what is it and whats it used for?Solved Cork oak

[Gordon]

Guess the title says it all


Gordon

[Jeff]

"Willow, and make black powder. "

[Gordon]

Nope but good try Jeff

I've got a couple of other pic's that I'll post tomorrow if needed. Hints as well.

Gordon

[Bro. Noble]

Oak, tannic acid

Noble

[CHARLIE]

Oak bark......I have no idea what it's used for but I'll guess. It's processed into uniform sizes and used for shingles and siding where the barkside is up.   :

[Gordon]

Man u all are impressive. On the right track with oak. Here is a pic of the tree after harvest.



Gordon

[Jeff]

Give away.

CORK!

[Gordon]

Now Jeff is in the ballpark. :D ;D

Here is the final picture of it cut out and bundled into sort of a plank form. It amazes me (it doesn't take much) that this tree lives after the first harvest.

Charlie has sent me some of this bark before. ;)
Thanks again Charlie



Gordon

[Jeff]

Ballpark?  Jeez... How close do I gotta be?

Quercus suber family: Fagaceae
The bark of the cork oak is used for corking hundreds of thousands of bottles of local wine, as well as for other more mundane uses of cork.
This bark is rugged and thick and spongy, pale gray or brown, and deeply fissured. This cork-bark gives the tree a remarkable protection against forest fires!
The bark is stripped off every 8-12 years, leaving the reddish-colored trunk exposed. The acorns of the cork oak are almost an inch long, much bigger than other regional oak trees.

[Bro. Noble]

Gordon,

I think you should require that Jeff be much more specific before declaring him the winner.  I think he is just making a stab in the dark.

By the way,  how is the 'no more nicotine' going?  Both for you and at work?

Noble

[CHARLIE]

Well, I think Jeff nailed it. That is an amazing picture of the Cork Oak after the debarking. That would kill most trees. It's a wonder the Cork Oak can survive such a stripping. Velly entellesting.

[Bro. Noble]

Is that where all cork comes from or are there other species that provide cork?  I always assumed that cork trees were a species of their own.  Where do they grow?

Noble

[Jeff]

Quercus suber
family: Fagaceae
Cork Oak

Originates from the Mediterranean region and is grown commercially for the thick cork bark which is harvested mainly for producing corks for wine bottles. Portugal is the world's major producer of  cork products.

Cork Oaks are indigenous to the Mediterranean region where they occur in open woodlands on hills and lower slopes. They form a thick cork  bark which is harvested mainly for the manufacture of wine bottle corks although the cork also makes a good heat and electrical insulator so is used for gaskets in engines and for insulative materials used in home interiors. By cutting off only the outer, dead corky bark, the tree is able to regenerate new cork tissue from the underlying live bark. In this way it is possible to cut off cork from a tree about every 10 years and the tree itself is able to live for about 150 years.

Cork Oaks are grown mainly in Portugal where there are over 60 square kilometers of cork orchards. Not surprisingly, cork products are Portugal's main export. Spain also grows cork commercially but to a much lesser extent than Portugal.  There have been attempts to grow Cork Oaks commercially in other parts of the world but these other countries have not been able to compete with Portugal in terms of skillfulness and cheapness of labour. Cheap plastic stoppers for wine bottles are to some extent a threat to the cork industry but for the better wines, cork stoppers are still preferred.

References
Sauer, J.D. 1993. Historical geography of crop plants - a select roster. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

[Bro. Noble]

Jeff,

I feel like a comprhensive report on cork should have included 'fishing bobbers'.  Since this is a holiday weekend,  maybe Gordon should be generous with you.

Noble

[Jeff]

He can start shopping for me here.
http://www.bobber.com/Bobbers.html

[Tom]

Ha!  After all that we'll probably find that it's Chinchona bark destined for a quinine factory. :P :-/

[Gordon]

It's cork oak. Jeff had a better paper on it than I did.

As far as the smoking goes, I'm doing fine still smoke free. I chew a pack of Wrigley's polar ice about every three days and best of all it's sugar free. 8)

It's still hard at times, but ya just deal with the moment and your fine.

Now at work it's a little different of a story. Alot more tension, more fights aot more capstun is being used, but it could be worse I guess. What used to go for 83cents is now going for 30bucks from what I've been told.  

Gordon

[Texas Ranger]

Jeff, the willow and black powder is MY copywrited answer to any question about a tree.  You know, enough black powder to blow his nose....................

[Jeff]

Sorry Don. :'(  

I guess the only head that didn't go over was that one that dances around with a yellow rose between hia teeth.  ;)

[Jeff]

And Paul...

[Paul_H]

Now at work it's a little different of a story. Alot more tension, more fights aot more capstun is being used, but it could be worse I guess. What used to go for 83cents is now going for 30bucks from what I've been told.  

Gordon

I'll bet it's even worse inside! :P

[Gordon]

Run forest run. 8) 8) 8)

Things actually have gotten worse since the start of the ban at the beginning of Nov.. They all had stashes of tobacco and now they are running out so now it's all like gold. Crazy.

In a couple of months things should be back to normal. Well as normal as they can be anyway.

Gordon

[Paul_H]

A quote from one of my favourite movies 8)

How is your new baby doing? Mary just turned 5 months on the 25th,and other than a bout of flu,she's been doing great.

She has near got me wrapped around her little finger ;)

[Texas Ranger]

What has this board come to?  Plumb discustin, a nekkid oak tree. :

[Tom]

Art, Don.  Art ???

[Don P]

My folks just returned from Portugal and had some pics of the cork oaks there. They were quite widely spaced and the land is open grassed livestock pasture. Each tree carries a metal dogtag and they are on a type of allotment system sort of like tobacco. They said tile and cork seemed to be the big products and brought us back one of those blue and white portuguese tiles embeded in a cork hot pad.

[L. Wakefield]

   So of course I gotta ask- if I see it and it's useful I want to grow it- how far north will they grow?  lw