Making a trough for the sap
I posted the first step in historic maple sugaring on March 4th with the post “A Spile for Sap”. Trough making was more involved than making a spile! I must confess even though I worked hard at completing the task with the bowl adze and have healing blisters to show for it, I did not have a finished trough by lunchtime but it somewhat looked like it was getting there. I went to lunch and the instructor had it completed by the time I got back! I tried to make myself feel somewhat better by saying that I had left the easy part. These troughs were used for collecting the sap prior to the coopered sap bucket. About 1840’s-1850’s there were more coopered sap buckets in use than troughs. The troughs, typically of poplar or ash would last approximately 4 years.
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Excellent post, thank you. I had no idea they used troughs. I have put this link on my blog.
Regards.
A Woodsrunner’s Diary.
By: Le Loup on March 12, 2011
at 5:52 pm