Meticulous Barrel Maker Made a Perfect Butter Churn VIDEO

Ten years ago, we wandered around the village of Straja when we came to the house of the renowned barrel maker, Popescu Gheorghe. At the time, he was 91 years old but still able to walk and do his job, though not as quickly as he could in his younger years, but still, he was able to complete an object within weeks, if not days. His barrels looked flawless. With the thought that in the future we wouldn’t find such objects elsewhere but in museums, we bought ourselves a few objects, and we made a short video. In 2017, at the respectable age of 93, the barrel maker passed away. (Read the full story Barrel Making Traditional Artisans – Master Cooper ‘ s Wooden Barrels )  

“The day he died he left a jug unfinished. That day he was planning to place the second hoop. For three years the jug stayed under the workbench. Then, one day, I decided to finish it myself. I knew so much just from watching my father. I knew every step of the process”, remembers his son, Popescu Petru.

And then the miracle happened. His son, who had been a carpenter, and a constructor but never a barrel maker, decided to walk in his father’s footsteps. Not only did he know every step in the process, but he also found himself very good at it! We were glad to hear that the craft of coopering was continuing in Straja.

With extreme patience, love, and a great set of skills, Mr. Petru can make any container from staves in the same flawless manner that his father used to do, and making them with wooden hoops instead of iron is remarkable first because it takes lots of knowledge to shape and carve the hoops, that can break easily during the process, and second because it requires a unique timber with a rare grain from trees that grow nearby houses and get enough sunlight.

“Hoops are made from ash or cherry trees. I got these from a neighbor who had an ash tree. Trees that grow near houses or in fields have a rare grain. Forest trees that compete for light have a very dense grain and won’t bend easily“, he says, picking four ash strips for a butter churn he plans to build. Before shaping it, he carefully inspects it to see if it bends or breaks.

It has been left out in the rain, and presently, it is moist and flexible, ready to be shaped into a beautiful hoop. After bringing each piece to the desired length and thickness, he shapes them on a shaving bench. The pot is conical, so that complicates things a lot. The trick is to make one edge thinner than the other. The same goes for the staves. Because the pot has a larger base, each stave is measured with a template for 18 cm at one end, and the other is measured with a template for 14 cm. 

The workspace is a large outhouse with windows on two sides that serve as a kitchen as well. There is a table on the right, a workbench right in front of the window, and a couch in the back of the room, On the left side, there is a wood-burning cooking stove and a tool shelf full of old tools inherited from his father, some dating back to the Austro-Hungarian period: coper’s hand adze, sun plane, draw knives, chisels, croze, hand saws.

In the background, his wife and his mother prepare delicious meals: pork roast with sausages and potato slices cooked on the stovetop, sweet cheese doughnuts, and a delicious chicken meatball soup. The aroma of cooked food filling the air, and the sound of wood splitting under the accurate hatchet strikes create a happy feeling inside everyone and great memories in the kids’ minds.

For starters, the barrel maker uses a large plane to shape each stave, then a smaller hand plane with a straight blade, and a special plane with a round blade to curve the inner side of the stave. Each time, he pauses to check it with the template. He precisely bevels the edges, checking that each edge has the right angle. The cooper raises the barrel inside two temporary hoops, which are then replaced with permanent wooden hoops. When that’s done, to my surprise, he has to construct the top part of the butter churn, which is like a smaller barrel. Again, he shapes and constructs the staves and a hoop, the head, and the bottom, as well as the staff. I would like to point out the accuracy of each cut. I can confidently say, and I am sure you will agree, that this was a work of perfection.

Not to mention the finished product and the feeling of pure pleasure when you run your hands over it.  Every inch of it was carefully shaped, inspected, and sanded. We had to put it to the test and make ourselves some tasty homemade butter at the end of the video. I hope you will appreciate the process, and the result, and if you do, please like, share, and comment, we will very much appreciate it.

Location: Village of Straja, Suceava, Romania

Contact Popescu Petru: 004 0742 674 208

Contact: 004 0742 674 208 / For English, call 004 0754 714 408

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