Assembly of a barrel in progress

A cooper readies, or rounds off, the end of a barrel using a coopers hand adze at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper's work include but are not limited to casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butterchurns, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, pins, and breakers. The word is derived from Middle Dutch kūpe, "basket, wood, tub" and may ultimately stem from cupa, the Latin word for vat [1][2]. Everything a cooper produces is referred to collectively as cooperage. "Cask" is a generic term used to describe any piece of cooperage containing a bouge, bilge, or bulge in the middle of the container. A barrel is technically a measure of the size of a cask, so the term "barrel-maker" cannot be used synonymously with "cooper." The facility in which casks are made is also referred to as a cooperage. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 684 × 600 pixels Full resolution (1191 × 1044 pixel, file size: 179 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Preparación de una barrica Preparación de una Barrica para contener vino. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 684 × 600 pixels Full resolution (1191 × 1044 pixel, file size: 179 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Preparación de una barrica Preparación de una Barrica para contener vino. ... Download high resolution version (839x1024, 150 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (839x1024, 150 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Adze The tool known as the adze [pronounced adds] serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. ... Stellenbosch from Botmaskop mountain looking towards Cape Town Stellenbosch (IPA: ) is the second oldest European settlement in the Western Cape Province, South Africa after Cape Town, and is situated about 50 kilometers (30 mi) away along the banks of the Eerste River. ... Trunks A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is a solid material derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ... Traditional wooden barrels in Cutchogue Modern stainless steel beer barrels—also called casks or kegs—outside the Castle Rock microbrewery in Nottingham, England For other uses, see Barrel (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A hogshead is a large cask of liquid (less often, of a food commodity). ... A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. ... The tierce is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 159 litres. ... The rundlet is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 68 litres. ... The puncheon, in the United States also called pon for brevity, is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 318 litres. ... The Malay language has a complex system of titles and honorifics, which is still extensively used in Malaysia and Brunei. ... The butt (from the medieval French and Italian ) or pipe is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 477 litres or rather two hogsheads. ... Linguistically speaking, Middle Dutch is no more than a collective name for closely related languages or dialects which were spoken and written between about 1150 and 1500 in the present-day Dutch-speaking region. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... vat can be a type of barrel used for storage. ...

Traditionally there were 4 divisions in the cooper's craft: The "Dry" or "Slack" cooper made containers that would be used to ship dry goods like cereals, nails, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, etc. The "Drytight" Cooper made casks designed to keep dry goods in and moisture out. Gunpowder and flour casks are examples of a "Drytight" coopers work. The "White Cooper" made straight staved containers like washtubs, buckets, butter churns etc that would hold water and other liquids, but did not allow shipping of said liquids. Usually there was no bending of wood involved in white cooperage. The "Wet" or "Tight" cooper made Casks for long term storage and transportation of liquids that could even be under pressure (like beer).

Sometimes—in more modern times—the profession of the cooper is specific to wineries, where the cooper would look after the aging barrels in which the wine is stored. A winery is a facility where fruit, usually grapes, is processed into wine. ... Whiskey barrels at the Jack Daniels distillery Barrels for aging wine in Napa Valley An aging barrel is a barrel used to age wine or distilled spirits such as whiskey, brandy, or rum. ...

While plastics, stainless steel, pallets, and corrugated cardboard have replaced most wooden containers and made the cooper obsolete, there is still demand for high quality wooden barrels, and it is thought that the highest quality ones are hand-made by professional coopers. The finest examples may be seen in the cooperage at Seguin Moreau,^{[citation needed]} a cooperage which was incorporated into the House of Rémy in 1971 for the express purposes of providing barrels made of Limousin oak. The Limousin oak is renowned for the rich vanilla-like flavor it imparts to Cognac. The Rémy Martin will then produce Rémy Martin Grand Cru in these barrels with a retail price well in excess of USD $1500 per bottle. Therefore a single barrel will hold nearly a quarter million dollars worth of Cognac thus revealing the value of a professional cooper. Coopers often get owned by Dhaoses while they wait for their barrels to soak in wood sealant. The term plastics covers a range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic condensation or polymerization products that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or fibers. ...

Sometimes, rarely today, coffin-makers are known as coopers. An open casket A coffin (in North American English, also known as a casket, although the design is different - coffins taper towards the feet while caskets remain the same width) is a funerary box used in the display and containment of deceased remains -- either for burial or cremation. ...

Cooperage as a namesake

Much like the profession of smithing has produced the popular English surname Smith and the German name Schmidt, the trade of cooperage has also given the English name Cooper, the Cape name Koopman, Dutch names like Kuiper or Cuypers and the Czech name Bednář. A smith, or metalsmith, is a person involved in the shaping of metal objects. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... Smith is the most common family name in the United States[1], the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, representing more than 1 out of every 100 persons in each of these countries. ... Schmidt is a German surname that is a cognate of Smith, an occupational surname for a blacksmith. ... Cooper is an Anglo-Saxon surname meaning maker of barrels and may refer to many people. ... Kuiper is a surname which means cooper in the Dutch language: it may refer to: André Kuipers — (1958-) a Dutch astronaut Nicolaas Kuiper — (1920-1994) a Dutch mathematician Gerard Kuiper — (1905–1973) a Dutch-American astronomer Kuiper belt — is an area of the solar system extending past the orbit of... Bednář is a surname which means cooper in the Czech languageů it may refer to: Jaroslav Bednář, a hockey player who currently plays for Slavia Praha HC in the Czech League David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of...

See also

• List of occupations

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z · See also · External links List of titles List of people by occupation U.S. Department of Labor - Occupational Outlook Handbook...

External links

• Guide to coopering
• How barrels are made