Cooperage

[Richard Coers]

Craigslist near me used to have old growth redwood planks from old pickle vats. The wood was said to smell like pickles. Vats like twenty feet tall and twenty foot diameter. I have never seen redwood wine vats for sale.
Bill D

Bourbon gets all of its color from the charred oak barrels. Bourbon is clear after distillation. Wine picks up a lot of flavor from the oak barrels too.

[Kevin Jenness]

Wooden tanks are still preferred as water supply in NYC; though that might be changing in the last 10 years as traditional lumber (redwood and cedar) stocks dry up (no pun intended).

https://blog.americanpipeandtank.com...y-water-towers

I used to work at times in NYC and was intrigued by why they were still wooden, (described in the article)
Flying over, in the days before 9-11 when that was relatively uncontrolled, was fascinating; not least for spotting all the wooden tanks everywhere!

One project I worked on we had a raft of old cypress tank staves from NYC. Beautiful material for millwork, though we had to cut around dowel holes in the edges. I got enough trimmings to skin the back door of my shop. "You can try, you can't buy, you can't get that stuff no more."

I don't know how many times I drove by that wooden aqueduct in Marshfield on my way between here and Maine before they replaced it.

[Jamie Buxton]

Craigslist near me used to have old growth redwood planks from old pickle vats. The wood was said to smell like pickles. Vats like twenty feet tall and twenty foot diameter. I have never seen redwood wine vats for sale.
Bill D

I bought old growth redwood staves from a wine vat near Manteca, CA. They were 3” thick by 6” to 8” wide. I made a 14 foot dining table from them. In three years, the top had sagged more than an inch in the middle. My guess is that long-term exposure to alcohol damaged the lignin in the planks. I built a replacement from khaya.

[Bill Dufour]

French Camp?
Bill D.

[stephen thomas]

Bourbon gets all of its color from the charred oak barrels. Bourbon is clear after distillation. Wine picks up a lot of flavor from the oak barrels too.

My understanding is that legally in the US, a wooden barrel for "whiskey" (whatever type) can only be used once.
After that use they are sold/shipped to France, where they are used for aging wine. I think they can be used twice for that?

Wife & I arrived here at the foot of the Finger Lakes in Fall 93 and in those early years a lot of the redwood tanks and vats were being sold from the wineries. Babcock (wooden) Ladder still existed, too - guys used to get premium Sitka spruce at cheap prices from them for aircraft spars & ribs. OTOH, at the same time i still had sources for redwood, up to "huge" sizes, still relatively inexpensive. Slowly....then suddenly... it was all gone. (First part is from someone's quote about going bankrupt - Twain, maybe???). As far as i have ever seen since, all the wineries now use stainless steel. Maybe some of the really old ones have some wooden tanks, but i haven't made a point of checking. Down in Southern PA/Adams county among the orchards, i know guys who used to make vinegar tanks from time to time at IH Crouse (Long gone now, too). The really tall ones like someone else mentioned for pickles. One of their warehouses had railcar loads of 20' - 30' lumber shipped from the west coast, but it was more structural, not clear, IIRC.

[Kent A Bathurst]

.......the top had sagged more than an inch in the middle. My guess is that long-term exposure to alcohol damaged the lignin in the planks....

Made my workbench from reclaimed 125 year-old 3" thick red oak framing lumber.

Also has sagged in the middle - same causality.

[Andrew Hughes]

Made my workbench from reclaimed 125 year-old 3" thick red oak framing lumber.

Also has sagged in the middle - same causality.

Thats good to know. I’ve worked with some reclaimed timber and have noticed something different about the soundness of the wood fibers. Almost dead and lost the fight to warp or cup. Stable wood but dusty crumbling plane shavings.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Thats good to know. I’ve worked with some reclaimed timber and have noticed something different about the soundness of the wood fibers. Almost dead and lost the fight to warp or cup. Stable wood but dusty crumbling plane shavings.

Mine was also due to excessive wine/alcohol absorption.

Actually, 30 years since I got it from the neighbor's remodel - ceiling joists - house was 125 years old at the time. Got maybe 40% yield after knots/wane/lath nails, etc.

Full 2" x full 6". First thing I ever made. Thought it would be a good learning exercise. I learned the merits of lumber yard stuff.

still rock-hard. Has sagged maybe 1/16" across the width. 84" x 26". thinking about levelling/resurfacing. That 1/16" is very annoying at times.

[George Yetka]

NYC still has a major feed that is wood. Im not sure how they do it but I think it works on the swelling of wet wood. I dont think there is a lining. From what I was told they havent tried to replace it because it donesnt have any issues.and it would take the city partially out of service for a long time.

[stephen thomas]

Wood is probably lower maintenance than steel, and "healthier" than most options other than possibly concrete or other "good" masonry.
Steel corrodes, or if painted, or the water "treated" to minimize it; there is that risk to humans.
Plastics encourage bacteria - anyone who ever had a plastic washer drum (in an area with non-chlorinated water, anyway) will know about that!
Plastic can be treated with biocides - but then there is that pesky leaching problem again for humans.

Also, none of the other options really has a maintenance-free life span any longer than correctly installed wood.
However, wood is no longer the low cost option, as it once was. Proper maintenance skills are no longer part of the culture, and the types of wood used are either no longer available, or considered stressed/at risk.
I wonder if the initiative, such as in the new green (all wood framed) buildings to "carbon capture" by using wood in long term constructions could impact this at all? Maybe with thermally modified wood although that is considerably weaker?