We know that the government regulations required the use of a new charred barrel when making straight whiskey other than corn whiskey after 1 March 1938. Before that time there was used cooperage being used to make straight bourbon. Early Times is often maligned because there is used cooperage, but the fact is 100 years ago it would still be called bourbon and nobody would have cared that it was aged partially in used cooperage because it was not an uncommon practice.
In the 19th century bourbon was created by aging the whiskey in charred barrels. The use of new charred barrels was found to make the best bourbon quicker. New barrels were common at the distillery because the barrel was the main package of sale. A barrel of whiskey was sent to the customer, often as far away as New York, New Orleans or even California. When they emptied that barrel they ould dispose of the empty and purchase a new barrel of whiskey. But was thet barrel always new or was just the whiskey new? To answer that we need to look not at distillers, but cooperages.
E H Taylor, Jr. bought his barrels from a cooperage in Louisville. He paid top price because he insisted upon a good looking barrel made with brass hoops and polished wood. He wanted OFC to stand out behind the bar. The interesting thing is the few times he had complaints about his whiskey it was because the cooper repaired a leak in a fauly manner. In one instance Augustus Labrot of Cincinnati complained about a bad barrel and shipped it back to Taylor who dumped the bad whiskey and took the barrel apart. They found the cooper has repaired a leaky head with some leather and iron tacks. How did the cooperage know the head would leak? Most likely because it was a used head that showed the signs of a leak.
Cooperages in Louisville will make barrels. The two of well known fame today are Bluegrass and Independent stave. They are not the only cooperages in Louisville. There are a couple of others that purchase used barrels abd ship them to customers either whole or in parts. The same was true in the 19th century. Cooperages would make barrels or they would buy your old barrel for resale. Sometimes they would clean up the old barrel, re-char the inside and simply resale that barrel. Other times they might take a barrel that leaked badly apart and reuse the staves. What would you call a barrel amd with 60% new staves and 40% used staves that was then charred? Is it new or used? This was a practice that probably happened more than you think in the 19th century. Why not? As long as the distiller received a barrel that did not leak and would age his whiskey, he was happy. There were plenty of saloons, drugstores and hotels in Louisville and the surrounding area, emptying barrels of whiskey every day and it would be a waste just to throw the barrel into the dump or break it apart for fire wood. Cooperages need barrels and these could often be purchased, cleaned up and re - sold for a profit at the same price as making a new barrel.
In the early 1900's the Jounal of American Chemistry had an article on barrels and the aging of whiskey. They did not test just new barrels for this article, they tested new and used cooperage. They also teasted uncharred barrels and toasted barrels. They would not have done all of these different types of barrels if they were not being used to age American whiskey at the time.