A Hand Tool for Halving Wine Bottle Corks?

[Andy Kev.]

Good Morning All,

I've got a pasta jar in the kitchen into which I bung wine corks when I open the bottles. I notice yesterday that it's overflowing a bit (I must have at least 150 corks) and it occurred to me that I could do the old cliche of halving the corks along their lengths, then glue them to a bit of board, cover with a piece of glass and frame them.

The question is, what hand tool is best suited to halving the corks? They'd be difficult to hold for sawing (and would one want to take a decent saw to cork?) and a splitting technique would probably not be able to guarantee accurate halving. I imagine that convention would dictate using one of those little proxxon machines (which one?) but it did occur to me that over the years a hand tool seems to have been developed for nigh on every task and somebody on here has probably used one of them.

 

[gregmcateer]

My Sis in Law just stuck them on whole - as long as the edge of the board 'contains' them, they stay on fine.

 

[marcros]

I would have thought that a slicing action would be best, so a knife and holding/positioning jig or guillotine. Possibly a fret saw but that would be slow.

 

[monkeybiter]

Quick and easy jig on a bandsaw if you have one.

 

[AndyT]

Like Marcros said. A sharp knife and a simple open box to hold the cork steady if you really want precision.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:shock: We drink loads of wine, but it would take us about 30 years to get 150 corks.

 

[WoodMangler]

Most of my wine comes with screw-tops these days - a wall-plaque of those doesn't have quite the same artistic merit somehow...

 

[Alex H]

For some reason, I could not quite 'see' the finished product, so had to 'Google' it - Does have it's attractions I supppose

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thanks for all the replies. I took a very sharp kitchen knife to one of the corks and it hardly made an impression: cork seems in some ways to be an extremely resilient material. So it looks like it's achoice between sticking them on a board whole (as appears to be the case in the pic above) or going down the machine route. I don't know if I can be bothered getting a ma chine so I'll probably just glue them whole onto a bit of hardboard.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Update: For the record I've just found this clip where an American lady shows how to half a cork in a few seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOT6itmQLdg

Perhaps it's not so difficult after all.

 

[r0nmlt]

If she can do it ... so do you.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[bugbear]

Update: For the record I've just found this clip where an American lady shows how to half a cork in a few seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOT6itmQLdg

Perhaps it's not so difficult after all.

That. Looks. Lethal.

Applying "quite a lot of pressure" on the top of an unstable object...

But the serrated knife seems to work OK, so if we simply use a improvised 'V' block to hold the cork, it may be "job done".

BugBear

 

[dickm]

That. Looks. Lethal.

Applying "quite a lot of pressure" on the top of an unstable object...

+1. The ends of my thumb and forefingers were tingling just looking at it.
Unless you are using a decent V-block jig, don't do it.

Given the litigious nature of the US of A, how many folk who have done like she did now have their attornies sueing her for serious damages to compensate for loss of digit ends?

 

[Andy Kev.]

Update: For the record I've just found this clip where an American lady shows how to half a cork in a few seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOT6itmQLdg

Perhaps it's not so difficult after all.

That. Looks. Lethal.

Applying "quite a lot of pressure" on the top of an unstable object...

But the serrated knife seems to work OK, so if we simply use a improvised 'V' block to hold the cork, it may be "job done".

BugBear

After some experimentation and only one cut, I've come up with a method that seems a bit healthier than the American lady's.

I settled on the serrated edged blade of my Leatherman multitool and did the following:

1. Stand the cork vertically with the bit you eventually want to go on show between thumb and forefinger of the hand holding it.

2. Cut 2 - 4 mm in with the knife and, keeping the blade in the cut, pivot the cork to the horizontal and continue the cut parallel to any writing or logos (which usually run up and down the cork).

3. Pivot the cork again as above and make a cut on the other narrow end and ditto on the final, long side.

4. Repeat as necessary, although at this stage you might well get through it with just one more cut from top to bottom.

There's no point trying to do it with a single cut from either the top or the side as the cork seems to have some sort of "grain" which leads the blade astray. Finally, trim the cut side with the knife as necessary to get a more or less flat surface. Then you're ready for glueing to whatever surface you want. So far this has proved to be a very safe approach as long as you take just the normal, common sense levels of care.

 

[nanscombe]

It's probably not surprising that the corks seem to have a grain since they, the old ones at least, come from a tree .. Quercus Suber (The Cork Oak).

Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.
...

 

[Woodchips2]

Perhaps don't drink all the wine prior to cutting with the serrated knife (hammer)

Regards Keith

 

[nanscombe]

If I had a lot of corks to cut I would probably start off with something like this.


CorkCutter00103 by nanscombe, on Flickr

A) A piece of hardboard to act as a back
B) A block of wood with a hole drilled through, large enough to take the cork
C) Another piece of hardboard to act as a front
D) Cork

I'd start by screwing the back on, positioning the front in place and clamping the whole lot in the vice.

I'd then use a (junior) hacksaw to cut the slot, through all three pieces, down to the bottom of the central hole.

By this point I would probably have come up with a way of quickly positioning the front in a consistent manner, maybe a couple of panel pins with their heads cut off and corresponding holes in the hardboard front.

To make removing the cork easier I might drill a hole on the back so I could push the cork out with a pencil, or something, if necessary.

To cut the corks I'd:
Remove the front
Drop in a cork
Replace the front
Clamp in a vice
Use the hacksaw to cut through the cork using the slot as a guide.

It may take a while but that's probably how I'd do it.


I am assuming they are not fancy shaped corks i.e. wine bottle corks rather than champagne ones.

 

[Alex H]

It would appear the difficulty in cutting may come from the fact that there are two types of cork - one made from 'whole cork' - the other from bits ground up and glued together. This link illustrates the manufacturing process

http://www.wineanorak.com/corks/howcorkismade.htm

 

[whiskywill]

Why not buy half bottles of wine?