Re- SC - kegs and barrels

[Mark Harris]

Noemi said:

According to the catalog these barrels are "lined with parafin for water
tightness", so it sounds as if they have been designed to hold liquids.  As to
whether or not brewers pitch is period I am not sure.  I have been looking for
it to use to seal the interior of leather bottles and mugs.  I do know it is
made from natural pine tar.

>>>>>
There are several sources for brewer's pitch are given in this file in the
CRAFTS section of the Florilegium:

horn-msg          (95K)  7/24/96    Working with horn. drinking horns.
leather-msg       (72K)  4/ 3/96    Working with leather. tanning.

The latter file also includes directions om making pine pitch out of pine
sap, if you wish to make your own.

>From this file, also in the CRAFTS section:

coopering-msg     (32K)  5/ 8/96    Making and maintaining barrels and kegs.

Comes this message:
- ---------------
From: "David R.Watson" <crossbow at moontower>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Oak Barrel
Date: 29 Sep 1995 14:40:36 GMT
Organization: New World Arbalest

Regarding your oak barrel.  Cooperage (the art of making stave-built 
vessels) has two large divisions, wet and dry coopering.  Wet coopering 
is for holding liquids.  Wet coopered containers should never leak very 
much, even when they've been left empty for some time.  Of course a 
really old barrel might have deteriorated, or the wood shrunk 
substantially.  Most of the cooperage you see  for sale today is dry 
cooperage, it's sort of the period cardboard box.  It is designed to 
hold goods, keep out the rats and the rain, but will not hold water at 
all.  You may have a dry-coopered barrel.  The joints just don't fit as 
tightly.  Some dry-coopered pieces are sold with a waterproof coating: 
anything from wax through tar, to epoxy.  They'll hold water fine, if 
you can live with strange taste of the beverage, flakes of wax, or what 
have you.  

Iolo  crossbow at moontower.com
- --------------------

Other messages in this file though, disagree on whether a wet-coopered
barrel will drip when wet. So your experience may vary from Iolo's.

Hope this helps.
  Stefan li Rous
  mark_harris at email.sps.mot.com


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