What is a Cooper?

Back in the days before plastic was invented, people needed sturdy containers to hold things. What did they make containers from? Many times they used different kinds of wood. A cooper was a man who turned wood into barrels and buckets and other useful things. The cooper would start with lengths of a pine or oak tree trunk and split it into small sections. He would shape the sections, using drawknives and planes, into staves for the container he was making. The staves had to fit together perfectly to make barrels to hold liquids or flour. The cooper used wooden or metal hoops to hold the staves together and to keep the top and bottom of the barrel on tightly. By using different length and width staves, the cooper could make huge hogsheads, small firkins, or in-between sized casks like kilderkins and puncheons. The cooper also made tubs and butter churns. Coopers taught their job to boys, who apprenticed with them for many years, learning from the cooper how to make all of these containers. It was not unusual for a 10 or 12 year old boy to go to work with a cooper instead of going to school each day. After 6 or 8 years of working as an apprentice, the boy had learned to be a cooper. Some coopers had shops where they sold their containers to the townspeople, and other coopers had shops where they sold their containers to the townspeople. Other coopers worked for a shingle mill or farm or on a ship. Name of Barrel Cask Hogshead Churn Firkin Tub Kilderkin Puncheon Drawknife Plane Stave Hoop What It Is A barrel-shaped container A very large barrel holding over 100 gallons A tall narrow cask that you make butter in A small barrel used to hold butter or lard A large open-topped container A barrel half the size of a hogshead A barrel holding 80 gallons A tool used to shave the staves to make them smooth A tool used to get staves to roughly the same thickness A piece of wood used to make the sides of a cask A wooden or metal ring used to hold the staves tightly together

Cooper Word Find Can you find and circle all the words on the list? E B O D R A W K N I F E H J M A Y K J S A J K C A K G Y W Q L C A F S H A V E O P G W A E L B P G J O G H E T D X R T B P R T F I R K I N O U W P L A N E I H U R X H J Q B E C X U R D F D V W T C F T E C R H O S D F L I S A K W E O P H B T N H C A S K M W T C H U R N C L U A S E T T O F Y I G K J D O X E W U R N R E R I S N W R L A R D U O A U N G P C D T P C A T S Q D U B U C P R T X H W H S H X E M A P P E H P S K Z H O G S H E A D T G I I L N R W C P Y K W J R N F O L Y K F E N I G K L O W O N Q N H Y P N J P H Z X E F T I I O X B A R R E L A U R B W P W R F A N Q P R U H B I F P B J K T L M T A K Q V U E U C U G N W T R E H R T D H G H N M I R A K C N G A L L O N X R W O O D P X D F E E R I C H A S N X F U Y Y A H F W B S R T U B N P I N E F W N R J K T G R E K W B P F T K E P H A B K

APPRENTICE BARREL BUCKET BUTTER CASK CHURN CONTAINER COOPER DRAWKNIFE

FIRKIN FLOUR GALLON HOGSHEAD HOOP KILDERKIN LARD LIQUID OAK

PINE PLANE PUNCHEON RING SHAVE STAVE TRUNK TUB WOOD