[Sca-cooks] coopering (barrel making)

[Stefan li Rous]

Maggie mentioned:
{{{
At 12:32 PM 4/20/2006,Emelyne Wyote said something like:
 > Do you mean St. James wine?  I've never heard of St. John wines.
 > Do you have more info about it?  My family is looking to try as many
 > Missouri wines as they can.

Woops, yes, that one.  Over in the area where the St. James stuff is
grown/bottled there is also a barrel making factory. I think it was  
inside
the Walnut Bowl Factory store in Lebanon.  I had such a wonderful  
time just
standing at the window with my nose practically pressed against the
glass into the barrel factory, staring (and gaping).
  }}}

Could you give some more details of exactly where this barrel making  
factory is and any other contact/website etc info you have about it?

I would like to add this info to this file:
coopering-msg     (48K)  9/12/01    Making and maintaining barrels  
and kegs.

I think those interested in this subject, who can get by there, would  
sure like to.

At one time I thought it would be a neat A&S type skill to have.  
Well, I still think it would be, but after reading a book I got on  
coopering I realized it is way past my woodworking abilities. Barrel  
staves actually have to be cut so they curve in all three dimensions  
and they have to be consistent enough to fit together without any  
cracks, at least if you want to store water or wine or beer in them.  
And the staves are better split from logs in a radial fashion rather  
than sawn as planks. Another problem if you are used to getting your  
wood in planks from Home Depot or even lumberyards.

This also reminds me that one of my technology magazines had a very  
good article this last month on coopering, which I was going to  
highlight to this list. I guess I'll do that again my issue reappears.

Wooden barrels these days go through several stages. First to the  
bourbon distillers who can use them only once. Then to other  
distilleries who can use them multiple times and then often to garden  
shops after being cut in half. It would be nice to find some,  
especially smaller barrels, which hadn't been cut in half. Cutting  
them in half works well for using them as flower pots, but it doesn't  
do well for storing water or whatever. Wooden barrels would seem to  
be great at SCA events, at least the smaller ones and for events like  
Gulf Wars where onsite storage is possible, they wouldn't have to be  
transported back and forth each year.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****