Birch Bark Tar

[leon-b]

thats great jon r i might try that one dsy, how much bark do you need ?
leon

 

[jon r]

Well i packed it full! Keep rolling the bark up like the fattest saussage you have ever seen so the edges of the bark are touching the top and bottom, if you get what i mean. I think that would help the tar to escape more easily through the whole, rather than just stuffing it like i did once and i didnt get a drip of tar in my baked bean can!

Next im going to use a Quality street tin so i can get a lot more bark in. But ive got to make the bottom sloped to the centre whole so the tar can escape more easily.

I havnt a clue haw anyone else collects the tar so tell me how you do it.

 

[leon-b]

ok thanks mate
leon

 

[Toddy]

I think Match is on to something here; I know that the best tar I've ever gotten was taken from sap rising timber, so it was *juicy* to start with. I also know that to get the juice out I have to roll the bark so that the the end that I want it to drip from is actually the side that was upwards on the tree, but it is positioned downwards for best effect. The tar is really steam distillation of the resinous stuff in the bark, with minerals, etc., too.
Basically, make the natural properties of the bark do the work for you.

This method is messy, the *tar* is grubby with ash and charcoal, but that seems to help make a good plasticy glue.


Cheers,
Toddy

 

[clcuckow]

I have a small paint can with a whole in the lid. This is packed full of birch bark and then the lid is tightly put back on. Then i dig a whole where my fire is going to be and put a baked bean can in it. Then i turn the paint tin upside down and put it ontop of the submerged baked bean can. Once thats all done i build my fire around and ontop of the paint can. Then when the bark gets hot enough, the tar drips through the whole in the lid into the baked bean can. Last time i did this there wasnt much to show for my efforts and the tar never set! oh well, live and learn!

How do you collect your birch tar? (talking to everyone in general)

That is the same method that Mr. Mears uses in Extreme Survival Series 3, the Belarus episode I was only watching it in the early hours after dipping or should I say 'dripping' into this thread.

From memory in Bushcraft series two, Sweden episode when Ray was getting the demonstration of Pine tar extraction the bloke used resin wood so I don't know it is different but it makes you think.

 

[Tor helge]

I read in a book about the birch tree about birch bark glue. A piece of bark was lit on fire, charred and then chewed. The result was a sticky gum used to repair cracked earthen ware.
I`ve tried this once with no success. I just ended up with a lot of dry "ash" in my mouth .
Maybe someone else would try this method and post the result.

Tor

 

[Glen]

If I understand correctly, the key to making tar is to expose the bark to great heat without oxygen, to avoid that the tar burns. Without pottery this is hard, not to achieve the heat, but to avoid it bursting into flames. Maybe also keeping the temperature lower than the point of ignition also is possible, since you, as Toddy says, can make tar with it being exposed to oxygen.

2. The roll is placed in a rock with a natural depression (avoid much air around the bark), a flat rock is placed on top and a fire is lit there.

Don't know if any of them would work, but they may be worth a try.

I was thinking along the lines of your number 2 idea, a possible modification would be to use wet birch bark and a little water in the depression. That way as the temperature rises it turns to steam and forces itself out, driving out all the air ( and hence oxygen ) with it, long before it gets to ignition temperatures.

 

[Hartung]

All pics from Acta praehistorica et archaeologica 23 (1991)

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[Hartung]

I use a method that is similar to the pic below….


The Arabian Doctor Yaha Ibn Masawaih Al-Mardini (925-1015) in “Chirurgia Parva” of Lanfrancus Mediolanensis:

Make a fier about the pott that is above the erthe and there wole distille oile into the pott that is binethe”

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[Stew]

Great pictures Hartung!