55/38

H. & G. Simonds Ltd., William Greaves & Sons (Manufacturer)

Adzes were used by coopers in heading, to shape the head of the cask or the chime, and in testing the finished cask, by tapping the cask with the blunt edge of the adze to listen to the differences in the sound. This adze came from the cooper's shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading. The blade is painted blue and stamped 'Wm Greaves & Sons // Sheaf Works // Sheffield', 'Electro Boracic Steel' and 'No 2'. Due to a fault with the blade, the adze was never used. The rough handle was made in the cooper’s shop in February 1955.

1 adze: wood; metal

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. Furthermore, 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 Miscellaneous note, Greta Bertram, 1 September 2014 – A closer look at the adze shows that the inscription is actually 'Wm Greaves & Sons // Sheaf Works // Sheffield' and not 'W.M. Hargreaves and Co // Cheap Works'., MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'This is an unused cooper's adze, with a slight fault in the blade. The head is coloured blue and measures 11 inches in length, with a blade 3.5 inches wide. The rough wooden handle which is 8.75 inches long was made in the cooper's shop in February 1955. The blade is stamped 'W.M. Hargreaves and Co, Cheap Works, Electro Boracic Steel No. 2' // Cooper's adzes differ from carpenters adzes in that their blades are far more curved. Their cutting edges are generally sharpened on the inside and are saucered far more conspicuously than on the carpenter's tool. The handles are also generally shorter. // In coopering the adze is used in two operations :- // (1) In Heading. After the cask has been fitted into its ash truss hoops, the adze is used to shape the end of the cask or chime squarely. It thus produces a flat surface for the chive to run on. (See negative number 60/954) // (2) Testing the finished cask. The cask is tapped with the blunt edge of the adze, and by doing so the cooper is able to find a fault in construction or quality of the wood by the different sound the tapping makes.', 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.'

Bridge Street [Reading], Sheffield

1954 - 1955

Wood, Metal