After reading through the other responses, I think I would try to make my own bands that can be tightened with bolts as opposed to the fixed-length bands that are installed hot. Not nearly as elegant, but still functional and much easier to make. If done cleanly, they might not be too much of an eyesore (see "t-bolt band clamp" below). Obviously, the bolt portion wouldn't be scaled up as much as the rest of the band to make it large enough for this application!

Another idea is industrial metal strapping used to hold pallets together (available in stainless steel from places like McMaster-Carr). You can get such banding very taught, but I don't know if you need clearance between the barrel and banding to get the necessary tensioning and crimping tools in place. It would be very clean, only a small crimped clamp to "hide".

: So, I'm planning on building a northern white cedar barrel, traditional
: hot/soaking tub.
: Simple tub, without water jets, just a drain hole. I can figure out the
: woodworking and
: water tight problems and I like the round shape.

: The bands that hold the barrel stays together are the problem to solve.

: Understandably, the commercial companies don't offer parts or I haven't found
: one that did
: so buying the stainless bands they use is not easy, and if I can come up with
: an elegant
: less expensive alternative, that would be a plus.