55/42

William Greaves & Sons (Manufacturer)

This coopering tool has been identified either as a hollowing drawknife, for shaping the inside of the staves, or as a jigger drawknife, for smoothing away the chiv at the top of the cask in repair work. The blade is stamped 'Wm Greaves & Sons // Sheaf Works // Sheffield' and 'Electro Boracic Steel'. The drawknife came from the cooper's shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading.

1 cooper's draw knife: wood; metal (steel)

MERL Miscellaneous note from conversation with Alistair Simms (Master Cooper), 3 September 2014 – While the curvature of some coopering tools varies depending on the size of the cask, one curvature of hollowing knife can be used for all sizes of cask. Furthermore, while a chiv plane can be used in both making casks and repairing casks, a jigger is only used in repair work. The term ‘electro boracic steel’ is only seen on coopering tools, and almost exclusively on William Greaves tools. Nobody is exactly sure what it means, but it was probably a way of hardening the steel., MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'The jigger is never used in the manufacture of the new cask, but it is limited in its use to the repair of old casks. It performs the same work as the Chive in making a new cask; that is it is used in smoothing away the depression at the top of the cask in order to make a bed for the croze to run in. It has one single handle 4 inches long, and a steel blade 16 inches long which has a curved cutting edge 3 inches long. The handle is held in the right hand and the rounded steel bar in the left. The tool is pulled towards the operator in the same way as an ordinary knife.', MERL 'Catalogue index' card – [Coopering – General Card, 55/37–55/56 and 55/66–55/68] – 'This set of Cooper's tools came to the Museum from the Cooper's Department, Messrs H & G Simonds The Brewery, Reading. Although the majority of the tools are modern, indeed some of them were never used, the tools are nevertheless the same as have been used for centuries by both urban and rural coopers.'

Sheffield

1955

Drawknife, hollowing, Drawknife, jigger

Wood, Metal, steel