I saw on the TV news the other night that the forests in Portugal are on fire again - 130,000 hectares so far. The last big fires were in 2003 and burned 424,000 hectares including 20,000 cork oaks. There are about 2.5 acres in a hectare.

There is a lot of info on Google regarding the fires and cork (do a search using the following string of words: portugal forest fires cork). However, does anyone know how this affects cork supply for rod builders? Has the loss of trees affected the supplies in the past?

I guess it doesn't afffect it much. I talked to a cork supplier this morning about the supposed lack of good quality cork for rod building. These are his exact words~~~ "Very good quality cork is available, but the rod building suppliers are not buying it." He said they usually buy down one or two grades and then sell that as their top grade. So the problem is not with the supply of cork. It's with the dealers who I guess don't want to pay the price for better cork or maybe they don't feel the builders will actually pay the price to get it. I don't know. But it would seem that good cork and plenty of it is out there now that so many wine makers are switching to composite corks for their bottles.

I spent 2 weeks in Portugal in March this year (vacation). Hired a car and travelled hundreds of miles. The amount of forest lost to the fires is sad and may obviously cause a kickback to the rod building industry but the amount lost compared to the amount available is minimal. One main importer in UK has supplies for the next three to four years based on normal sales and they sell all over the world. Any supplier suddenly putting up prices is probably just jumping on the bandwagon to make a quick profit. A bit like the oil wells Mr Hussain decided to burn in Kuwait. Cost thousands if not millions of barrels but only put a fraction of a pence (sorry cent) on the overall cost for a short period.

Stan

Hello fellow rod builders, I don't guess this is where burnt cork comes from? It was just a thought for a very sad situation.

Jerry Springs

JERRY SPRINGS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello fellow rod builders, I don't guess this is
> where burnt cork comes from?

LOL Jerry! You are killing me! A good one! :D

Sad to hear that lots of forest is on fire. Though this is the natural way to fertilise the ground again.

Stan: Would you reveal this one British importer for me please? I'd be delighted if I could order good stuff from EU instead of US.

Stan,

the cork importer in the Brits interests me too since I've practically used all that I got last time I ordered stuff (from US).

Cheers,

Miko & Sakari,

not sure of the protocol naming the cork suppliers in UK as they are not board sponsors so have e mailed you both with details.

Stan

I read this thread earlier, then I, reamed and glued corks for a handle I am making. Got to thinking about it and why I use run-of-mill corks. Once agin I am out of the main stream. I like the looks of a handle with all the nooks and cranies of regular corks. I think it gives the rod character. It may even make it easier to hold on to. Or maybe it is because I am too cheap to buy high quality corks. Does anybody else like the looks of low quality cork? John Butterfield

Depends on how just how bad it really looks. I do think people tend to forget that cork is a natural product and most rings, nearly all rings, have some amount of imperfections in them. The idea that "once upon a time" you could get 100% clear cork from nearly anyone is more of a myth than anything else. Sure, a very, very small percentage of rings probably fall into the 90% clear category (RodMaker CG-1 scale) but these have always been relatively rare and certainly have never accounted for most of what winds up on fishing rods.

....................