Most of this blog is dedicated to reproducing crafts from the Viking Age through to the Renaissance. Along the way, I’ve been digging into both historical sources and modern practices, and recently I came across a couple of excellent resources that show how barrels are made today.
What’s fascinating is just how little the core process has changed. Coopering—whether for a small bucket or a large cask—still follows the same fundamental steps: shaping staves, raising the vessel, setting the hoops, and fitting the head. In many ways, the process we see today would be recognizable to a medieval cooper. While modern technology—especially computer-guided cutting and powered tools—has made parts of the work faster and more consistent, the underlying craft remains remarkably intact.
One resource worth exploring is the Modern Wine Barrel construction Lodi Wine California website, which walks through modern wine barrel construction. Some steps clearly reflect contemporary production methods, but if you read between the lines, you can still see the historical process at work. For example, their method of assembling the barrel heads offers useful insight for anyone looking to recreate period-accurate techniques for buckets or smaller vessels.
Another standout is The Cooperage – Saury. This beautifully presented site uses images and short descriptions to guide you from the forest all the way through to the finished barrel. It’s an excellent “big picture” overview of the craft—almost like visual cliff notes—and a great way to understand the sequence of operations before diving deeper into historical reconstruction.
For anyone interested in recreating medieval or Viking-era vessels, these modern examples are more than just educational—they’re a reminder that traditional crafts often survive not as relics, but as living practices, quietly carrying centuries of knowledge forward.
By Stave & Hoop 