im sure cork has a stack of petrochemicals in the glue that binds it together.
When I was in Portugal this spring I visited surfboard factory (Nineplus and Retro Movement) on a centuries old cork farm…Rolling grassy hills with sheep and cows grazing and random cork trees of varying ages…(Not far from where my avatar picture was shot…!!!..)… I had a conversation with the guy whose grandparents lived there, basically forever…He told me about the harvest schedule, roughly every nine years, and the specialized cork harvesters…Guys with sharp knives knowing just how deep to cut and peel…Interesting…Beautiful…
The guys in Portugal make their own resin squeegees from cork…Wallets and purses, and benches and tables and shoes are hundreds of other things, all made of cork…But not all cork is the same…
This I found on-line…“… cork is formed at a rate of 1.5 mm per year, till a thickness of more than 60 mm is reached. This cork is called virgin cork and does not come away by itself; it is hard, and unsuitable for cork stoppers. On the other hand, it is used for the manufacture of bonding materials, because, after cork expansion by heat, the resin it contains becomes an excellent agglomerate.”…That means(and I heard this from several others) that they grind the cork up and sort of cook it and lay it out to cool…Once it cools, it sticks to itself…No extra binders needed…It can then be sliced to whatever they need…
They can only do that with the first harvest…Subsequent harvest yield firmer cork…More valuable to the wine makers…
Interesting, the sustainability aspect…
The adhesive on the back, I’m not sure how they make that…
This year I’ve been tinkering with full cork decks on some of my paipo boards. One half inch thick cork glued to raw plywood with Tightbond II glue. I’ve also used the really fumey contact cement. In my case I apply the cork before the board is shaped. Then I cut out the template, router the bullnose edges on the rails, and then finish sand. Easy Street. I’ve used both raw plywood and old skimboards for the base. Haven’t yet got into vac bagging my own plywood shapes, but it’s on my list. I seal the cork even though it probably doesn’t really need it. I use 2 primer coats of hemp oil & turpentine for both sides of the board, then 3 coats of exterior tung oil varnish (only varninshing the plywood). Allowing at least 2 days between coats. One of them I stained walnut, and then resanded the cork (see photo bottom left) and the contrast came out kind of bitchin. Bet the best part was that I had discovered that you can vary the drag of the cork by sealing it, and then resanding select areas where you want more traction. I did this on a handboard that I sealed with water base polyurethane. The coats dry in one hour. After about 5 coats I resanded the parts I needed to hold onto, and left the other parts slick. Lots of experimention left to do in this area. Enough fun for everybody.
I chafes only slighty riding bare skin…mostly down around my belly. But it’s still preferable to pulling soft surfwax out of my chest hairs. The cork is also a good shock absorber for your chest, elbows and face. Things more important to prone riders.
Probably be better than the other petro free stuff I tried recently, Famous Waxes Green Wax. Way too smeary, didn’t bump up like I like it. I do remember hearing something from back in my waiting table days about cork not being a completely renewable resource and that stocks were diminishing because of the slow growth rates, which is why lots of vintners were going to artificial corks. Problem with them is that they tend to jam up the corking machines.
