Subj: Re: [MOJEFFER] The Jefferson Democrat April 7, 1892 Volunteer Transcription P...  Date: 6/23/2005 7:47:02 PM Eastern Standard Time From: CVKILHAN To: MehdiFakhar Please send the photo by email if possible to the list.  Sounds interesting. ********************** (The 1873 Jeffco news article you just sent was interesting. I suppose fighting with hoop poles meant they were having aggressive sword play with sticks? ) -Kay This is the site where you can forward to photos of the different steps in the process. http://www.rhc.rdg.ac.uk/olibcgi/demo.sh?session=-1&userlevel=PUB&oid=394105& subject=14850&seq=1&infile=show_caption.glu (Here is another site, listing several 'hoop' terms used in the coopering business.) http://www.princetonimaging.com/library/mechanical-dictionary/idxH.html The business of hoop-shaving was the process of making hoops, for barrels & casks. 1. Cleaving timber Hoop lengths were cleaved with the aid of a hand held adze and cleaving break. The break is constructed from two short wooden posts embedded in the ground and lashed together at the top. The adze, similar to a small axe, started the break, making the job easier by keeping the two halves of timber apart until splitting was complete. 2. Hoop shaving Using a two handled draw shave, the hoop is shaved down the inner side of the hoop length whilst it is held in place on a break in the form of a tripod. The outer bark is left intact. Hoops were made from a number of different timbers such as ash and willow. Hazel, however, was always the most popular raw material with craftsmen. 3. Soaking hoop lengths Once split and shaved, the hoop lengths were stored until the hoop maker was ready to bend and coil them into finished hoops. If during this period they became too dry, soaking in water was an ideal way of making them pliable again. 4. Coiling hoops A hoop maker coils a prepared hoop length using a hoop mould. When perfectly coiled, both ends of the new hoop will be fastened together. The moulds are simply stronger wooden hoops, which, depending upon the size of cask the hoops are being made for, can vary in size from between twenty-three and ninety-one centimeters in diameter. A skilled and experienced craftsman could make somewhere between four and five hundred hoops every day. 5. Finished cask Pictured is a cooper holding a large cask that is bound with about twenty-five wooden hoops. There were traditionally three areas of coopering: dry coopering, the making of dry, or slack, casks for dry goods such as vegetables; wet coopering, producing tight casks for liquids; white coopering, the making of utensils such as washtubs and butter churns for the home and dairy.