Kohlert Model 1930 (Part II)

The cork on the neck looked compressed, leaving the mouthpiece loose when fitted. I unscrewed the neckpipe from the rest of the neck to make the process easier.

The old cork on the neckpipe.

With a utility knife, I started slicing off pieces of the cork while trying to avoid scratching the pipe.

Verdigris under the old cork of the neckpipe.

Once the cork was gone, I noticed a spot of verdigris underneath. This prompted another acetic acid bath and rinse, for the neckpipe this time. I cleaned up the remaining bits with the knife.

The cleaned neckpipe on top of the rectangular cork piece.

The length of the corked area measured 28 mm with a 3 mm piece of metal sticking out (an end-ring). The lower circumference measured approximately 57 mm, the upper — 49 mm. If I were to attempt wrapping a rectangle around the neck, it would become crooked, as the pipe is conical. To avoid that, I used the three measurements above to calculate the radius of a circle that forms the cone, which came out to approximately 196 mm.

Using an improvised compass, I drew the arc along which to cut. I also angled the edge towards the centre of the circle for the seam to follow a straight line to the top of the neckpipe when wrapped, and then sanded that edge down.

The improvised compass used to draw the arc on the cork.
The cork slice showing the arc along which to cut.
The cork after the cut and sanding.

I applied the contact cement to both the cork and the neckpipe and left it to cure for 15 minutes. Afterward, I wrapped the cork around, cut off the excess and sanded it down until the mouthpiece could snuggly fit over the top third.

The cork wrapped around the neckpipe with the excess visible.
The cork with the flappy piece cut off.
The excess has been cut off.

I greased it with the cork grease and reattached the neckpipe back to the neck.

The recorked neck.

Thanks to Stephen Howard for writing a guide on how to recork a neck.