2006/29/4

This adze is one of a set of cooper’s tools used by the donor during his apprenticeship and career as a cooper at Reading Brewery from 1948. A cooper's adze has a very short handle and narrow blade, and is used to cut the chime bevel or howel surface or a cask.

1 adze: metal, wood

MERL Miscellaneous note from conversation with Alistair Simms (Master Cooper), 3 September 2014 – Different sizes of adze are used for different sizes of cask: No. 1 for pins, No. 2 for pins and firkins, and No.3 for barrels and hogsheads., Mr McCarthy started his coopering apprenticeship at Reading Brewery on 10 June 1948, aged 17, and finished in March 1952. No members of his family were coopers but he started because his friend’s father was a cooper. He worked 40 hours a week during his apprenticeship doing piecework with a trained cooper who was his master. Up to the age of 18 all earnings went to the master cooper; aged 18-20 half went to the apprentice, a quarter to the master and a quarter to the brewery; aged 20-21 two thirds to the apprentice, one sixth to the master and one sixth to the brewery.

Metal, Wood