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Coopering
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| Coopering is a process for making curved
surfaces using wood without bending the wood around the curve. It dates back to
the first barrels or casks made to hold water or wine as well as buckets for all
purposes. Barrels and, to some extent, buckets were made with staves that were
tapered from the center toward both ends and were bent using bands such that the
resulting barrel was fatter at the center than it was at the ends. This was done
to achieve a liquid tight seal. My process uses staves of constant width from
end to end so the resulting surfaces curve in only one plane. In making a round
object such as a barrel all of the boards, called staves, are the same width and
the bevels on the edges of the staves are all the same angle. This is fine but
not very exciting. Coopering a non-linear curve such as an oval (more properly
called an ellipse) might seem much more challenging and it would be if we used
purely mathematical means to arrive at the stave widths and bevel angles but I
have developed a much easier method which I describe in my
booklet on the
subject and teach in the
class offered at
Highland
Hardware in Atlanta, Georgia. On this web site you will find jewelry,
keepsake, memory and display boxes and unique gifts using this technique. |
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