Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Hey! I ran across this blog, TyroSphere,

[LINK] while looking up instructions for coopering (making barrels). I want to do that and this guy's learning to do it right now in France! At a real cooperage!

Oh, wait! I guess that was a year ago.

He even had to make hoops. I think I could do that, just using the old charcoal grill, but I'd like to ask him how that's done.

Modern cooperages have a lot of equipment that I don't have in my basement, on my back porch or in my garage, but I think I have what I need to make a keg out of pine right here. I need to get some steel straps, but that's nothin'.

Oh, I remember what I wanted to ask him: how do they get the temporary hoops off and put the permanent hoops on? And do I need the temps? I'm planning to use strap clamps to bend the wood, and I'm sure I won't need nearly as much tension to bend pine as you do to bend fine oak. And, yes, I know I'm not going to get a wine cask out of my scrap wood; I'll only end up with a dry barrel - useful only for storing dry goods. But, you all know I have a need for such a thing, and I know a market that could absorb as many as I can make.

I haven't whittled a single stave yet and I'm wondering about that.

Oh, our young hero is heir to all this, btw. God bless them!

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