Best wood for water bottle stopper?

[tombear]

Hi folks
now I've got my lathe I'm going to make a couple of stoppers for my lovely replica 18th C tin water bottle. I have the shape from Pierre Turners excellent book on soldiers accoutrements and one ill make one as a leather wrapped stopple they found on the Mary Rose. However I have completely forgot what sort of wood that was the usual choice. We had done some research and pinned it down but typically have managed to forget it! Oops. Now I can't find a ref that names the actual woods used.

So not counting cork which wasn't used until the 19th C on British water bottles, what wood?

confused of East Lancashire

 

[Harvestman]

I don't know what was used historically, but alder doesn't rot when it gets wet so is probably a reasonable choice.

 

[Fraxinus]

Use white oak, english or european, they make barrels out of it

Rob.

 

[weekender]

Some people have an allergic reaction to Alder I'm told.


Sent from somewhere?

 

[Harvestman]

Well, the suggestion of oak is probably good. It is hard, dense, and used for making ships, so should stand up to the rigors of being a cork.

 

[bobnewboy]

Ellsworth Jaeger recommends "A portion of a corn cob makes a good cork." in "Wildwood Wisdom" for a gourd canteen. That may not be quite in keeping with your historical requirements though

I would have thought that sycamore would be ideal though. As far as I remember it doesnt taint food or water, is nice to work, and it can look nice too.

 

[mountainm]

IIRC Cherry wood is fairly rot resistant.

 

[tombear]

​

Cheers! I've some small bits of oak and some bits of sycamore that will do, in the meantime I made a prototype from a scrap of boxwood that I had in the odds and ends basket.

Just noticed my bottle doesn't have theroll on the lip. Oh well, its in too good nick to replace.

ATB

Tom

 

[Mesquite]

Elm. It's a lot more resistant to being saturated in water and has traditionally been used for things like that

Having said that, your common soldier would have just used whatever was to hand once the original stopper had been mislaid.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'll suggest that the porosity of the wood will be a decision.
The oaks (Quercus,) Ashes (Fraxinus) and Hickory (Carya) all have long chains of relativey large diameter vessel elements.
This should allow lengthy penetration of liquids.

Examine a typical wine-bottle cork (Quercus rubra). You will note that the corks are cut cross grain such that the
coarse lenticel structures run across the cork rather than lengthwise from the wine to the atmosphere.

Any wooden stopper thus needs to be turned across the grain to minimize the open ends of cut wood cells for liquids to soak in.

 

[santaman2000]

.....Examine a typical wine-bottle cork (Quercus rubra). You will note that the corks are cut cross grain such that the
coarse lenticel structures run across the cork rather than lengthwise from the wine to the atmosphere.

Any wooden stopper thus needs to be turned across the grain to minimize the open ends of cut wood cells for liquids to soak in.

Doesn't sound right. Modern corks are synthetic; traditional corks were made of bark (not the actual wood) and IIRC part of what made them work was their ability to soak up a bit of the liquid so they would swell and seal the opening.

 

[Robson Valley]

My example is a traditional cork made from the bark of Quercus suber, the "cork oak." Sufficiently waxy (suberin) to be waterproof although the inner face may stain.
In order to seal the bottle, the cork cylinder must be cut as if it were standing beside the original tree trunk.
If bottle corks were simply stamped out of sheets of cork bark, they should leak continuously. The leaks, the lenticels, are the natural mechanism for gas exchange
with the living surface of the tree trunk beneath the waxy bark (might be 6" thick.)

True, modern wine bottle "corks" are largely synthetic, foamed plastics of some sort. I think what drove that was the upward spiral of cork prices
Back in the 1970's/1980's. Even buying 5,000+ at a time, I saw prices of $0.27 each for AAA grade. That hurts.

 

[santaman2000]

My example is a traditional cork made from the bark of Quercus suber, the "cork oak." Sufficiently waxy (suberin) to be waterproof although the inner face may stain.
In order to seal the bottle, the cork cylinder must be cut as if it were standing beside the original tree trunk......

Now that sounds right. Maybe I was just misreading your first post.

 

[Robson Valley]

That's entirely OK. I'm suggesting that any wooden bottle stopper needs to be carved/turned in the same orientation as a trad. wine bottle cork.
In their day and time, bottle corks were effective and convenient. Personally, I miss them. Whether they broke in pulling or not!
I would not be surprised to learn that water containers were bunged with a leather-covered stopper.

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah, I miss them too.

 

[mrcharly]

We still get 'real' corks in bottles here. Most Champagnes use real cork.

I prefer screw top to the synthetic corks.

 

[grey-array]

I personally would go for something durable and oily, something like walnut or something resembling it, as cherry's etc have this astringent taste I really dislike.
and as Robson said, Oaks and ashes etc have a way to porous texture for me to make bottle stoppers from it. I might even consider Cedar however it is a little soft on it,
perhaps I would give the Heartwood of Douglas Fir a shot as well, lovely wood that is plus because Douglas fir simply drop their limbs small pieces, large enough for a bottle stopper are easily collected to just give it a go. and in general the wood from Douglas limbs is quite dense hard and because of the resin is very water resistant!

Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[Harvestman]

Silly question perhaps, but wouldn't the stopper have been waxed or oiled anyway, thereby negating any properties of the wood anyway?

 

[tombear]

I used a piece of sycamore in the end, it happens to be spalted as that's what I've in the house seasoned.

I turned it in 10 minutes, sawed the ends off and finished it in two on the roller of my belt sander. I used a spoon bit in a Yankee screwdriver for the lanyard hole, went in from both sides and it left a lovely clean hole. The leather I thinned to fit on the flat part of the belt sander.

The leather held on with hot resin glue, some originals are pinned on as well so if it starts to fail ill tack it on with some tiny brass jobs I have.

As always wood treated with walnut oil, some got on the leather so I smeared it about and squeezed it with blue roll to get a much off as possible. All the originals I have seen are made with the grain as these, hopefully the oil will keep the water out. The cord happens to be hand laid linen, made for me to use as wick by a kind chap in Ulster

the backs a mess but the glue sanded off, I'll spare you the pic... And my shame.

it fits fine and slips in and out spot on.

All the good bits were cribbed from this excellent site

https://leatherworkingreverend.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/making-a-stopple/

All the mistakes are of course my own. He says a example from London was made from field maple. To be honest I like the box one, and since there's no evidence that issue ones were the more elaborate sort ill stick with it. The leather bound job ill keep for another project, making a leather bottle.

Thanks for all the input folks!

ATB

Tom