Making wood buckets by hand.

[Stickman]

Hi. Over the past couple of years I have been working at learning "white coopering" which is about any straight sided coopered vessel.

Is there anyone else here that is doing this that I can share notes with? I am using all hand tools, most which I have made.

You can see posts about my progress in the archives on my blog: www.robgorrell.com

 

[Black Hand]

Rob,
I have a container full of slats that are awaiting to be made into a bucket. I've done a little looking into techniques, but haven't taken the plunge.

Great info at your link!

 

[Stickman]

Thanks Black Hand. I have orders for some large wash tubs to make in the next month or two.

I got to look close at some Viking and Roman coopered items and a few of the Mary Rose pieces in musueums in England and Scotland. Great stuff.
One farm museum let us explore their storage area and, get this, HANDLE their collection of tools, coopered items, etc. It was a very exciting hour.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I believe Roy Underhill has a video on this subject.

 

[wmaser]

Yes, I've been making barrels and buckets for a couple of years. I'd be glad to share notes with you. I'm self taught so I don't know if I'm doing things properly, but the barrel at my forge and the bucket on my cannon have been holding water for a long time.

 

[Woodyrock]

ai had the luck of working across the road from a cooperage whilst I was doing my apprenticeship in Marine Joinery. One of my friends was an apprentice cooper so I was able to see coopers at work first hand. I have made a few buckets, and tubs. Here is one of the first, made before I figures out to use a curved froe for my staves. It is about twenty or so years old, and still holds water even if it is not so pretty.
Woody

 

[MSW]

'not so pretty' ? well, fwiw, I think it has a very nice utilitarian quality ... a sort of user- built form follows function thing.

always admired a craftsman able to make a watertight container.

:hatsoff:

 

[BillinOregon]

Rob: I owe you a lot for posting the link to your blog. You have explored so many things first hand that I have only explored in my mind, or on the Internet.
The thing that really stopped me in my tracks was the chip-carved treadle lathe in Paris.
I hope to build a treadle lathe this spring. I built a pole lathe some years ago and enjoyed playing with it.
As to coopering, the thing that got me interested in the subject was a photo of this tankard with Mayflower provenance:
http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/images/collections/per_beer_tankard_1.jpg

Wish I had the patience and skills!

 

[Rifleman1776]

That tankard is sure a crude looking thing. Only beauty in that is it's age and history. The vine bindings speak of a shortage of iron for banding.

 

[BillinOregon]

Rifleman, actually the use of split hazel or willow whips for binding is traditional in European cooperage of small objects. Somewhere there is an amazing silent black and white film of some Swedish guys making buckets using this technique, and the film was shot in the 1920s, I believe.