April 12th, 2025 – Erhard & Skalli collaboration for FOOL
Project: To figure out the logistics of making and teaching others how to make a medieval style bucket in a field at the SCA event known as FOOL.
Construction: 12 stave bucket, 15 degree miter
Material: Pine barn board
Goal: 12” diameter bucket.
This is not my first attempt at constructing a 12” bucket, in the past I had struggled with cutting staves straight and clean with 15 degree miter. Hoping the team up with Erhard we will solve this problem together.
Circular saw with 15 degree mitre, to cut the length of the staves. Originally the height was set for 10” tall unfortunately couple stave snapped and the height of the bucket was reduced to 8” tall. 1/4” from the bottom the stave a croze (groove) was cut for the head (bottom bucket plate)
Back side of staves were taped together and then rolled into a circular shape.You can see here the 15 degree angle of each stave is tightly pressed against one another. The tighter the staves are the less likely any water will escape through the sides.
Staves and head glued and held in place using a strap clamp.
Historically, the creation of the head would have been completed using an English shave horse to hold the wood head in place while the cooper utilized a draw knife to remove material. To reduce the edge to correct thickness to fit into the croze. Not having any historical tools we used modern power tool, which had its own challenges. This was a struggle to complete with an angle grinder. End result we manage to create ahead that fit into the croze however it was not going to be water tight, lots of light shinned through.
To solve the issues of gaps, we combined Titebond III wood glue and sawdust, then forcefully ground it onto every crevasse. Historically no glue would have been used in the creation of buckets or barrels.
The pressure of metal banding would have kept these vessels tightly together allow for liquid to stay inside and not leak out. These bands would have been created by a black smith, since neither of us were a blacksmith for visual effect we add flat oval reed for a mock banding effect.
The top flat reed was soaked for one hour, clamps applied to the flat part of each stave. Band wrapped round the whole barrel. Some spacing between band and barrel not as tight as I would have liked. Using a wet smaller flat reed everything was tied into place and let to dry. Very happy with the results of the flat smaller reed drying tight and holding the band in place. For the most part the band stays in place but does slide up and down the length of the barrel. *A small nail front a back may help stop the sliding. (Historically the expansion for water inside the bucket would press into the band to prevent it from slipping) **Half round reed banding adds more bulk than i like when place on top of each other, think about shaving the band on the bottom to reduce thickness.
Bottom band on bucket had been soaking for 24 hrs, some improvement on its flexibility and getting it closer to the barrel. Cut away some of the material to reduce bulk for over lapping band reeds. (This needs more exploring). Clamp band into place,
*Next bucket the croze should be 1/2’ to 3/4” higher on the inside allowing for clamps add more pressure for drying. This bucket the croze is too low which prevented clamps from applying maximum pressure.
Take Aways form this buildsAbsolute pleasure working Erhard, his level of wood craftsmen and mathematics was key to to resolving a number of issues in bucket making.
- Trying modern twist with power tools has its struggles.
- Smaller than expected
- Staves need to wide so the compound measurement will allow for a 12” diameter bucket, this one is more the size of a small pale.
- Once 12” diameter has been perfected, make or commission someone to make steel bands to go over the staves and hold them in place during construction
- Jigs for creating croze would be helpful
- Make a English Shave horse bench to make bucket heads more accurately
- Hide small nail behind band to prevent them from sliding down.
Resource Materials
A Cooper and his Trade by Kennith Kilby
By Stave & Hoop 