Beaver Den News

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"HOW TO MAKE A COOPERED WOODEN BUCKET"

January 2003

Making a Wooden Bucket Step Two

These are more pictures taken of Mr. Gaster during recent demonstrations.  Step two is that the staves for the bucket must be "dressed", that is, shaped so they will fit together into a round shape that will become the walls of the bucket.  Mr. Gaster considers this to be the most difficult part of the entire process because of all the fine-tuning that is involved.  First the rough staves are smoothed out with a curved draw knife (called a hollowing knife) as shown above.  While dressing the wood, Mr. Gaster uses a shaving horse, a specially-made bench that features a foot-operated clamp that holds the stave in place.  The stave is smoothed convex on one side and concave on the other side; each side requires a special knife.

Mr. Gaster smoothes the staves further with a scorp, as shown above.

Next Mr. Gaster smoothes the sides of the stave with a straight draw knife.

Then, Mr. Gaster bevels each edge of the stave to an angle using an upside-down plane with a cutting surface called a "jointer".  Each stave should fit the stave next to it so that, when put together, they will interlock, fitting together in a circle.  This circle will be held together under the pressure of metal, wooden or rope bands called "hoops".  More to come...

New article: "Making Butter with a Churn" by Marilyn Gaster

I prefer getting milk from a farmer, skimming off the cream and then letting the cream sit in the refrigerator several days until it thickens.  Some old timers have said they let the cream sit out overnight.  One friend of ours tells us the cream turns to butter more quickly if it is left at room temperature.  

Fill churn no more than one-half full and begin churning.  I prefer using our Baby Butter Churn because it takes less cream and less time.  The cream will become foamy.  It may take 45 minutes to an hour to complete the process.  Both large churns, Pioneer Butter Churn or Colonial Butter Churn ,take an hour to an hour and a half.

When the butter separates from the buttermilk, pour the buttermilk off  (Save this buttermilk for pancakes.  It will be watery and not thick like bought buttermilk) and press in a bowl with a Butter Paddle.  Pour ice water over the butter and press again, pouring off all of the water.  If you want to add salt, it would be added to taste at this time.

If you decide to put butter into a butter press, make sure all the buttermilk is pressed out before putting the butter in the butter mold or Butter box..  The butter should be very stiff.

G

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