Staining cork

[Lee Schierer]

I've been asked to make a couple of cork boards 18 x 24, for our church. They want the cork to be darker in color. I've located a couple of sources of colored cork, but it isn't clear they will deal with the small quantity of cork that would be required for this project. It also appears that the price of colored cork is 3 times (or more) than natural cork. I found a site that indicates that you can apply diluted wood stain to color cork, but no photos showed the actual before and after result.

Does anyone have any experience staining natural cork?

[Jim Becker]

I'd use dye...I'm pretty fond of Angelus leather dyes at the moment as well as Transtint.

[Jamie Buxton]

Sheet cork is made of little particles of cork, glued together with some rubbery adhesive. The particles of cork should accept wood dyes. Cork itself is bark from cork oaks. The rubbery adhesive may not accept stain. But a high percentage of the surface is cork, so the overall effect should be the dyed-cork color. I'd certainly experiment before I dyed the actual deliverable.

[Lee Schierer]

I ordered the cork sheet I needed today. The gentleman I spoke with told me that you cannot use an oil stain on cork as it repels oil. He also said that it is unlikely that dyes or water based stains will leave a uniform appearance. He did say it can be painted, but each tack is going to leave a mark on the surface. He is going to provide me with some sample pieces I can experiment along with the piece I purchased.