Pine resin

[den]

I have seen cherry leak big stalactites of resin. The last one I collected was the size and shape of a carrot. I don’t see it often though.

The resin dries with a varnish like appearance and looks great on whippings and the like.

 

[Wolfie]

Just thought I'd let everyone know how I got on.

Went out on the weekend and collected some resin off some Pines. It took a while collecting it as I was using a few scattered pine trees rather than a coniferous plantation. As I started to get my eye in it was soon easy to find reasonable sized lumps.

The resin I collected had quite a lot of bits of bark etc. in so I thought I'd have a go at getting these out. I used an old trangia pan to boil the water up and a small bag made out of a coarsly woven dishcloth to put the resin in. The bag was then tied and placed in the boiling water. The resin melted in the bag, passed through the holes in the bag and could then be skimmed off the surface of the water.

After this had been done, I moulded a small crucible using tin foil and re-heated the purified resin until had become liquid. I then let it set so that it took on the shape of the crucible.

Here are some tips that I hope may be useful having a go for the first time.

1 - Ask your wife / partner / other half first if you can cut up the dishcloth to make the bag for the resin :madaxe:

2 - Make sure you way the bag down in the water with something. If you don't it floats on the surface and makes it difficult to collect the resin.

3 - Be paitient. Wait until a reasonable amount of resin has appeared before skimming it off. It makes lif a lot easier.

4 - The resin sets very quickly (about 1-2 seconds) and can be a pain to get off things once it has set.

5- Don't use your best trangia pan, billy can, best cutlery ( :madaxe: :madaxe: :madaxe: ) See 4 above

Overall it went pretty smoothly and wasn't too difficult and has given me a reasonable / small amount of resin to use in future projects. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate things that need glue a lot more once you have had to go through the process of making the glue yourself.

 

[Celtic Dragon]

I too have just had a go at refining resin. I don't think I'll bother again, I'll just pop the raw resin into a crucible and melt into an ingot and worry about the debris when I use it.

 

[hootchi]

Thanks for that Wolfie. I might have a go sometime. :biggthump

 

[jdlenton]

Great to know that. I was looking for something to have a go at this weekend

 

[Celtic Dragon]

Wolfie, if you don't mind me asking. What did you use to skim off the resin?

 

[Jeff Wagner]

I have been frustrated by my past efforts to collect a sufficient quantity with which to experiment with different proportions of charcoal and fat. Found this with a bit of web searching nad have two bottles on the way. Perhaps you boys would also be interested in some of their stealthy tracking slippers... :rolmao:

http://www.allaboutdance.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BH410

The Canadian natives had to acquire large quantities of pitch in order to caulk their canoes. I've tried tapping the trees in Spring like a maple and gotten nothing for my trouble.

 

[Wolfie]

Wolfie, if you don't mind me asking. What did you use to skim off the resin?

I found that a plastic tea spoon worked quite well. The resin was a bit eaasier to get off a plastic spoon rather than a metal implement, even if it had set, due to the flexible nature of the plastic.

 

[arctic hobo]

Great tutorial Wolfie, best of all using materials we've all got. My understanding is that you must treat resin to change it from treacle like substance into glue that will set. Am I right, and if so, how do you do this?

 

[Wolfie]

Great tutorial Wolfie, best of all using materials we've all got. My understanding is that you must treat resin to change it from treacle like substance into glue that will set. Am I right, and if so, how do you do this?

Once the resin has boiled up to seperate it from all the debris etc. it sets hard and looks a bit like Thorntons Toffee ( well mine does anyway). In this state it is not sticky like the fresh resin found on the tree. It can then be reheated to melt it. If it is to be used as a glue I understand that either charcoal or beewax needs to be added to the resin to give the glue a bit of elasticity, otherwise the glue is too brittle.

 

[R-Bowskill]

Have any of you made a varnish by crushing the hard resin and disolving it in turps? or even distilling the turps from the resin. That should be a beautiful way to fix the bindings on the fletchings when I make some more arrows. If anyone has done that I'd like to hear as bushcraft 'alchemy' is something I enjoy :roll:

 

[arctic hobo]

Once the resin has boiled up to seperate it from all the debris etc. it sets hard and looks a bit like Thorntons Toffee ( well mine does anyway). In this state it is not sticky like the fresh resin found on the tree. It can then be reheated to melt it. If it is to be used as a glue I understand that either charcoal or beewax needs to be added to the resin to give the glue a bit of elasticity, otherwise the glue is too brittle.

Great, thanks.

 

[Mauro]

you may be interested that up the Alps, people used to chew pine resin. As it is a light antibacterial, it was a good mouth wash... and left you with a nice smell in your mouth.

I have tried few times, after few minutes of chewing it becomes like a chewing-gum. But taste pretty bad... and leaves you with sticky fingers.

What other uses there are for it?

Mauro

 

[gurthang]

how much charcoal to resin is it best to use when using the resin as glue, or does it not really matter.

 

[Not Bob]

I have been frustrated by my past efforts to collect a sufficient quantity with which to experiment with different proportions of charcoal and fat. Found this with a bit of web searching nad have two bottles on the way. Perhaps you boys would also be interested in some of their stealthy tracking slippers... :rolmao:

http://www.allaboutdance.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BH410

The Canadian natives had to acquire large quantities of pitch in order to caulk their canoes. I've tried tapping the trees in Spring like a maple and gotten nothing for my trouble.

Alternatively try:

www.witchcraftshop.co.uk

 

[Darryl]

Hi Guys,

Here in the Souther U.S., we have lots of pines which exude a good bit of resin. I use it for everything from lashing fletches on arrows to making bow strings. It is not necessary to add dust, powdered charcoal etc.. to it. Just use it as is. If I am using it to glue dogbane lashing on an arrow, I just rub the resin over the lashings and then take a hot (no flame) ember and melt it in and rub well. Trust me, it isn't coming loose any time soon. I have friends up in the colder areas of the U.S. who occasionally use charcoal in frigid weather to help keep the resin from cracking but that is about it.

Darryl Patton

 

[defender]

In general high temperatures are condusive to good resin flow,but long periods of heavy rainfall are bad.The greater the diameter of tree the greater proportion of live crown, you need the oldest and largest preferably.Trees in Britain won't yeild a great deal compared to some of the more exotic pines(commerically viable)ones.I suggest cutting into the bark,down to the wood itself but not into it,and remove a section about 5cm across left to right and down the trunk about 20cm, attach a means of collection to the bottom of the removed veritcal strip.A sulphuric acid solultion (Ethrel)Tm can be added to keep the flow happening depending on how much you need.Depending on Speices and temperature it is possible to extract 3 Kgs from a tree.

 

[fuiseog]

once you have collected the resin heat it up until it becomes loose, you can then add some crushed charcoal dip a small stick into the substance collecting a small amount on the end of the stick, place then remove it and immediately place it in cold water this will cool it and solidify it in a very very short period, repeat this process until you have enough on the stick, you can then use a new stick and continue the process it will then be fit for storage.

 

[Adge]

I melt my resin in a tinfoil crucible, heated with tea-lights. I then add powdered charcoal and a little beeswax to make it more pliable, then I let it cool, peel off the tinfoil, break it up into chunks and store it in small plastic baggies. When I want to use it I can get as little or as much as I want by choosing the right sized lump for the job.

 

[Grooveski]

Originally Posted by Toddy
I didn't know about the resin, is it seasonal? I prune my trees quite often and have never noticed any.
Toddy

I was at Chatelherault Country Park last weekend and collected as much cherry resin as I felt like within 100m of the entrance(so ignore that stretch, it'll be cleaned out).
Was really after pine resin but the trees were too well kept. Go round the golf course to the big pine forest and look out for broken off branches. if you're lucky and the branch broke at just the right time of year there will be a black dod of resin, hardened long ago, between 5 and 20mm thick on the broken surface.
It can be collected from the knots a bladetip at a time, but finding big lumps is where it's at.

It's another one of those walk-in-the-woods mental triggers. Now any time I see a pine tree with a broken branch I'll probably glance at the end of it just in case.