Cooperage

Overview

Cooperage is the craft of barrel making. The Cooperage skill allows you to construct a Barrel Vise and to use it to create small barrels. Small barrels are used to store beer, and to build Wine Barrels for winemaking purposes.

Cooperage is learned at a School of Body; tuition costs 2 brass plates, 50 copper straps, and 100 boards. Over time, as you make more barrels, your skill level will increase from 1 up to 7 (skill increase is based on successes, not failures).

The Barrel Vise building itself requires the following materials:

• 2 brass plates
• 6 copper sheeting

Making a small barrel requires 100 boards and 2 copper straps. You will also need wood to run the Barrel Vise; the amount is variable, but 75 to 100 wood per barrel is a good rule of thumb.

Running the Barrel Vise

Operating a Barrel Vise is pretty simple -- there's only one control: add wood. You just have to be careful not to let the flame get too high, since there's no way to cool down the flame (as there is in a Charcoal Hearth or Oven) apart from letting it die down of its own accord.

There are four indicators:

• Fuel/wood shows how how wood is currently in the vise. Fuel is consumed at a rate of one per tick. There is no numerical indicator, but you find that doesn't matter, since you only need to discern whether there is 0, 1, or 2+ wood in the vise.
• Flame shows how high the flame is; if the flame reaches 100% of the indicator, the barrel will incinerate, and you will lose your boards and copper straps.
• Heat affects progress. Higher heat = faster progress. Heat will rise each tick if flame is currently higher than heat, or fall if flame is lower.
• Progress, of course, shows how 'done' the barrel is. It only goes up, and only increases when heat is above 50%.

The idea is to keep the heat high, but not let flame reach 100%, which would incinerate the barrel. The higher the heat, the faster you make progress. You will only make progress when the 'heat' indicator is above 50%.

Once you have the vise going, you will only be adding 0, 1, or 2 wood each tick. Each tick, the flame will go up, down, or down a lot, depending on whether there is currently 2+, 1, or 0 wood in the vise's fuel chamber. The amount the flame goes up or down is random, but the downward shifts are far greater in magnitude than the upward shifts.

A conservative procedure:

1) Click on vise, choose 'Make a barrel' (requires 2 copper straps and 100 boards)

2) Add 6 wood to the vise. (the 'add' button on the control widget)

3) Wait until fuel is down to 1 wood.

4) Manage flame:

If fuel = 2 wood, do not add wood
If fuel = 0 wood, add 2 wood
If fuel = 1 wood, then you have to make a decision: if the flame is too close to the top of the bar, don't add wood. Otherwise, add 1 wood.

5) Repeat step #4.

The important decision is when the fuel is at 1 wood. If you overshoot, the barrel incinerates, and you lose the boards, straps, and any wood in the vise. If you undershoot, you just end up using more wood to make the barrel. You will very quickly get a feel for how much the flame can rise during a tick. Eventually, you will tweak the start-up, sometimes adding 1 wood when there's still 2 wood, just to get the flame higher, and also learn when you can stop adding wood, and let the vise coast to a finish.

The amount of wood you use will go down as you get better at knowing when to add more wood. When you first start out, you may use anywhere from 70-80 wood, but have at least 100 on hand, just in case. Also, as you produce more barrels, your cooperage skill level goes up, and it takes less wood to make a barrel (you make more progress with each tick).

(See also: Guides)