On a recent episode of a television series describing unusual jobs, Cooper John Hudson described what he liked best about his job. While there are not many coopers left in the business due to the proliferation of plastics, there still are a few people around who practice the ancient art of crafting wooden barrels.
Wooden barrels are mostly used these days for storage of wines and other distilled spirits, as most shipping and packaging uses the more economical and packaging friendly cube shaped boxes and bundles (that can be most easily stacked onto pallets).
When asked what he enjoyed most at work, Hudson said that "I like drilling the bung holes the most....and after I get finished with the lads, I go back to my work on the barrels and put on the staves."
