Dark Cork Homer Coat

R

Randal Scholl

Member
I am turning some old Herters/Cabelas cork mallards into bluebills.

View attachment Mallard to BB 1.jpg

The upper half of the decoy ends up being bare cork and the lower half remains the original paint. I plan on using titebond III and homer coat for sealing and adding texture. Should I prep the decoy in some way prior to coating with titebond and homer coat?
 
Good morning, Randy~

I have no experience using Titebond as a sealer - so I will defer to others. But, my first concern with cork - especially black cork - is a thorough sealing. I typically use a soaking coat of spar varnish for this purpose. Be cause you'll be topping everything with Homer Coat (finely-ground walnut shells), I would opt for epoxy as the sealer AND adhesive for the Homer Coat.

All the best,

SJS

 
Steve Sanford said:
Good morning, Randy~

I have no experience using Titebond as a sealer - so I will defer to others. But, my first concern with cork - especially black cork - is a thorough sealing. I typically use a soaking coat of spar varnish for this purpose. Be cause you'll be topping everything with Homer Coat (finely-ground walnut shells), I would opt for epoxy as the sealer AND adhesive for the Homer Coat.

All the best,

SJS
Click to expand...
Hi
While I lack experience with Titebond as a sealer, sealing black cork thoroughly is crucial. I usually rely on a soaking coat of spar varnish for this task. Given the subsequent application of Homer Coat with finely-ground walnut shells, I'd recommend using epoxy both as a sealer and adhesive. free fire name
 
I have "Homer coated" several dozen blocks both cork and foam, and while the tight bond three gives you a awesome waterproof coating with the walnut shells it is no were close to being bullet proof (Blue Bill blocks seem to get shot alot). It also will not penatrate down into the black cork. I would stick with old school spar varnish and thin the first coat or two after 3 or four coats you will be good and if it is texture you want you can add the shells onto the last coatof varnish or texture them when you paint them. I have a rig of 27 black cork BB that we made about 26 or 27 years and put the varnish to them until they wouldn't take anymore and the have held up great. We started with 29 . One of the guys stepped on one and snap a head off (on the bench for repair) and another took to the lake on it's own in 3.5 footers never to be scene again.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps
 
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