'Old Home Days' what: 'Old Home Days' is an annual weekend celebration of the days of 'Hollis Past'. It includes exhibits of farming, crafts, games, food, music, dancing, parade and fireworks. where: On Saturday a parade goes through town ending at Nichols Field on Depot Road where most of the exhibits and activities take place. when: The 'Old Home Day' celebration is generally scheduled for the 2nd weekend in September. In 2002 it will be September 13 & 14. for more information contact: the Hollis Town Web Site photos:
The cooper shown in the series of photos from Heritage Commission Old Home Day exhibit on Cooper Shops was from Strawbery Banke From their Website: Coopering: Firing a Cask The process of bending a cask or keg into a barrel shape is known as firing in the coopers trade. An iron basket of waste oak shavings is burned inside the cask to soften the red or white oak timber. Generally, red oak may be used for non-liquid contents, and white oak for virtually all liquid-holding casks. Once heated through, the staves, or upright lengths of timber that make up the sides of the container, are pliable enough to begin hammering heavy wooden or iron hoops, called truss hoops, down the cask. The staves are forced into the proper diameter and bulged shape from the force of smaller hoops being driven on as needed. Nearly all barrel-shaped casks and kegs are heated to allow them to bend into the familiar and strong shape. When the last hoops are in place and driven tightly, the cask must be left above the second fire, as it is known, a fire which bakes the timber at a fairly high temperature to relieve the stresses from bending, to keep its bend and to stabilize the wood. After the second fire, the cooper finishes the cask by leveling and shaping the stave ends, called chimes; cutting the groove to receive the head, or end; shaving and cleaning the outside surface and making the heads. Making and driving permanent hoops of wooden saplings or of iron completes the coopers work.
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