Say, has anyone ever made a croze cutter for grooving a barrel or bucket to receive the head? I found this one on ebay and it looks like it would be fun and pretty simple to make. It seems to have 4 knives cut onto it and one router to finish up the groove/ croze.

The iron itself just mounts in a jig style plane to keep the depth and angle correct while cutting the croze/ groove in the barrel staves.

Anyone ever try making this?

I haven't but, I would like to see it in action...then I would give it a try

wow I make barrelmaking tools, but have never seen one of these!

If you wouldn't mind giving a few more details about how and what that does, I would love to know what that is and what it does. I am a fan of hand working wood. I dont make barrels, but it never hurt to know a bit more about things like this.

Some pictures of what one looks like might be helpful too, I had no idea barrel staves were grooved.
Cliff

I believe the groove is at each end of the stave. Probably done after the staves are assembled and the steel bands (I forget the proper term) are on. As mentioned, it is done in preparation for the head being fit to it.

Yep, the groove is what holds the ends of the barrel in place. The teeth are basically nothing more than what you'd see on a buck saw, with the rearmost tooth acting as a planer or router to give you the a clean cut.

Here's a great video from back in the day. You can see one being used at 11:40 if you don't want to wade through the beginning. Lots of ingenuity shown, though, so the whole video is worth watching

well, the cutter is for a curved plane called the Croze....I have several of them and when I get home, I'll take a photo, Basically, the diameter of the barrel sets the curve of the Croze, and the cutter is held at the right height to cut the groove for the head or bottom. There is a guide that fits in the barrel to hold it in the curve as the cutter cuts the groove. here's a picture of one I found on the internet. .

I see. I was thinking along the length of the stave, but I also thought that the staves were tapered by hand on a long inverted plane. Had no idea how that would be good. Now I understand. had no idea its call cutting a croze. Never know when thats going to be useful.

The bands that hold barrels together are called bands I believe. I can't beleive that you can bend 1 inch thick oak that easily for whiskey barrels, but I have seen it done. I know it looks easy, I know it is not without the skills of long practice.

Here's a good link for information on coopering a barrel and the tools (its where I got the croze picture)

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbbm/heritage/cooper/barrelmaking.htm

Very nice, I've been making draw knives for a wood worker friend and he wants a cooper's "In-shave" apparently. But he couldn't find a picture for handle orientation. We also didn't know it was called an "In-shave". Hard to do a little research when you don't know what to call it.

Thanks Farmall!

One of my goals in life is to cooper a wooden bucket, making everything, including the iron bands and rivets.....someday....

I got a book some time ago on coopering a bucket. I've tried a couple of small (drinking vessel sized). They didn't quite come out water tight until soaked. I didn't make proper tools, just what i already had. One day I plan on making proper tooling and doing some more.
The book I got is
http://www.astragalpress.com/howto_make_coopered_bucket.htm