resin balls

[shutupthepunx]

i got some resin today, not quite sure if its spruce or pine.

i wanted to make these small enough for my tinderbox. i palm rolled them into these small balls, but it was a curse to wash off my hands.

i was trying to think of a good way to store them, like maybe roll them in a flour or something so they wont be all sticky and icky to carry. and then i was thinking maybe a flammable power/dust might be much better. i just couldn't think what. i think id like to try and move towards using only use natural materials for firelighting. im a way off yet.

 

[Toddy]

You know the parchment paper used to line cake tins ? that works if you wrap the balls up like sweeties.
You can also cut up the inner lining of breakfast cereal packets and do the same.
The thing is though that parchment burns quite cleanly; the cereal packet inners are often a kind of plastic and they aren't good to burn, though they will.

If you clean up the resin, heat it a little and mix it with fine ground charcoal, you can pack it into little tubes of birchbark and it won't run out, but will let you carry it quite easily.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[ozzy1977]

How did you make them?

 

[Andy W]

Just put them in a cupboard for a while and they will dry out and go hard, you can then put them in your tinder pouch. I wear a thin pair of rubber gloves when dealing with resin as you say it makes a mess of your hands.

 

[Elgatoloco]

Chaga dust! Or wrap them in charcloth.

 

[bilmo-p5]

... or wrap them in waxed paper bread wrapper. Some loaves still come that way.

 

[Goatboy]

You may not want to get it on your skin and I'm sure someone will tell of the long lingering death that will occur if you do but to get the resin off meths or some over spirit will clean your hands up in a jiffy. Rolled in icing sugar is natural and it burns, will stop it sticking to everything too though the parchment paper will act like touch paper for lighting them.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Covered in icing sugar is begging t be eaten by mistake by you or someone else (I can see me doing that bleary eyed half asleep etc)
Waxed paper or bich bark tubes perhaps ?

 

[mountainm]

Just pop in the freezer then dip em in wax.

 

[Monikieman]

Turps will take the resin off I'm sure. If you add some squeeezy before you risnse the turps and squeezy turn to jelly (swarfega).

Help disolve the turps to remove. Very drying on the skin.

 

[ozzy1977]

What's squeezy?

 

[Toddy]

Fairy Liquid

M

 

[Goatboy]

Turps will take the resin off I'm sure. If you add some squeeezy before you risnse the turps and squeezy turn to jelly (swarfega).

Help disolve the turps to remove. Very drying on the skin.

On the homemade Swarfega front if you add some sugar to it the abrasive action helps clean rough tough stuff off the skin.

 

[shutupthepunx]

yeah sugar would have been a good idea, all i could think of was used coffee grounds but there was none. i used meths (as someone peole talked on here recently about its cleaning capabilities) and it didnt do a bad job.

i made them by removing the resin from the outside of the tree with a stick, putting all the bits into an empty crisp packet as its all i had. then dividing it all into smaller bits once i got home and just palm-rolled them into these balls. my chaga was harvested in sweden in the summer for tea purposes, and its very very hard (i think too hard for fire lighting purposes as even when i take a lighter to a bit it takes a while holding it there before it creates an ember, but maybe dust from it might be a different story). caster sugar is a nice idea.

 

[Toddy]

Sugar by it's very nature is hygroscopic, so it will just get even stickier, iimmc.

Folks usually just use charcoal, or crushed up dried rabbit pellets, and roll the mix into little olive shaped balls.

Alternatively, a piece of birch bark, and roll the resin into that; the resin sticks to the bark and the natural curl wraps the tube firmly around it.
It will burn very well indeed this way, but if you just heat the end like a cigar you can use the resin as a glue, just peeling back strips of bark as necessary.

HWMBLT purifies the resin for me for lotions and potions type stuff....varnishes, etc.,....and the house smells absolutely wonderful as he does so

cheers,
Toddy

 

[rancid badger]

I'd heartily recommend heating up your resin in either a disposable ( tuna can for example?) or dedicated container till it melts and goes like a dark syrup. Then pour it out onto something non stick, allow it to cool a bit, then roll it up into balls or sticks or whatever you like. The melting renders the finished resin non sticky and if you add powdered charcoal, it can not only be used for tinder/kindling but also as a very good waterproof glue in extremis.

You need to do this outdoors ideally and be aware that the resin can catch fire while you heat it up but the end product is far cleaner and easier to use.

To get the resin off your hands, clean sand or even soil will do the trick. It's basically a matter of scrubbing it off, rather than dissolving the stuff.

Steve

 

[Goatboy]

On finding resin I keep a look out for fallen "widow makers" and forked crowns. Often in or nearby there are largish lumps of resin where the weakness in the tree has caused a build up of sap. You can quite regularly come across lumps as big as your first. Also species like lodgepole pine naturally produce pea sized lumps around the trunk just waiting to be harvested