pine resin

[elma]

I am able to harvest a reasonable quantity of pine resin from a wood near to me, but how do I remove all the bits of bark needles etc to get something that is usable

 

[moduser]

Hi elma,

What I do is heat it until it melts and then either just scrap the detritus away or pour off the resin.

Use a double boiler to do this but don't use anything you'll want to cook in.

Rgds

Moduser

 

[Toddy]

I am able to harvest a reasonable quantity of pine resin from a wood near to me, but how do I remove all the bits of bark needles etc to get something that is usable

I melt it like chocolate, i.e. in a double pot sort of thing, but you'll never get all of the resin out of the inner pot so either use something like tinfoil to line the pot, an old tin or buy a cheap pot in the pound store and keep it just for resins. The debris usually floats on the top of the resin and can be skimmed off. If you use a lining of tinfoil you can lift the cooled resin out in a chunk and just chipoff the gunky stuff.
I have melted the resin in the oven too....smells wonderful ....and the debris collects together again and can be removed. If it's bark pieces & needles and not dirt that's in the debris they can be dried and burned like incense, much nicer than the fake potions of the candle shops and the pseudo Indian joss sticks.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Nomad Bushcraft]

take an old can to the woods, harvest your resin, put it in the bottom of the can and add cold water.

Heat the can of water and pitch on your stove or campfire until it starts to simmer.

When the water comes to the boil let it simmer away and you'll notice the resin will come up to the surface of the water, it looks like cream.

DO NOT remove this until the pine aroma has gone, when you can't smell pine anymore, take the water off the boil this will have removed the aromatic compounds which cause the pitch to be runny.

Next take a stick and roll it in the pitch as if you were collecting candy floss. when you have a small amount on the stick dip the stick into cold water. Then re-introduce it to the resin, do this again and again until you end up with a resin stick.

all you need to do to use this is to reheat with boiling water or the heat of the fire.

Simple

Andrew and Carrie