Vintage Cooper Tools
A “cooper” is a person trained in the making of wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs and other staved containers made from timber that was usually heated or steamed to make it pliable. Coopering is a profession that goes back to ancient times. It gets its name however from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German Middle Age etymology. The establishment of a cooper is called a “cooperage” as is the name of the products of their trade. It is a highly skilled but dying out trade. New modern-day technology is eclipsing the art of barrel making. A hundred years ago it required seven years of apprenticeship to be called a cooper and as long as fifteen years to be called a “Master Cooper.” The tools of this trade are many as it is a highly technical and multi-skilled endeavor even requiring implements from other trades. Cooper tools are incredibly unique and diverse often with strange names but referred to by tool collectors as sculptural and beautiful.