okay I'm George Smithwick I just
happened to be a sixth generation Cooper
pretty lucky I guess but I've been doing
it now for 30 odd years and I've had a
great time doing it it's interesting to
show people how these things are done
because there's not many of us left and
let's hope it carries on at some point
well the word Cooper is a is a Latin
word and coop means to contain so as it
evolved the word Cooper become and it's
a person who builds barrels buckets any
vessel that holds either a fluid or a
sausage skin it's just it just means to
contain it within an area so that that's
where coopering come from and there's
various sides to coopering you've got
white coopering which is someone who
makes either buckets or butter churns or
barrels the milk or cream or butter then
you've got a dry Cooper is a person who
just makes dry goods barrels for
transporting fruit or sausage skins
olives and helos and then you've got a
wet Cooper who makes wine barrels beer
barrels also makes buckets anything that
has to holder it has to be watertight
that will fluid tight I I fortunately I
covered a whole lot of them in what I've
been doing over the last thirty years
I've made dry goods barrels I make
buckets I make butter churns I make wine
barrels beer barrels so for me I've just
covered a lot I'm lucky
the steps you're making a bucket at
first or you joint the staves then you
hollow them and back them right if you
look closely you'll note there's a gap
between the hoop and the back of the
stave what I'm going to do now is called
backing off the stable I'm going to
knock off each corner so it fits neatly
into that hoop so to do that I sit me
backside down here and with this draw
knife which is called a backing line you
will know that it is curved so it allows
me to follow the shape of the the hoop
so by putting it in and it's just like a
vise I just sit there and back it off
now that if I've done it right should
fit neatly up against that get that
little shaving yet you'll note that
that's now fitting neatly up against the
stave so by the time I've done 18 which
will go into making this bucket
they'll all be nice and tight up against
that hoop so I get pressure on every
joint all the way real don't we sit
ourselves down we should hear them enjoy
life you may think that I'm doing this
you feel like fast but after you've done
quite a few hundred of these staves you
know exactly how much you've got to take
off without even looking at it you know
you've got it right what we're about to
do is what's called raising up the
barrel or the bucket in this case it is
a bucket so we're raising it up so I put
a stave in I'll put a clip on it to hold
it in place and the staves are putting
you now are the handles of the bucket
the first two are always the handles get
them approximately opposite each other
and now I have to fill it up so I just
stand them up and then
work me we're in now he's put that top
hoop on which is a bar hoop which is as
you can see they're quite heavy hoops
now we've got to level up the bottom of
the bucket by getting all of these
staves to be level so to do that I just
pick a point to start using my finger as
a gauge to feel the bottom of it I just
tap the staves up feel fairly good that
drive this hoop down right now we've got
that nice and level on the bottom when
it when I did this bucket
I felt the bottom of these to level them
off and that's easy on a small bucket or
a small barrel but if this were a big
barrel to get it flush on the top
you'd use what's called a topping plane
now you'll notice it's curved so it
follows the shape of the the barrel of
the bucket that you do it so it's just
it would be just a matter of putting it
on and working it around like that until
you got that bottom flat on a big barrel
it's hard to use your finger to guide
them to get them all nice and level
buckets well that's easy that on the big
barrels you just use a topping plane and
it's just a nice sharp tool follows the
shape of the barrel
but our next job now is to cut a groove
inside here to take the head or the
bottom of the bucket so by using this
tool what's called a Crow's it's got two
little scribers and a raker so by
setting that inside there and racking it
around I can cut a groove in there now
it's just a matter check and make sure
I'm deep and up all the way round then I
can see a couple of spots where I'm not
all right
I reckon that'll just about do me so now
we've got to work out the circumference
of that to find out that the radius for
the head at this point I'm measuring the
circumference of this groove that I've
put in so I can find out the radius for
the the head to go in there now if I go
exactly or mark that so you can see
where I'm starting there if I go exactly
six times around that circumference it
will give me the radius but having said
that what I've done I've gone
approximately a quarter of an inch past
that joint
so I've physically made the diameter a
little bit bigger so to do the reason
for doing that is that if I measure one
half of the circle
now if I turn that head around I'll step
the compass back half of what I went
past being almost a quarter of an inch
and I will mark the other half of the
circle now the reason for stepping the
back half of what I went past is it now
makes the diameter right in the length
of the grain but slightly wider in the
width two reasons for that timber is
softer in its width than it is in its
length and but it also shrinks in its
width if this was a jointed head it
would haven't joined down there or there
or there and it have a bit of kabum
Gihon which is a flag to to stop it from
leaking so being wider it's going to put
pressure on those joints and squash them
all nice and tight now what I've got to
do is cut this so that I can shave it
down to the right size
if you look at that you'll see that I've
cut right down the middle of the line so
I'm now making just a little bit smaller
in diameter and that is so to allow it
to go neatly into the bottom of that
group and to get that right my angles
when I shave would have to be perfect to
get that tight
now what I've done now I've put a set of
rough centerline around that so that I
can work out now how wide my groove has
to be like of just I it to that center
line I won't worry about putting two
lines and I just put a rough line around
here so I know where to come back to
with the angle of me head and they're
only rough lines
I'm only finger gauging them too nothing
special what I've got now I've shaves
the head down so of taping it so that
that will fit into the groove now it's
it's only eye that's telling me that
that's right after having done so many
heads you get you get to know when
you've got your angles right and your
your width of your groove right so now
I've looked at that around there and I
reckon I'm pretty close to right so now
we're going to knock that hoop off we're
going to put some linseed meal which is
just a it's it's a at the minute it's a
paste it starts out as a powder after
they extract the the oil out of linseed
they crush up the seed and make it into
a powder I put a little bit of water
with it turn it into a paste when that
dries inside that groove if the bucket
ever thinks it's going to leak this will
expand and take up and it won't leak it
will stop it from leaking so now I've
got to drive this hoop off so I can get
the head in
nothing technical about putting this in
it's just a matter of squeeze it into
the the groove we've got to be careful
we don't have too much in there before I
put too much in there it's going to stop
the head from going in and seeding
improperly so I go around it like this
poke it all in and then I'll scrape
something out at the end so I know I've
got just the right amount in there
that's a matter of poke that the head in
as I poke this head into the bottom of
the bucket you will notice that the
stage will start to open up they'll get
a gap in them but if I get that down
into the groove they should all just
close up nicely or very close to close
up now it's gone a little bit far pop is
in now to drive this hoop back on what
I'll do I'll chalk the inside of this
hoop you may think that the chalk will
help it slip on easier but what it does
it makes the hoop stick it'll stick to
the timber gives it like a sandpaper
edge so now just drive that hoop back up
and if I've got it right you'll fall
note there'll be little bits of that
linseed meal start squeezing out now to
make sure I've got that staves seeded
down around that head
go around the outside and just tap it
until they all seat down neatly now
let's just look at it see that it
appears to be sat down neatly you'll
note there's little bits of linseed oil
losing out of the joint so that's a real
good sign that we've got a nice tight
tight fit right now we're going to sit
back on the workhorse we're going to
shave the outside of this to get it to a
relatively round shape so we can fit
hoops to it all right so I'm back down
on the on the donkey or the workhorse
whatever right on let's bend a I'm
slaying the hoop because this now as you
can see is a fairly straight piece of
iron hoop on I've got to turn it into a
circle but also have to have it so that
it follows the shape of the bucket to do
that by hitting on one side of that
piece of metal I can physically spread
it so if you're going to be a bit of
banging and clanging but you'll see it
happened
you can see it starting to curve already
now if you look at the side of that you
can self put an angle onto it so that
now will follow the shape of that bucket
by the time I pull that around and
market and put the rivet through it
it'll fit perfectly to that so you see
that slight angle on it that's enough to
follow the shape of the bucket
I put the hoop around the bucket
approximately where I want it to to
finish up and I mark it about 3/8 of an
inch past the end of that overlap when I
put the rivet in I'll bring the hoop up
to that chalk mark and that'll give me a
nice tight fit where it needs to be
you'll note I've got holes in one end of
the hoop already I put that across to
the overlap I set it on top of the rivet
and I've got a hit on top of there and
punch the rivet up through it so
now if you look where that outside hoop
goes around and the inside there's a
step there's a gap so if I hit right at
the end of that I can bring the outside
to meet the inside so to put it back on
the Bitcoin and just hit right at the
end of it now you can see the outsides
come down to meet the inside the time I
put that on there now
it'll come down nice and flat now that
hoop will not go over the top of that
one so I've got to knock that hoop off
to get it on
they just run it around to look we'll
see that it's relatively straight around
the bucket which it is now to matter
trim off the bottom put the charm hoop
on this one when I put it on I put about
half of the hoop sticking up so I know
when I get it down off and get it to
pull right down tight
you'll see more linseed oil oozing out
just a bit tighter again I'll be happy
with that
now I've just got to level off the top
of it round it over a little bit so
there's no sharp points for anyone to
hurt himself here comes a good Pat the
fun part with a rope handle we're
putting an eye splice for the handle so
if I pick up roughly how big I want the
the eye of the loop to be and what I've
done I've opened up the Rope into three
three cords and I start out with the
middle one you can see this one two
three always start with the middle so
having determined where me always going
to start I just open the Rope up
like that and I feed the middle one
through that hole pull it up turn it
around and open the next one up poke it
through pull it up go backwards open it
up again
pull it through so now I'm back to where
I was I've still got 1 2 3 so it's now
back start with the middle one again
open it up poke it through a real worm
poke it through go back to and poke it
through and then pull it up again just
holding it tight here and pulling it
upwards just gets it to sit down nice
and neatly and it's back to the middle
one again poke it through and when you
tie it off nope now once I get that up
through there and I trim it off it'll be
as neat as a pin
they're definitely rub it together to
get it nice and neat then it's picked
how long you want the handle to be some
people like to lay it over and work out
where they want it to hang I've done
quite a few so I know roughly where it's
going to hang and that's just cutting me
rope turn it around and start again open
it up normally open it up three times
one two three and then back to me middle
one again and if that right always start
with the middle one of you don't start
with the middle you're going to be in
all sorts of Bhalla a bit short and as
you do it you've got to be careful not
to fray the end of the rope otherwise it
makes it hard to to poke it through and
it becomes very untidy
this in itself was another trade on the
ships sail makers and rope makers and
splices and that was another another job
again so everybody had their own little
job on the ships along with Coopers and
cooks and everything else and so the
Coopers would have relied on these other
tradesmen to produce the right to their
buckets yep yep but today you're
covering all those trades here yeah I
don't go to the extent of making the
right but I must admit now just pull
that down into into place now just trim
off the ends so a nice sharp knife
there we have it now what we have to do
is make sure it doesn't leak or get a
bit of water in a foot we've put a bit
in it well that's not legal not
outrigger I'll put that up no leaks I
can't see any not little Demi that's it
I got done
you
it's made out of carry pawn and four
buckets or use carry pawn because it
will not impart any flavor into the
water or milk or that that you put in
that bucket if I use to mountain-ash
overnight with water in it the water
would turn blue you could still drink it
but it did you'd have a flavor in it so
it wouldn't be nice so in Australia for
for white cooperage they used calorie
poem because there was plenty of it and
it just did it's just one of those
Timbers it's a food-grade timber it
doesn't impart any flavor into anything
so that's why they used it in Europe
they use Beach they use chestnut they're
probably they're the only ones that they
use over there for white cooperage dry
goods well that don't matter you can use
just about any timber as long as you can
bend it to and dry coupe bridges barrels
are fairly straight there's not much
bilging them the bilge being the curved
in a barrel so they're easy to been wet
cooperage depending on what it was for
if it was for oil it didn't matter on
the timber if it's for beer or wine nine
times out of ten it's oak what's your
favorite wood I it's it has to be oak
it's it's just a beautiful timber it's
French oak English oak Memel oak all of
the European Oaks are fairly soft or say
softly they're clean to work they're
nice to work with American Oaks a bit
harder got a little bit more angry grain
in it but it's still a nice timber to
work but if I had my choice that'd be
French oak or English oak here and
what's a like working with your hands
for it for a job what's it like Draghi I
don't know anything else so your hands
your most valuable tool
oh yeah yeah yes obviously your brain
tells your hands what to do but to me I
feel it's the other way around it's me
hands that are telling me brain that
that's how it's working but no point it
never ends I'd be lost these buckets
will end up in the hands of children and
they'll be using them to do hand washing
and see what it was like to to do it in
the past do you think that's an
important thing for them to have access
to of course it is yeah yeah I mean
that's part of a problem today with with
a lot of things they don't appreciate
where things come from whether we're
done and they're like how they got to
where they are now or now we've got
plastic buckets for plastic buckets
flour wave wooden bucket stone wooden
bucket all still sit there and it's 40
mile an hour when a plastic bucket will
be gone you won't see it uh-huh
how far can you go back with your family
history you said your sixth generation
yeah well what's that make it more
great-great-great
great-great-grandfather yeah so here it
goes back a bit you know quite a bit
about your up to your grandfather isn't
it yeah what are you watch beyond white
folks I never even met my
great-grandfather but he just happened
to dot die on a date a few years apart
obviously he died on the 30th day of the
of the 11th and I was born on the 30th
of the 11th quite a few years apart but
as going to be something that they ever
what do you do
yeah those sort of things happening in
your life we've got end up doing what
they did Daniel yeah so when his
generation have been one of the last
generations that was really working as a
full-time Cooper in the traditional
sense all died my father was working as
a Cooper as a as a traditional job he he
worked at maize products the federal
Cass company and then ended up at Canton
ordered brewery
but prior to that he worked at the
Yorkshire brewery and the Abbotsford
brewery and then they were all taken
over by Carlton United he ended up his
working life or not his working life but
until they closed down the Cooper shop
in 1954 I think it was
it holds water what money I want of my
to live in here a mic and bucket it's a
practical thing
if someone's to buy this bucket I know
they're gonna have this bucket in 30
years time if I look after it it's a
practical thing and what more can you
ask for a bucket better which a bit of
wood you've created something
in a lot of Cupra jizz it was common
practice to prebend your staves so
they'd be prevented
not the exact Bend that they were going
to end up but being pre bent it meant
that you could joint them just by
holding them on a plane like this and
then just running them across to get the
to get the right angle on the side of
the stave so that the next one butted up
to it and you went around so that was
common practice but but prior to that
preventing them they would use what's
called a side axe and that's just a
bloody big axe and they would preach ape
there to stave so if you look at that
side of the stave it's well it's got a
bit of a bend in it but it's relatively
straight but this side I've already
knocked a bit off so you can see that
it's got that curve on it so then it
would be back to to this jointer again
but you would work it differently you
would only do one half and then turn it
around and do the other half and then
once you got it almost right you would
push it down but you would run your
stave upwards like that so it followed
that curve around the outside and
basically the same thing
now these bits of tools that I've got
laying here on the floor they all had
their little jobs when when you're
following the inside of a safe so that
it follows the inside shape of the the
barrel you would use an inside shave
which is like that drawn off I was using
earlier which was a backing on this is
curved the other way and sharpened the
opposite way you can see the curve in it
so that then you can get the by putting
that into your block and holding it you
could
shave the inside of your stove so that
it got that nice inside shape or you
could use what's called a bully plane
that's curved that way and that way so
it would be done the same doing the same
job as that inside shave but you use it
just a bit differently that would then
do the same job got you hollow inside
now this is another type of draw knife
it's called a jigger crazy name where
they got that from another but when
you've got your barrel all stood up to
make that nice and round on the inside
you would hang that inside it and just
shave around like but like that so you
put that shape into the top of your
barrel or your bucket was done with that
tool there by suspending it inside and
that gives you that shape in solid there
then there was also that tool which was
developed a little bit later it does the
same job there's what the jigger does
but this is just a plain it's a whole
lot easier to operate you set that on
top of your barrel and just rocked it
around and it shaved it out then you put
your groove in which was done with that
and that what we did on the buckets does
the same job it cuts a groove into there
you can just boy running that's sitting
on top of the barrel and that's
adjustable in height so you can lift
that up and down to to work out the
gallonage of your barrel if your stave
was a little bit longer needed to come
down a bit further or up a bit further
you could adjust it by just adjusting
that up and down in there then
you've got your ads which was used to
put that shape into the top of the stave
and that stun boy holding a barrel on a
block and just chipping around like that
working around it and why do you need to
put that when when a barrel is on its
end you'll notice most barrels wine
barrels the hoops set up a little bit
higher so that when you're rolling a
barrel it's rolling on the on the hook
not the timber occasionally they got
down a bit lower so they had it so they
were only running on a little bit of the
stave not the whole lot of it so that's
one reason it was taping in the other
reason you say you can slip your head in
you put your head in when when I did the
bucket I put it in from the inside you
can't do that with a barrel you've got
to push it in from the top so it'll
physically slide down that that taper
and you've got you what's called a bung
borer
it's just a tapered knife-edged semi
half or semi auger you drill a hole a
small hole India barrel to stave and
then by putting that in it and turning
it around give you a tapered hole so
your bung and just tap in and stay in
there and there's all different shapes
and sizes of these fellows - that's just
four little barrels that's called a
flagging on and a flagging iron is used
if if you've got a slight leak in a in a
barrel you can with by tightening that
hoop off and loosening a little you can
put that on there and physically pull
that stave outwards so you can put a
little bit of flag in there which is
kabum gear read that grows in the dams
you can just slip it in the in the joint
and that just just by putting it on your
body and bending it it'll pull that
state backwards
these are little homemade units their
head pullers they're for pulling heads
up into barrels and that's all they're
useful and no other reason you I don't
know if you want to film it or not but
you can do that on one of those these
barrels say you've got your head poking
down in there you hook that little bit
onto it and then by lifting onto that
rivet you can pull the head upwards it
just pulls it up it just I made little
units and an obvious thing just a set of
dividers a compass senator borders just
for working at you circumference or you
your diameter of your head that's it and
that's just a smattering of tools
while it was extremely important because
you needed to carry water how are you
going to carry water in your hand now
someone had to make a bucket or prior to
that they had doesn't we them we're
vessels in that pretty heavy and they
broke easily so as they they worked
along they figured out that they could
make a wooden bucket they did that if
you needed to store or make say
sauerkraut that's done in a bucket or a
small barrel say you needed a watertight
vessel in that case that we use in salt
then cabbage I think they put a little
bit of water and it so that that to hold
fluid they just they just had to have
them yeah you made butter how did you
make butter booting and daylights out of
a bit of cream where we are going to do
it inside a bucket in sort of attitude
so they they just come up with systems
to make life easy for everybody and it
just happened to be that a Cooper was
the bloke that got the job of doing
those things soon yeah it was very
important while in Australia the
Cooper's Union was the biggest of any
Union in Australia so and I think they
were disbanded in in 70 something like
they closed down the Cooper's Union but
back into the early 20s and 30s prior to
the depression and the Second World War
it was huge industry they used it for
everything whether it was y mob
Australia it was beyond it I say it was
a big industry yes and even still then
they were using dry goods barrels for
transporting sausage skins and and
olives and rice and flour so yeah it was
it was big real big I when I started
work at 15
I originally wanted to be a commercial
artist but being color blind that
doesn't work real good next best thing
was do coopering it dad did it me
grandfather did it they all do it but
there was no Cooper shops left in
Victoria I having said that there was
one but in 1966 that closed down I
started working 65 so I was advised not
to do that and mum and dad weren't keen
on me going to Adelaide to learn it so I
took on cabinet making which which I did
for quite a few years and I loved it I
enjoyed it and when I got to when I
think it was 13 or some my father passed
away and me mother me father had asked
me mother to they obviously talked about
this if I happened to go before you can
you put in the paper last in a line
fifth generation Cooper and that was all
good and within of the funeral parlor
they're talking about this and I didn't
gel with me so I said to me mother I
said please don't put that in and well
she didn't it put me and well I put
myself in a position where I didn't have
any choice I had to do it because I'd
asked for that not to be done when he
wanted it done though saleable to heck
with I going to do it so I did it come
home and much to my watch discussed and
threw in a good job come on and had
nothing not a cent what way it's like we
obviously had money but I didn't have a
sale for a barrel or a bucket or any
child and here we got we'll make a few
and we stir Miranda a few Warner's and
here we ask 30 odd years later still
doing it there something worked that was
with it anyway in front you've got
something very special eat I know I can
he he it's in you
election yeah this is can you tell us
what this is and what it says this is a
book on measurements for buckets and
barrels and casks and that was given to
my father by our Cooper at the yorkshire
brewery and it's got written on the
inside of the front cover given to less
Smithwick by alec cook a Cooper at the
yorkshire brewery Wellington Street
Collingwood about 1942 with their strict
instructions never to be showin to
anybody else and here we are what are we
2015 and I'm showing this to everybody I
hope that our morning
so what it what's exactly in there
that's a personal yes it's all
measurements that were written down by
Alec Cook on the first pages on spirit
casks and it gives you the gallonage
down this side whether it's a one gallon
up to a 16 gallon on that page it gives
you the length of the stave how wide the
start of how big the barrel is on the
end and it gives you how big it is in
the bilge that's being the fattest part
of the barrel so one one gallon barrel
it's ten and a half inches long the
diameter at the end is six and a half
inches the bilge is seven and a half
inches and it would pass if it was eight
and a half inches and the past means
that that the bilge it could be either
seven and a half or eight and a half
inches and to get the correct gallon
each unit if it's seven and a half
inches that means the head has to be
closer to the end than what it does if
it's eight and a half inches so you've
got to position your spot where you put
your grooving and they had a set of
dividers which went inside the barrel to
the groove so that you knew you set that
divider up and that would tell you how
far down your groove nest of the
yeah but this is everything in there
we've got port types on this page and
they go up to 46 colors so these would
have been standard vision and stuff yep
so why is it so important not to show it
to someone else that is the story on
that damn Devon oh well that lovely whoa
it was such a secretive industry it was
because our all doing police work it was
you know the more the more barrels you
made the more money you're paid so
everything become a secret you're not
going to tell tell a bloke exactly how
long he's going to make something you're
going to let him work that out for
himself
yeah yeah well that's it not give you an
explainer the advantage of doing things
quicker than what you can do because
you've got this book and you know where
longer that's the bay and you know what
diameter a stably so what tell him
that's why now I do I tell everybody
there or don't even answer that yes well
yeah it's called the full circle yeah I
because because I they've they didn't do
it all themselves some in the industry
moved on Disney that's why we have all
this machinery whereas at the start I
didn't have this machine without doing
it all boy in and now it's got to the
stage world wealth near we've got
plastic we don't new wooden bucket
well some people still do I'm glad you
do but they've just become non-existent
we don't need them they're not as
they're not a necessity anymore yeah we
still need them but not like we used to
need them that's it I mean I can
remember going down the wharfs with me
father
I was probably only that forward in
third Oh important and we'd buy our
bourbon barrels him bring him home and
he'd tip 10 or 20 liters of boiling
water inside the barrel put the bung in
shake the living daylights out of it 15
20 minutes later he had the best bourbon
you could
beautiful okay that's so better so what
let's a barrel over down over time is it
the same thing as a bucket that jointing
no now if a barrel or a buckets been
made properly in the first place what is
going to let it down his that it's left
dry too long or it's stored in a hot
place if it's stored in a cool place
it'll stay fairly tight even even if it
does leak a little bit if it was made
properly in the first place you put a
bit of water in or amount of water in it
or whatever in it it will take up again
might take a day won't take off a day
but it'll take up if it didn't leak in
the first place it'll it'll always
become watertight again always the only
thing that can go wrong is that the
staves will shrink more than what the
head will say you may at some point have
to recut a head in but it'll still come
back to it Paul
you
