What is a Cooper?
What is a cooper? Seems there are many children with the name Cooper, but not a whole lot of actual coopers out there. Traditionally, a cooper was the man that made barrels, or staved vessels. A stave is a length of wood, usually cut from the center of a tree trunk, that is cut into a plank (think 1×3”-1×4” wood planks at Home Depot). Anything a cooper produces is referred to as cooperage. The facility where casks or barrels are made is also called a cooperage. The cooperage produced necessary storage vessels for their communities and often the cooper was needed aboard ships and by the military. A “tight” cooper, historically, made barrels that held liquid. White oak is the only wood that successfully holds water and other liquids due to the...