Quick question on sealing black cork

Charles H.

Charles H.

Active member
I'm working on a spread of black cork ducks. I know from reading many threads over the years that thinned spar varnish is the preferred method of sealing. I seem remember someone saying they dunk the decoy in a bucket of thinned spar varnish until the bubbles stop coming out.

My Question is what ratio are you thinning your spar varnish to? Do you use the same ratio for multiple coats or use more varnish in later coats?

Thanks in advance!
 
Wish we could still get oil based spar varnish, but anyway 50/50 for the first dunk (some folks do it twice). Twist the decoy around a couple times to let bubbles float free. Hang by the bill so the drips go to the tail where they are most easily sanded off.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
Wish we could still get oil based spar varnish, but anyway 50/50 for the first dunk (some folks do it twice). Twist the decoy around a couple times to let bubbles float free. Hang by the bill so the drips go to the tail where they are most easily sanded off.
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Not easy to come by, and $25-35 per quart online. Thanks!
 
Not easy to come by
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That's for sure, I've pretty much given up trying. Also, I forgot to fully answer your original questions. After the thinned down soaking, I typically flood coat the decoy once with a brush using unthinned varnish.

Prior to maybe 25 years ago my family only rarely did the varnish thing. I think they were sensitized to spending extra money going back to the Great Depression, so for instance we would use cheap exterior house paint for black and white without benefit of sealing beforehand. Some of those decoys became waterlogged and crumbled quickly, others not so much. They/we made new decoys every year anyway, so I guess maybe a little planned obsolescence was involved. The old timers are all gone, and I'm the old fart now. For old times sake a few years ago I tried dipping the decoys in thinned down oil based paint before overpainting with a brush. It did the job but ate through the paint pretty quick. I wasn't convinced it did a sufficiently better job covering the decoy to offset the increased paint consumption versus varnish.

Best of luck, those are nice decoys.
 
Try using Golden Acrylic's MSA matte varnish thined to their specifications with their thinner. You will not regret it. Great product. You can put it straight on cork and even on top of Acrylic paint. Water beads up like a fresh wax job on a car. I recently made a black duck Gunner sealed with this product. I did not paint the decoy. Looks great and sheds water.
 
Another option is using Titebond II or III thinned out with water in a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of glue to water. Stir well and dunk the bird in the mix until bubbling stops. Allow several days to drip dry. 2 advantages with this method: it waterproofs the cork, secondly, acts as a binder for the cork. Black cork doesn't have a binder added during the production process. The high heat brings out natural oils in the cork that binds it. No where near as durable at the binder used in the tan cork production process.
 
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