Coopered joint

Also called: coopering, stave joint

A coopered joint joins several boards, each cut with bevelled edges, into a curved arc rather than a flat panel. Once glued and planed smooth of its facets, the small flat faces left where one bevel meets the next, the arc reads as a single continuous curve.

Where the name comes from

The name comes from the coopering trade. Fairham (1920) wrote that it 'evidently has come from the coopering trade, in which it is one of the commonest forms of joint used in the making of casks and barrels.'

Cutting and gluing the bevels

Each edge is cut at the coopering angle, the bevel angle needed for that particular arc, by holding the saw blade at that angle with the board held tight against the fence. For a simple two-board glue-up, the clamping cauls, blocks pressed against the work to spread clamping pressure evenly, are cut to double the bevel angle used on the boards. Gluing the work up in small sections at a time reduces the difficulty of clamping so many angled boards at once.

Timbers for this joint

The Index records each joint against each timber as a cited hit, or as an absence. No source in the Index records this pairing. No pairings have been written yet.