The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-01-28
THE CORK.CUTTER'S TRADE
AN ODD LITTLE INDUSTRY AND
HOW TT FLoURISHEs.

How the Cork is Imported--T Pro
cess of Cutting by Hand-Corle
in Its Native Regions.
Hanging outside a commonplace East
Side dwelling, of a fashion antedating
the era of great tenement houses, is a
small glass case, within which is inclosed
a cork model of the "house that Jack
built, together with three or four curl
ously carved blocks and balls of cork.
A swinging sign several feet above the
case proclaims that the occupant of the
house is a maker of corks. A hall
straight through the building leads to a
small rear yard, in which stands the
corkmaker's little workshop. Half the
shop is filled with crude cork and little
labeled drawers for holding corks of
various shapes and sizes. In loft, that
is really only a gallery oyerhanging the
lower part of the shop, is the simple
machinery of the corkmaker's trade.
There are, perhaps, half dozen cork
makers in New York where work is done
by the aid of knives and simple hand
run machine, looking like a great jack
plane. A rod, carrying the cork to be
shaped, revolves under the planes moving
blade, and by adjustment this machine
may be made to shape corks of almost
any size. Corks below half an inch in
diameter are, however, mostly made by
the use of the knife. A skilled cork
maker can turn out from fifty to seventy
gross of corks per day. The cork facto-
ries where machinery is used child can
turn out $50 gross per day. There are,
however, no cork factories of the larger
sort in New York, though there are some
in Brooklyn, and the large factories in
distant cities have agencies here. The
| handworkers struggle hard to compete
with cheap machine made corks. They
are enabled to do by dealing directly with
consumers and thus saving the jobber's
profit. However, the small workers are
constantly in danger of being driven out
of business by the factories.
The best cork comes from Spain, though
much is brought from Italy, Portugal,
France and Africa. Cork oaks have been
planted in South America and in the sub
tropical States of this country. As yet,
hOhONCl3 lllblC VI uOlIllS HIS COlllG vi
this effort to introduce cork growing into
the United States.
The bark comes in pieces varying from
half an inch to over three inches in
thickness, and sometimes measuring
three and half feet in length by eight
cen inches in width. 1t brings at whole
sale, in crude condition, from five to
seventy cents pound. This indicates
the variety of quality that marks this
article. The cheapest cork is full of
| great holes, and looks as if it were ready
to fall to pieces. This quality of cork,
| cut into thin slices, is used to make shoe
soles ''water tight" As a matter of
fact, it does nothing more than make
shoes warm to the feet by interposing a
non. conductor of heat between the inner
and outer soles. An extremely fine va
riety of cork is used for movable insoles.
/ Cork is put to all sorts of odd uses, and
. the corkmaker must be prepared to shape
/ his material into an almost infinite va
| riety of forms. The cork house and
carved blocks proclaim to the world the
corkmaker's readiness to perform any
function of his trade.
There is a great waste in the trimming
of corks, and the little East Side shop is
packed thick with scraps and shavings.
Once these were salable us packing for
life preservers and the like, but now
they bring little or nothing when sold
for this purpose, and the corkmakers are
glad to have them carried oil free of
charge. Cork shavings make an excellent
kindling, and they are used for that pur-
pose in some large manufacturing places.
Half dozen downtown houses import
cork. 1t comes in vessels partly laden
with heavy merchandise, and sailor
feels tolerably safe when he has on board
a cargo of cork. The crude bark is
stripped from the trees when they have
attained considerable size, and the pro-
cess does not destroy them. Indeed, if
the outer bark were not removed it
would be cracked and shed in time by
the growth of new bark underneath.
When removed, the bark is placed in
water and alcohol and weighted with
stones, in order that it may ilatten out
from its semi-cylindrical form and be the
more snug'y packed and the more salts
factoriy worked. When once a tree has
conc into bearing, so to speak, it may
without injury be barked once year,
though ordinarily the stripping occurs
only once in six or eight years. It is
only at the third stripping that really
good cork Is produced.
1t is an odd fact that the cork cutters
tools require almost momentary sharpen
ing, although the material in which he
works is exceedingly soft. This for
long while made the application of ma
chinery to cork cutting apparently an
impossibility, and it is only of recent
years that the difficulties of the case
have been surmounted.- York