Scored two cork life jackets yesterday

G

GaryRI

Active member
More or less free.

It was a barn sale in the neighborhood. The outer cotton covers were rotting off. Most of the cork seems fine. A few of the cork pieces are solid. Most were 2"x2" (or so) strips held together by dowels.

I haven't messed around making decoys for awhile but I couldn't pass this up.
 
Anyone play around with laminating natural cork slabs for decoy construction? Used what kind of glue? Clearly the connecting surfaces would have to be trued up/flat.

Joel Barber's book shows pieces of "life jacket" cork glued to a wood "core" block.

I have perhaps 2 cubic feet of natural cork.
 
I have been successful laminating cork when the laminated sides are sealed first. This allows the adhesive to bond rather than just soak into the cork.
 
Gary

By "natural cork", do you mean black cork (heated and pressed, using natural resins of the cork to create the bond) or actual natural chunks of bark off the tree? I saw some life vests like what you got (but likely in better condition) in the restored Lifesaving Service boat at Whitefish Point a couple years ago. Got any pictures?

As far as gluing, whatever glue you choose, don't skimp on quantity. Any cork bond needs plenty of glue, and this cork is (likely) drier and will suck up the glue even more. I personally love Titebond 2 for wood and cork joints, I buy it by the gallon and apply with a plastic squeege, in fact just glued on a bunch of bottom boards last night in this fashion. If you are concerned with failure, other options would be epoxy or shoeglue. The epoxy will leave a harder seam to work. As far as shoeglue, I was down at Mark Rongers picking up the last of his cork billets a couple months back, he gave me 3 laminated pieces of cork which he had glued up with Barge's shoe cement. He swears by the stuff, he has made, used and abused cork decoys for years and says he wouldn't glue up cork any other way. The drawback which someone warned me of with shoeglue and after working one of the joints on these pieces Mark gave me I concure, is just the opposite of epoxy. Where the epoxy joint is kind of hard and works more diffucult than the cork, the shoe glue leaves a rubbery joint that seems fine to the initial shaping process, but is difficult to sand smooth.

Best
Chuck
 
Chuck J

By natural cork I mean the way it came off the tree. Not reconstituted. I have made decoys from the cheap black cork & the better, more dense product.

The natural product I have might be too old & crumbling to use but it was almost free. I'll glue it to a bottom board for protection if I do something with it.

I don't know how to post pictures.

Send me your email address if you want a picture.
 
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