Indoor Birch Tar

[Tipi]

wasn't that pine tar? they collected it form pine stumps in a bog. though im sure birch tar would give a similar effect. now where to find a nice pine tree and a work shop to make some skis...

i shall try a BBQ, but i dont have a back garden, just a car park. i shall have to prevail on my friends who own gardens

 

[Tjurved]

No camp fire place nearby in the woods? You need 2 jars, the burried jar can be made of glass and the top one of metal.

 

[Grebby]

Sweden sounds right....

Also Pine tar could be right....

I have a memory like a goldfish that lives in a bowl of vodka

 

[Robson Valley]

Is this not pine/spruce tar/resin to seal canoes? Wound the trees and collect the resin.
Melt that on the top of boiling waer, the fine resin floats and that can be skimmed off.
Attempting to distill the waxes from birch bark might be a flaw in your intentions?

We scar and cut into the tree surfaces. The wound response is a gush of resin that I can
scrape off, daily (from the 16" spruce in my front yard.)

A simple double-boiler affair in the kitchen should be adequate.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Is this not pine/spruce tar/resin to seal canoes? .

For canoes always used pine/spruce resin collected naturally and mixed it with animal fat. You need to get the mix right to ensure it is good enough for sealing canoe birch joints.

 

[bambodoggy]

Guys, it's a different thing the Op is asking about. You guys are rightly talking about use of pine resin for your canoes and things....he's asking about producing Birch Tar (the subject of pine tar came up as Ray Mears produces it in his Sweden episode and uses it to treat a pair of pine skis that a guy makes for him).

Hope that clarifies for you

According to RM the birch tar (production shown in his Bellarus episode) was thickened during the war and used by the Russians to greece their lorry axles and also mixed with a little explosives to make a skin cream. I don't have any more details and am only going on what I've seen on RM's show.

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks Bam. Yesterday, I thumbed through Ellsworth Jaeger's book: Wildwood Wisdom (1945) and could find no mention of birch tar.
Once again, you & BCUK teaches me things that I did not know!

 

[bambodoggy]

No worries mate.....and as luck would have it, I just found the exact RM clip on YouTube....if it works, here is is:

[video=youtube;9g6gW0SsZAo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g6gW0SsZAo[/video]

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, the link worked. Remarkable demonstration. That oil would have been useless to seal the seams in a birchbark canoe.
I'm surprised by the quantity that he got.

The next YouTube in that series, "Koo Koo Sint: The Star Gazer," shows the southern part of the region that I live in.

 

[bambodoggy]

Wow, I've just had a look at that next clip....I've seen the program before and I have to say; you live in a very beautiful part of the world

It's pretty nice here in sunny Surrey but you are a very lucky guy to live in a place like that another league

Only problem would be my getting divorced.......as I'd never be at home with a playground like that on my doorstep

 

[mace242]

Where in Somerset are you? You can always light a fire in my garden for it. I'm in Yeovil.