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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 cooperwould 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 thecooper 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 What It Is

Cask A barrel-shaped container

Hogshead A very large barrel holding over 100 gallons

Churn A tall narrow cask that you make butter in

Firkin A small barrel used to hold butter or lard

Tub A large open-topped container

Kilderkin A barrel half the size of a hogshead

Puncheon A barrel holding 80 gallons

Drawknife A tool used to shave the staves to make them smooth

Plane A tool used to get staves to roughly the same thicknessStave A piece of wood used to make the sides of a cask

Hoop A wooden or metal ring used to hold the staves tightly together

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Cooper Word Find

Can you find and circle all the words on the list?

E A P P R E N T I C E G F Z P M D W Y R

B J G R X C H T S A M I E X W T H O Y J

O K W T H R C O N T A I N E R A G O A K

D C A F J H A F W S P L I F F K H D H T

R A E I Q O S Y R Q P N G T A Q N P F G

A K L R B S K I L D E R K I N V M X W R

W G B K E D M G A U H W L I Q U I D B E

K Y P I C F W K R B P C O O P E R F S K

N W G N X L T J D U S P W X R U A E R W

I Q J O U I C D U C K Y O B U C K E T BF L O U R S H O O P Z K N A H U C R U P

E C G W D A U X A R H W Q R B G N I B F

H A H P F K R E U T O J N R I N G C N T

J F E L D W N W N X G R H E F W A H P K

M S T A V E C U G H S N Y L P T L A I E

A H D N W O L R P W H F P A B R L S N P

Y A X E T P U N C H E O N U J E O N E H

K V R I C H A R D S A L J R K H N X F A

J E T H F B S E T H D Y P B T R X F W BS O B U T T E R P X T K H W L T R U N K

APPRENTICE FIRKIN PINE

BARREL FLOUR PLANE

BUCKET GALLON PUNCHEON

BUTTER HOGSHEAD RING

CASK HOOP SHAVE

CHURN KILDERKIN STAVE

CONTAINER LARD TRUNK

COOPER LIQUID TUB

DRAWKNIFE OAK WOOD