B Ondar Anton Filippovich - gun commander of the 4th Guards Rifle Regiment (6th Guards Rifle Division, 13th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), guard senior sergeant.
Born on June 22, 1913 in the village of Koshev, now Tetievsky district, Kyiv region of Ukraine, in a peasant family. Ukrainian. Primary education. He worked as an accountant at a beet farm. In the Red Army in 1936 - 1938 and since 1941.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War at the front. Guard senior sergeant Bondar distinguished himself during the crossing of the Vistula south of the city of Sandomierz (Poland). On August 2, 1944, he was among the first to transport a gun to the opposite bank on a raft. While in the combat formations of units, he participated in repelling numerous enemy counterattacks and holding positions on the Sandomierz bridgehead.
Z The title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 5300) was awarded to Anton Filippovich Bondar on September 23, 1944.
After the war, Sergeant Major A.F. Bondar was demobilized for health reasons. He returned to his native village and worked as an accountant on a collective farm. Died January 31, 1997. He was buried in the village of Klyuki, Tetievsky district, Kyiv region (Ukraine).
Awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, Red Star, Glory, 3rd degree, and medals.
August 1944. Bondar's gun was transported to the bridgehead beyond the Vistula. There was not a minute to lose. The artillerymen placed the cannon in the place indicated by the commander and took up their shovels. They worked without knowing fatigue. They understood: if they didn’t manage to dig and camouflage cover for the gun and crew before dawn, things would be difficult.
In the morning, enemy planes appeared in the sky. One after another they dived onto our positions, dropping their deadly load. As soon as the planes bombed, the howl of shells was heard. They were rushing very close. Clods of earth fell on the weapon and people. In between the roar of explosions, the growing roar of engines was heard. Tanks! Six fascist tanks were moving towards the position of the rifle unit, lined up, firing as they went. Submachine gunners ran after them.
A.F. Bondar assessed the situation. The tanks are still far away. If you now roll the gun onto the site and open fire, the position will be immediately discovered. Six tank barrels can quickly deal with one gun. It’s better to wait and let the enemy vehicles get closer so that you can hit for sure.
Leaving gray clouds of smoke behind them, the tanks moved closer and closer. Anton Filippovich did not take his eyes off them. One of the shells exploded very close. But A.F. Bondar saw that the fascist tankers were attacking at random. This means the enemy doesn’t see the gun. It is most important. Below, in the shelter, his crew was in place, ready at the first signal from the commander to roll out the gun into the open area and take on an unequal battle with the enemy. Zemtsov, Sergeev, Maksimenko, Petrov...
And then it sounded, short, like a shot, a command:
A second - and the shutter clanged. Anton Filippovich caught the track of the front tank in the crosshairs of his sight. A short and sharp blow. Bondar saw how the left caterpillar scattered and, humping like a snake, slid off the skating rink. The tank, having walked a few more meters, sharply rushed to the right and froze in place, exposing its side. Another blow and the armor is pierced through. Smoke poured out of the enemy vehicle.
And the commander was pointing the gun at the second tank. Shot! Another one. Still... The second tank froze. Then the third. The remaining three tanks - here they are, very close, are already passing through the infantry trenches. The gun position has been detected. One of the tanks pointed the trunk of the gun, it seems, directly at the sight through which Anton Filippovich was looking. Two shots rang out almost simultaneously. The enemy gunner missed. The shell whistled over the gun shield and exploded behind the position. But the Soviet artilleryman did not miss.
When two undamaged vehicles crossed over the infantrymen's trenches, as if from underground, several hands with anti-tank grenades rose at once. Dull explosions signaled that the enemy tanks were finished. The machine gunners, cut off from the tanks by machine-gun fire, ran away in short dashes. They were overtaken by well-aimed bullets from Soviet infantrymen.
Thus ended another battle between Anton Filippovich Bondar and his fighting friends. He accounted for eight destroyed enemy tanks...
This is the 21st century - the era of global industrialization and automation of all production processes. Against this background, traditional crafts seem to be something very ancient, archaic. One of the forgotten crafts is cooperage.
Who are the coopers? What are they doing? And what is the meaning of the word "cooper"?
Ancient crafts in the modern world
Craft means small-scale production using handwork and primitive tools. It is also often referred to as "cottage industry" and the workers involved as "handicraftsmen".
The first crafts arose a long time ago, and have come a long way of development, changing and taking on new forms. In the Middle Ages, they contributed to the formation of certain layers of urban society. The Industrial Revolution (XVIII - early XIX centuries) led to the gradual displacement of artisans to the “sidelines” of social and economic life.
The modern world is about industrial concerns and mass production. It would seem that there is simply no place for traditional crafts in such a world. However, they continue to live and develop. Even in the field of information technology in our time, its own “artisans” are born (copywriters, SMM specialists, etc.), and they turn out to be very, very in demand!
The following crafts should be considered traditional (historical):
- weaving;
- blacksmith craft;
- pottery;
- cooperage;
- wood carving;
- carpentry and others.
Cooper is... Meaning of the word
So, who are these coopers? What and how do they produce? Let's answer these questions.
A cooper is a master at making barrels (sometimes also some other wood products). And the corresponding craft is called cooperage. Previously it was widespread everywhere. Today, it is much more difficult to meet a real cooper. However, their craft is still relevant. After all, the wine and cognac industry needs wooden barrels.
Where does the term "cooper" come from? This word most likely has Ukrainian roots. From Ukrainian it is translated as “barrel”. It is curious that the word “bond” was common in medieval Scandinavia. This is how a free person was called in the Scandinavian countries.
The surname Bondar and its analogues in the world
One cannot help but recall one more interesting fact. This profession gave rise to a fairly common surname - Bondar. It is very popular in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.
Other peoples of the world have its analogues. You can see which surnames were born from cooperage in other countries in the following table:
Modern cooperage
Bondar is not just entertainment or a tribute to tradition. This is very hard work, requiring considerable skills and abilities from the master. In addition, the cooper has at his disposal a whole arsenal of tools that he must be able to use correctly. In addition to the trivial and familiar axe, among them there are also exotic tools: a firecracker, a jointer, and a plow.
Wooden barrels are a seemingly simple thing. But it only seems so at first glance. A modern cooper must be a carpenter, a machine operator, and a tinsmith. He must have a good understanding of tree species: not every wood is suitable for this task (oak, heather and linden are best suited for making barrels and tubs). Carpentry skills are also important here, because you need to perfectly fit all the bars and the bottom to each other.
To become a good cooper, you must have three main qualities. This is extreme accuracy, precision and excellent coordination of movements. Coopers today are in demand primarily in the wine and chemical industries. The work of such masters is estimated at approximately 30-50 thousand rubles.
Bochar Dictionary of Russian synonyms. cooper see bochar Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011… Synonym dictionary
COOPER Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
COOPER- BONDAR, me and BONDAR, me, husband. A master who makes large dishes (barrels, tubs, tubs) from wooden planks. | adj. Bondarsky, aya, oh and Bondarsky, aya, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
COOPER- (Polish bondarz, from German binder, from binden knit). Manufacturer of barrels, tubs, etc. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. BONDAR Polish. bodnarz, from him. Binder, from binden, to knit. Manufacturing... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
cooper- and obsolete cooper; pl. coopers, b. coopers and colloquially coopers, coopers... Dictionary of difficulties of pronunciation and stress in modern Russian language
COOPER- BONDAR, cooper's cooper, husband. Bochar, a craftsman who makes barrels. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Cooper- b ondar, bondar m. Master of making barrels, tubs, etc.; cooper. Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova
COOPER- male, southern, western, tver, tamb. cooper, betrothed, working hoop or knitted wooden utensils. Bondarikha, the cooper's wife; Bondarevka, the daughter of a cooper, is also remembered in the songs. Bondarev, owned by a cooper. Bondarsky, cooper, related to... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
Cooper- BONDAREV BONDARENKO BONDARCHUK BOCHAROV BOCHKAREV BOCHARNIKOV BOCHARNIKOV BONDARYUK BONDARYUK Bondar is the same as a cooper: an artisan who makes barrels. (F). Bondarenko, Bondarchuk, Bondar surnames of Ukrainian origin. From visitors' additions About... ...Russian surnames
Cooper- This term has other meanings, see Bondar (meanings). Cooper at work... Wikipedia
cooper- Ukrainian Bondar, bodnar, blr. Bondar, Polish bednarz, Czech. bednař, v. puddle bětnar. A derivative of bodnya kadka, barrel (see), which goes back to *bъдьna / *bъдьнь Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Vasmer
Books
- Sometimes I'm fascinated... Daniil Bondar. Photo essay, Bondar Daniil. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s favorite seasons are autumn and winter. I found it interesting to visit places known to everyone who went to school. Boldino, Mikhailovskoe, and also Torzhok,... Buy for 2786 UAH (Ukraine only)
- "Sometimes I'm fascinated..." Daniil Bondar. Photo essay, Bondar Daniil. The photographs in this book have the least intention of informing, but they do allow viewers to be “fascinated” by the elusive faces. And yet the images presented evoke...
Some scientists believe that cooper's utensils were known back in Ancient Greece, but their use was quite limited.
It is assumed that Greek craftsmen mainly made large barrels in which vegetable oil, wine and water were transported and stored. However, more or less specific information about cooper's utensils dates back only to the 1st-2nd centuries AD.
Log for staves Olivier Colas, CC BY-SA 3.0Archaeologists at the site of Staraya Ladoga, in cultural layers dating back to the 8th-10th centuries, discovered the remains of cooperage utensils. Based on the excavations of ancient Novgorod, one can draw conclusions about the level of development of cooperage in Rus' in the 10th-15th centuries.
The dishes of that time were restored using the found parts of cooper's dishes: hoops, staves and bottoms. After the reconstruction, it became obvious that the Novgorodians used all the main types of cooper's utensils, which became widespread in all subsequent centuries.
Unknown photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0 Ancient craftsmen mastered the craft of cooperage perfectly, turning the production of jugs and buckets, barrels and tubs, gangs and tubs, mugs, milk pans and glasses into a real art.
Features of the craft
From time immemorial, only men were coopers. This is due to the fact that the craft requires the use of considerable physical strength.
The craft of cooperage - in its original, true form - is unique in that it does not require anything artificial. Everything can be taken from nature - cooperage technique involves only wood.
Soerfm, CC BY-SA 2.0 The wooden frame is tightened with wooden hoops. Without any glue, the hoops reliably compress the rivets of the frame and ensure tightness. No metal required - no nails or screws. Any connection can be made on wooden dowels.
A product assembled using the cooperage technique can be understood as any product, the skeleton of which consists of riveted planks smoothly fitted to each other and tightened with hoops.
Wood
The use of different types of wood was important in cooperage. The craftsmen took into account the type of wood, humidity, growth conditions, harvesting season and other conditions. Oak was considered one of the most valuable species.
Bondaris, having mastered the instrument perfectly, subtly understood and felt the plasticity of wood. Knowing the different qualities of certain species, they skillfully used them in the manufacture of different types of wooden utensils.
Unknown 1938, CC BY-SA 3.0 It is necessary that the wood can be split well, processed by cutting (planed, sawn), be sufficiently elastic and viscous, and bend easily when steamed.
Of the deciduous trees, the wood of which is used for cooperage staves, oak, hazel, linden, alder, birch and poplar are widely used, and of coniferous trees - pine, cedar spruce, larch and juniper. In the southern regions, beech and chestnut are also used.
Oak
This is the best material. Oak wood is difficult to cut, but it chips well. Distinguished by its great elasticity, after steaming it becomes very flexible and bends easily, and this is a necessary quality in the manufacture of barrels.
wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 3.0 In addition, dense and heavy oak wood dries well, warps and cracks little. It is filled with special preservative substances - tills, which protect it from damage by putrefactive microbes.
Oak wood is not afraid of moisture - on the contrary, immersed in water, it becomes even stronger.
Aspen
Staves from its wood were mostly used for dishes intended for various pickles and fermentations. It was noticed that cabbage fermented in an aspen tub retains its whiteness and elasticity until the hottest days of spring.
Peter Wöhrer, CC BY-SA 3.0 The tendency of aspen wood to swell is considered in some cases a negative phenomenon, but not in cooperage. It is due to swelling that the aspen rivets meet at the edges so tightly that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them.
Linden
Due to its softness and uniformity, linden wood cuts well in all directions and easily splits both along the layers and in the radial direction.
It hardly warps and cracks very little. One of its most important properties is slight drying out or, as experts say, resistance to loss of volume. The linden tub, which has been lying empty almost all summer waiting for the harvest, practically does not dry out.
Secrets of mastery
Imagine that you entered a cooper's workshop at the moment when the cooper is jointing the edges of finished staves. It may seem that he breaks all the rules accepted in carpentry: when planing, the jointer, fixed upward with the sole, remains motionless, while the rivet, held in the hands of the master, moves along it.
But it is precisely this original method of jointing that is one of those “secrets”, without knowledge of which you should not undertake the manufacture of even the simplest tub. Or another operation: stuffing a hoop.
Kerkvorst, GNU 1.2 An experienced cooper will need a few minutes to do this. Using special clamps, he will deftly attach three rivets to a metal hoop and place the resulting tripod on the workbench. Then, with extraordinary speed, all the other rivets will be inserted into it.
And soon on the workbench, instead of a tripod, there is already the skeleton of a tub. Besides these, there are many other “secrets” that have been verified over centuries.
In our time
The craft of cooperage has not lost its relevance. Natural barrels, and other items of cooper's utensils and furniture cannot be replaced by any modern technologies. In winemaking, the desired results can only be achieved in dishes made from properly selected wood.
Olivier Colas, CC BY-SA 3.0 To store oil - vegetable and butter, beekeeping products, fermentations, pickles, in baths and saunas - cooperage products are needed everywhere.
Nowadays, those engaged in the cooperage craft are mainly private craftsmen, small artels, and individual entrepreneurs. Workshops are located throughout Russia, wherever the necessary materials are available.
Photo gallery
Helpful information
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The oldest samples
Such examples of Russian cooperage utensils were discovered during archaeological excavations. Fragments of barrels, tubs, buckets, jugs, tubs, milk pans, buckets, tubs and other cooperage items were found. All of them were preserved in peasant farming and were widely used until the middle of the 20th century.
Craft in everyday life
Most often, coopers combined their craft with traditional peasant occupations. They worked mainly in winter, starting from Pokrov. Some masters practiced cooperage all year round, with the exception of three or four months in the summer during harvesting and haymaking.
Hollowware
Perhaps, it all started with her in Rus'. It was used for storing oil and all kinds of bulk products, such as flour and grain, as well as for collecting honey. Sooner or later, deep through cracks appeared on the walls of the hives and dishes. And then the first step towards cooper's ware was taken - the hoop was invented. To prevent cracking, dugouts and hollows began to be tied together with all kinds of plaits, rope, and wire. Later, wooden and metal hoops appeared, which became classic.
Application of oak
From oak staves they made tubs for fermenting cabbage and pickling cucumbers, and cubelas for storing lard and corned beef. Apples soaked in oak tubs remained strong and tasty until spring. Where special strength was required from cooper's utensils, oak was indispensable. It’s hard to find a better well tub than one made of oak, forced to work in the harshest conditions. Oak wood also has one more unusual property - it speeds up the leavening of dough.
Application of linden
Cooperage utensils made from linden staves preserve food well. It is also important that it does not give them any unpleasant smell or taste. The best honey is kept in linden barrels: it retains its aroma and pristine freshness for a long time. Linden cooperage containers are considered the best for storing and transporting butter, which does not go bitter for a very long time. And for transporting such a delicacy as red and black caviar, linden barrels are simply irreplaceable. Linden wood is an excellent material for portable travel containers intended for water and all kinds of soft drinks: flasks, eggplants, lagoons and the like.
Hoops
The wood from which hoops are made is of great importance. It so happens that this is mainly wood from garden trees. such as: lilac, serviceberry, bird cherry, sweet cherry, linden bark, willow, oak, ash, elm, maple and hazel.
barrel grass
Cooperage utensils, be it a tub or a barrel, sometimes require additional modification. It happens that the master is not sure that the rivets are fitted to each other with sufficient accuracy, then the barrel grass helps him out. Basically, these are herbs that have a coarse fibrous structure. Such as cattail, reeds and others. Quite often the finished cooper's ware is said to leak in the mornings. This means that there are gaps in the joints between the rivets of the frame and the bottom. They can be eliminated using specially prepared cooper herbs.
Not just barrels
Coopers produce far more than just barrels and dishes. There is also cooper furniture. These are round and oval tables, stools, ottomans and banquettes, bedside tables and other furniture made using cooperage techniques. All of them are united by the fact that the wood is not sawn into the necessary parts, then assembled and glued together, as in carpentry. Cooperage ones are made using a special cooperage technology, which involves manual processing of wood and fastening the rivets with hoops without glue. Thus, this furniture can be considered 100% environmentally friendly. There aren't even nails in it.
Until now, we have been talking about woodworking tools used not only by coopers, but also by other woodworkers - carpenters, joiners, turners, carvers. Based on the presence of these tools in the workshop, it is difficult to judge the profession of its owner. But there are tools that you will only find in a cooper's workshop - a circular humpback, a morning hammer, a tensioner, a heel and a cooper's clamp. The circular humpback is used by coopers to plan the inner surface of the cooper's ware along the edge where the bottom is supposed to be cut. He prepares (aligns) the edges of the staves before cutting the chimes into which the bottom is inserted.
The circular humpbacker consists of a block, which is part of a cylinder, the side surface of which is the sole of the plane. In this case, the knife has a straight blade. The sole can also be rounded at the edges, that is, have a spherical or end surface. Accordingly, the knife blade of such a circular plane will be rounded, like a fillet or sherhebel. The chips generated during planing are discharged through a hole cut on the side and fall down. Unlike a humpback carpenter's plane, it has a guide board that slides along the end of the cooper's utensil during operation and ensures a constant width of the surface being sanded. The diameter of the sole of the circular humpback depends on the internal diameter of the frame of the cooperage.
Circular cooper's humpback and how to work with it
On the surface cleaned by humpback fish, narrow grooves are cut - chimes, into which the bottom is inserted. The tool used to cut them is called a utornik. The morning party is somewhat reminiscent of a circular humpback. It also has a guide bar, which during operation rests against the ends of the rivets and slides along them. The lower part of the tool - the block, which has a cylindrical surface, slides along the rivets from the inside. Two through holes located perpendicular to each other are hollowed out in the morning tray. In one, a movable beam with a steel cutter fixed in it is inserted, in the second there is a clamping wedge, with the help of which the beam with the cutter, which is extended to different heights, is fixed in the desired position. Thanks to this, you can cut the chimes at different distances from the edge. The design of a breakfast table of this type has come down to the present day from ancient times due to the simplicity of its design.
Left: two-handed chisel and its device (a - block; b - movable block; c - cutter; d - guide; e - clamping wedge). Right: cutting a groove with a one-handed cutter
Making such a dinner table was not difficult for a non-professional cooper who made dishes only for the needs of his family. Professional coopers, along with similar tools, also used more advanced chisels, with which the chimney groove was cut using knives. One knife cut the wood to a certain depth, the other cut it at an angle. As a result, a groove was formed with neatly trimmed walls.
In dishes that are small in size and have oval bottoms, the chimes are cut with a one-handed chisel. A one-handed morning cake is entirely cut from one block. The block is divided into three parts. A handle is cut out of one part, a guide protrusion is cut out of the middle part, and a block with a sole having a cylindrical surface is cut out of the third part. A through hole is cut in the sole into which the cutter is inserted. Before cutting the mornings, the frame of the cooper's utensils is laid on trestles mounted on a bench. The cooper sits on the bench and presses the frame against the goats with a belt. With one hand he leads the breakfast table, with the other, after loosening the belt, he turns the frame towards him. This process continues until the required depth is obtained.
Bondar tension. Techniques for stretching a metal hoop onto the frame of a cooper's utensil
The next tool that you will only find in a cooperage workshop is the tensioner. Using tension, metal and wooden morning hoops are put (pulled) onto the frame of the cooper's utensil. It consists of a wooden block with a handle at one end and a metal hook at the other. When placed on a barrel or tub, the hoop is hooked with a hook, and the end of the wooden block is pressed against the edge of the vessel. (The frame is first tightened using a collar with a rope or strong rope.) By pressing the handle, part of the hoop is pulled onto the edge of the rivets. Then the tension is moved along the side of the dish and all other sections of the hoop are pulled onto the frame in the same way.
The tension shown in our pictures is designed to work with small-sized cookware. Its wooden part is cut from oak, birch and beech wood. The hook is made from a steel strip 2-2.5 mm thick. For large tensions, hooks are made of steel 4-5 mm thick.
Metal, wooden and combined heels. Below: stuffing a hoop with a wooden heel with a metal striker A heel is “a wedge, a dull chisel, a half-pipe for stuffing, the settling of hoops.” This is how V.I. Dal defines this purely cooper’s instrument. A brief and precise definition contains information about the various types of this simple instrument.
To fit metal hoops, coopers simply used an old, ground or broken chisel, with a shallow groove made with a file at the end. Thanks to it, the heel does not jump off the hoop during operation. The half-tube heel was also used for stuffing and setting steel hoops. Its production was exceptionally simple.
The iron tube was flattened at one end and a small groove was bored out on the head with a file and the heel was ready. But such a heel did not satisfy every cooper: when hit with a hammer, it vibrated. To dampen vibration, the tube was sawed and the flattened end was put on a wooden rod on one side, and a ring on the other side. This heel served well for many years.
The heels discussed above are no longer suitable for stuffing and setting wooden hoops, since the metal strikers crush and split the wood. Therefore, a heel for wooden hoops must have a wooden striker. The simplest heel is made from an oak, birch, beech, maple or rowan block or round block, which is cut off on both sides so that a wedge is formed. The impact part of the wooden heel may split over time. To prevent splitting, a metal ring is put on it. It is also important that the heel fits comfortably in the hand. For this purpose, its handle is given a rounded shape with a slight interception between the handle and the striker.
Treating the inner surface of the tub with a scraper. Making a staple from a steel strip
To level the internal surfaces of cooper's utensils, especially at the joints of staves, coopers use special cooper's scrapers. Unlike a staple, a staple has one handle. Thanks to this, it is easy to remove the finest shavings in hard-to-reach places inside a narrow cooperage utensil. The scraper is made of tool steel (you can use a scythe or saw blade). A workpiece is cut out from an annealed strip 2 mm thick with a chisel. The thin long ends of the workpiece (shanks) are bent in relation to the staple blade by 80°. Then the staple blank is bent in half on a cylindrical mandrel. The shanks are connected and wrapped with steel or copper wire. Having sharpened the blade, the scraper is hardened and mounted on a wooden handle. A pretty good stapler can be made from a semicircular file. It resembles a spoon cutter, the arched blade of which is inclined to the handle at an angle of 15-20°.
Processing the inner surface of the vat with a scraper (drawing from a Japanese engraving of the 19th century). Making a stapler from a semicircular file. Below: a crooked staple, the handle of which is made from the natural curve of a tree trunk.
Before processing, the cooperage utensils are laid lengthwise on a regular bench. A rope or belt with loops at the ends is placed on top of it. The Bondar sits astride the bench and inserts his legs into the loops. By pulling the rope, he, like a vice, holds the cooper's utensils on the bench in a certain position. When the rivets in one area are aligned, the belt is loosened, the dishes are turned and fixed in this position. This is repeated until all the rivets are completely processed. When moving the scraper towards you, the finest shavings are removed: periodically the accumulated shavings are poured out of the cooper's utensils.
To process large cooper's utensils, such as vats, the cooper has to climb into it along with a scraper. This is exactly the moment that was depicted in an engraving by the Japanese artist Hokusai, who lived in the last century.
In addition to those tools that have been described, in the cooperage craft, in the course of work, they use a hacksaw, a trigger saw, a two-handed and bow saw, a circular saw, a drill and a brace, straight and semicircular chisels, a mallet, a jigsaw, a hammer, a chisel, and punches. , files, metal scissors and other carpentry and plumbing tools.
To measure, mark and check the accuracy of manufacturing parts of cooper's utensils, various measuring tools and templates are used: ruler, triangle, compass, fabric (tailor's) meter and cooper's clamp.
The success of the work largely depends on the cooper's clamp. With its help, the cooper controls the curvature of the convex surface of the stave, determines the bevels of the side edges and the width of the staves at the ends and in the bunch (in the middle). The cooper's staple is the most common template used in cooperage for many centuries. For each type of cooper's utensils, they make their own bracket. The more diverse it is, the more extensive the set of staples the cooper has. Their sizes depend on the size of the hoop utensils, and their divisions depend on the difference in the ratios of the circles in the narrowest and widest parts. The shape of the barrel is conventionally divided into two truncated cones that have a common base in its middle (bundle). Tubs, tubs, buckets and other cooperage utensils with straight frets have the same geometric shape. The similarity of the shape makes it possible to use templates built according to a single principle when making tubs and barrels. Therefore, let’s look at a specific example of how to calculate a cooper’s bracket for a barrel. The most common barrels are those whose outer diameters at the ends are 1/5, 1/6 and 1/7 parts smaller than the diameter in the middle.
Suppose that you need to make a bracket for a barrel, the diameters of which at the ends are j/b smaller than the diameter in the middle. First, draw a template on paper, and then cut it out and paste it onto a thin board or plywood. An arc is drawn on a sheet of paper with a radius corresponding to the largest circumference of the barrel (the length of the arc is made equal to approximately 1/10 of the circumference). This is the working part of the template; all other contours of the bracket can be drawn by hand, arbitrarily.
Principle of calculation and production of templates
The cut out paper silhouette is glued onto a board or plywood and cut along the contour with a jigsaw or cut out with a knife. With this template, you can already determine the direction and angle of the bevel of the side edge, as well as the curvature of the convex surface of the riveting. But this is not enough for work - you need to apply divisions on the template, which would allow you to accurately determine the width of the riveting at the ends and in the middle. At one end of the arc mark point A, at the other - point O.
The arc segment AO will correspond to the width of the middle part of the widest stave. Its width at the ends will be smaller. Using a compass, the arc AO is divided into five parts, then 1/5 of the part is set aside from point A and point B is obtained. Then the segment BO is also divided into five parts - point C is obtained. The remaining divisions are obtained in the same way. It is not difficult to understand that each subsequent segment is 1/5 less than the previous one. One more rule should be remembered: if the width of the middle part of the riveting is equal to the segment AO, then its width at the ends will be equal to the segment BO - and so on for each riveting.
Coopers usually do not put letter marks on the template; instead, they make thin notches with a knife, and remove the pasted paper from the surface of the wood with sandpaper or a scraper. When determining the width of the narrow parts of the riveting, each time they step back to the right by one division. But the width of the measured riveting does not always correspond to any notch. Its edge may also end up between the notches, therefore, to make the scale more accurate, short ones are also applied between long notches. The template will become more convenient if the notches are applied on the reverse side.
There is an even less old and more accurate template. They can determine the width of the riveting in centimeters. Therefore, it is clear that it could only appear with the introduction of the metric system in our country. On one side of this template, the arched cutout corresponds to the larger diameter of the cooper's utensils, on the other - to the smaller one. A large arc is divided into centimeters, for example 7 cm, as shown in the figure. On the small arc, lay a segment 1/5 smaller, that is, 5 cm 6 mm, and divide it into 7 parts.
Thus, every seventh part on the small arc will be equal to 8 mm, that is, 1/5 less than the corresponding division on the large arc. You can also calculate the template for any cooper's utensils graphically. On a sheet of paper, two arcs are drawn from one center, one of which corresponds to the larger diameter of the dish, and the other to the smaller one. The large arc is divided into 6, 7, 8 ... centimeters, depending on the expected dimensions of the widest riveting. Through each division, rays are drawn from the center, which divide the small arc into the corresponding number of parts that are in a certain proportional relationship to the segments on the large arc (1/5, 1/7, 1/6, 1/7, etc.).
There may be some other (arbitrary) relationships obtained practically after the development of the form of the cooper's product. Rays from the center indicate the direction of cuts of narrow edges.
Original patterns are carefully cut out from the drawing. Each of them must have a part of the arc and beam. The patterns are glued onto plywood or a thin board made of homogeneous hardwood (linden, birch, aspen, beech). The board is carefully cut along the drawn lines. The template is given a convenient and attractive shape. In this case, the parts of the template were arranged so that the silhouette of a fish appeared almost randomly. And oddly enough, it is precisely this circumstance that makes the template much more convenient.
The fact is that sometimes it takes a lot of time to figure out: which side to measure the wide part of the riveting, which side to measure the narrow part? Here the visual image simplifies this task. It is easy to remember that with a staple located on the back of the fish, only the wide part of the rivets is measured, and with a staple located on the abdomen, the narrow part is measured. To further emphasize the difference between large and small staples, one half of the template can be painted in a bright color, such as red. Bright color allows you to quickly find a template that may accidentally be lost in chips and shavings. So the attractive appearance of the instrument is not decoration at all.
Using this template is easy. Having measured, for example, a barrel stave in the middle, remember the number corresponding to its width. In the figure, the width of the riveting is 5 cm. The template is turned and using the divisions on the small bracket, the width for the riveting at the end is marked - it will be equal to 5 divisions on the small bracket. After making marks with a pencil, trim off the excess wood. But we will talk about how to make rivets using a template a little later.
Homemade thicknesser and drawing a level line with it on the surface of a cooper's utensil
The edges of the assembled cooper's frame are filed along a line drawn with a special thicknesser. It consists of a stand with a vertical bar attached to it, along which a block with a metal scriber or pencil can move freely. A slot is hollowed out in the block between the pencil and the vertical block, into which a wedge is inserted, which simultaneously fixes the block and the pencil in a certain position. For the same purpose as a surface planer, some coopers use a sharp rod driven into the wall at a given distance from the floor. The core of the cooper's product is leaned against the tip of the scriber and rotated around its axis - a clear line appears, running strictly along the perimeter. Although this method is quite acceptable, it is still better to use a universal thicknesser. To make the thicknesser stand more stable, a lead washer is placed on it. You can pour it in a tin can. To ensure that the disk has a rectangular hole in the middle, a block made of clay is placed in the jar.