Cork

Cork description

What Is Cork?

Cork, known primarily for its use as bottle stoppers, comes from the bark (suberose parenchyma) of the cork oak. This raw material has a wide variety of applications. See our product listing.

Cork

With its light-weight honeycomb structure, impermeability to liquids and gas, and its flexible membrane, cork is the ideal material for products ranging from stoppers to floats, from flooring tiles to gasket material, from clothing to coasters. There is no other material, either natural or manmade, with all of the characteristics that are unique to cork: light weight, rot resistant, compression and expansion, fire resistant, impermeable, soft, and buoyant.

The cork oak, Quercus suber, grows in the sunny south of Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. Portugal accounts for more than 50% of the world's total cork production. It is the climate and soil types of this region that keep the trees growing. Although cork trees are also grown in some Asian countries, only cork harvested from the Mediterranean region is of a quality good enough to be commercially viable.

This remarkable tree has a bark which is unique throughout the plant kingdom. The cork bark can be 'stripped' off allowing new bark to grow in its place. This makes every tree a source of raw material. The cork can be cut from each tree time after time. This is termed cork harvesting.

The first crop, known as virgin bark, is cut when the tree is 25 years old. It can then be 'stripped' every nine years generation after generation for 200 or so years. A tree that is 80 years old can produce 200 kilos of cork when cut.

Cork Stripping

Cork stripping is the process of removing the bark of the cork tree. This is an extremely delicate operation which is very consequential for the vitality of the cork oak. Since stripping the tree is an unnatural act, it is very possible to upset the internal balance of the tree. During the stripping procedure, the protective layer of inner bark is removed. To keep the cork tree in good health and producing good cork, strict laws are imposed on the saplings and on cork stripping.

How this natural product becomes a wine cork:

Natural cork is used as the cork closure since it allows the wine to "live" and mature in the bottle. Wine corks are made from corkwood which is cut into shape, washed and inspected for flaws. Corks are "punched" directly from the bark. They are then sorted into seven different qualities, sterilized and finally, their moisture content is checked and regulated.

The finished corks are packed in heat sealed polyethylene bags and shipped to their destination ready for use. They can also be branded or printed with the bottler's name and logo. The "waste" (the left-over bark) generated after the punching operation is ground up and many other products are produced from the resulting cork grain. There is never any waste within the cork manufacturing sector. Every scrap of cork is used in one way or another.

• Text from: http://www.jelinekcork.com/what_is_cork.html

Cork products

Cork Cuff

• http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=123

Sway stool

• http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=36

Cortica Chaise Lounge

• http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=4

Where to buy

• http://www.corkstore.com/
• http://www.habitusnyc.com/

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-- RachelWingfield - 21 Jun 2006