good sharp skew at high speed. Finish turning too big and take down to exact size with sandpaper (I thing I went straight it at 320 grit). Probably lost 20%.
-
I once turned a vase/hollow form thing from a log of cork oak I lifted from a roadside in Portugal [I think]. The differing density between the wood and its thick cork coating made life extremely interesting. Cant for the life of me remember the exact method but I did succeed so it can be done. I seem to remember that the cork shrank away from the wood slightly, leaving a small step, but it wasn't enough to ruin the finished article, which kicked around here as a novelty for years.
Brian
-
I have turned quite a few pieces of cork oak obtained legally from a tree in the UK. Apparently Goodwood House in Sussex has an avenue of the things. A lot of feature in the grain of heart and sapwood and clearly marked break between the inner bark and outer bark, the actual cork. Yes, fast speed, sharp tools and light cuts were the order of the day with plenty of work with abrasive paper. Osmo oil was the finish of choice.
ATB John
-
wandering off on a slight tangent, can anyone offer an insight as to why, unlike most or all other trees, a cork oak survives having its bark removed for harvesting?
Brian
-
Not sure as this would kill most trees which don't regenerate the bark as the cork oak does.
Pete
-
Yes, the cork tree is able to regenerate the outer bark which is harvested as cork. The harvesting does not take the inner bark. maybe the thin bit of cork left behind is enough to protect the tree ? The inner bark is also quite substantial, I have seen inner bark up to 10mm in thickness.
ATB John
-
wandering off on a slight tangent, can anyone offer an insight as to why, unlike most or all other trees, a cork oak survives having its bark removed for harvesting?
Brian
The Cork is an outer bark made from the same stuff (like fingernails or hair is sort of skin) but it is dead, possibly as a fire protection layer given that they grow in places where forest fires are common. It can be harvested once a decade or so, leaving the living inner bark which like other trees must be left mostly undamaged as it forms part of the water / nutrient pumping system.
-
thanks for the info everybody. Many years ago I passed some roadside trees in Portugal that had been recently harvested. The bare trunks looked so brutally cruel that the image has stayed with me.
Stay safe
Brian