Making Torches

[Abbe Osram]

I would like to make long burning torches myself.
Has anyone a link or knowledge how to start the project?

thanks
cheers
Abbe

:chill:

 

[tenbears10]

If these guys don't know then no one will.

Bill

 

[tomtom]

what do you mean by "log burning tourch"... do you mean on like this?

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi guys,
sorry it might be my bad english, I am not from the UK.

tomtom ; I could not see your picture in my browser.
What I am looking for is a wooden stick with fire on top, like they used in medieval times to light up their castles and houses. I would like to know if I could make them myself with the material available in the forest.

cheers
Abbe

 

[tomtom]

Thats what i thought.. (it was a good picture of aragorn from lord of the rights with is one :roll

ray made one in his last serise.. i believe it was useing birch bark wraped around a stick.. though he might have gotten oil from somewhere too and soaked it in that... i cant remember!

 

[tenbears10]

Whoops I got the wrong end of the wrong stick then. I thought you meant a modified torch. Oh well the CPF forum is interesting anyway. Sorry again.

Bill

 

[Abbe Osram]

Thats what i thought.. (it was a good picture of aragorn from lord of the rights with is one :roll

ray made one in his last serise.. i believe it was useing birch bark wraped around a stick.. though he might have gotten oil from somewhere too and soaked it in that... i cant remember!

cool,
birch bark we have a hell of a lot up here in the north, would be interesting to know how he kept it going for an extended period of time otherwise it will die very soon, and I am running around with the headlight again. I believe too he must have soaked it into something.


//Abbe

 

[hootchi]

ray made one in his last serise.. i believe it was useing birch bark wraped around a stick.. though he might have gotten oil from somewhere too and soaked it in that... i cant remember!

TomTom. It could have been russian oil. :?: Iv seen him make that from birch bark, on TV. He also made one from pine tree resin wedged in the top of a split stick wth smaller branches through it to act as wicks.
Be carfull carrying with naked flames though a forest, im sure you will!!

 

[Realgar]

Blast, can't find the relevant web pages so here goes from memory.
Get a large number of straight twigs - broom or birch spring to mind. Form them into a really tight bundle wider at one end than the other. Bind tightly.
Hack out a depression in the centre of the wide end, fill with pine resin, pitch, wax etc and light. The main use for the thick bundle is to stop burning crap running down your hands.

Don't tip them up when they're burning - molten resin sticks to anything and doesn't go out that easily.

Realgar

 

[tomtom]

i think he also boiled more birch bark and extracted the oil and the soaked the bark in it so it was saturated... cant anyone remember that one better then me.. it was the show when he did cave painting and needed to light the cave!!

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi Guys,
thanks for all the tips thats a lot more than I know,

Question left; when I build the birch bark how do I extract the oil? How is the procedure working?

thanks
abbe

:chill:

Bye the way we got minus 20 degrees now outside my house, the winter is here!

 

[Realgar]

To put it in as short a way as possible, pack a metal tin with birch bark ( twigs will do ), put the lid on, knock a hole in the lid. Take another tin - without a lid, bury it with the rim just above soil level. Put the bark-tin upside down over the buried tin, seal around the two with mud/clay. Build a fire on top, light it, Wait for the fire to go out and collect what's in the bottom tin. You can do similar with any resin rich wood to obtain a form of pitch.

Realgar

 

[hootchi]

Well said realgar. Seems clear to me... but i can kinda remember ray doing it in belarus- an old show.

 

[mercury]

That belarus show is a classic

BTW thanks for the other forum link ( the one for modding torches )

 

[Abbe Osram]

To put it in as short a way as possible, pack a metal tin with birch bark ( twigs will do ), put the lid on, knock a hole in the lid. Take another tin - without a lid, bury it with the rim just above soil level. Put the bark-tin upside down over the buried tin, seal around the two with mud/clay. Build a fire on top, light it, Wait for the fire to go out and collect what's in the bottom tin. You can do similar with any resin rich wood to obtain a form of pitch.

Realgar

thanks a lot now its very clear to me, have to try it out.
:You_Rock_
cheers
Abbe

 

[BrutonW]

Hi there,

I'm sure that Ray was using some kind of sap in a split stick to make the torch

Will

 

[Frogo]

Hi there,

I'm sure that Ray was using some kind of sap in a split stick to make the torch

Will

It was Pine resin.

Frogo

 

[Tantalus]

cuts in pine trees will give resin

which you can collect, it is liquid when it comes out and dries over days or weeks

some kind of cup under the cut will collect the sap

i reckon emptying them once a week(?) should do fine in the summer

course if you havent got any by the time everything freezes in the winter you are a bit stuck

Tant

 

[Abbe Osram]

Its never to late learning new skills, next summer I will collect some.
thanks guys for all the info!
//Abbe

 

[Tantalus]

abbe you may not be too late

pine trees dont freeze as quickly as water

though you will get less resin when it is cold

also look for broken branches and deer damage

you should be able to get a fair bit of stuff that leaked earlier in the year

Tant