Whats the best recipe for a winning conker? Any Ideas???

Question

I need to win the conker game! Im 27 lol but this is serious stuff!

Answer 1

Steel and brown paint

Answer 2

How to harden conkers

To stand a good chance of winning, it is desirable to have as hard a conker as possible. The best way to achieve this is to leave your conker in a drawer for a year. If you lack time, a similar effect can be gained by briefly baking it in an oven. Some people also swear by soaking or boiling in vinegar. Or paint clear nail varnish on it to harden it.

It should be pointed out, however, that some would consider any artificial hardening of a conker to be cheating. At the British Junior Conkers Championships on the Isle of Wight in October 2005, contestants were banned from bringing their own conkers due to fears that they might harden them. The Campaign For Real Conkers claimed this was an example of over-regulation which was causing a drop in interest in the game. In the World Conker Championship contestants are also restricted to using the conkers provided.

One factor that can affect the strength of a conker is to ensure that the hole is clean and that there are no notches that can begin a crack or split.

On the television show Brainiac: Science Abuse an experiment took place to see how to best harden one's conker. The best contender was a conker that was rolled around in hand cream. The theory was that it softened the impact.

Answer 3

First you get some lead!!!!! melt it in a deep spoon twice!!! lay some wire in between the half's with a loop to tie your string too! Then melt the halfs together with a soldering iron, when finished, paint said conker brown colour with lighter brown little wriggly lines, you know, like a conker! And presto!!! Conker champion of the world!!!

Answer 4

This is the solution according to Irish Folklore and it's never failed me!! If you have access to an open fire, put it on the chimney ledge inside the fire, this will give it a charcoal type exterior. Take it out the next morning, dust it off lightly and then cover it with some clear varnish (nail or wood varnish) and hey presto the indestructible conker.

Answer 5

There are a million and one ways of hardening conkers. My personal favourite is coating it in clear nail polish.
Of course some people frown on tampering with them, they say it's cheating (I say it's using your initiative!!)

Your best bet is to chuck out all those big round ones and go with the little ones that are a kind of wedge shape. They are harder to hit and the 'edge' slices through the big ones.

Answer 6

Soak it in Malt Vinegar for 24 hours. Then put in the oven after someone has been using it on a rack (once it's switched off and is cooling down) until the oven is completely cold. Then iff need be varnish it, but this makes it rock hard. tip I would drill a hole and insert the string first before soaking and baking otherwise it's too hard to drill!

Answer 7

Baked in the oven and then given a few coats of matt varnish. They are as tough as boots after that.

Answer 8

isn't clear nail polish supposed to be good, anything that forms a hard seal over it i think.

Other than that there is the old methods of vineger soaking

Answer 9

One from last year.

Answer 10

Soak it in vinegar overnight and leave it to dry on a warm radiator.