Uses for Resin - From Cherry?

[benjamin.oneill]

Today I found myself in Maidstone opposite the Medway RUFC feilds in something-or-other paddock, a dog poop infested bit of "green". There seemed to be a proliferation of cherry trees and many were strewn with lumps of resin. Without much else to do I collect a load and its currently on my hob melting down so i can strain the grub out.

This is keeping me occupied but is the stuff any use for anything? Maybe the magpie in me was just drawn to the shiney amber like stuff. Failing any real uses, I'll trap some of my toenail clippings in it and burry it in the garden so hopefully I'll be recreated in 60million years time.

Ben

 

[Toddy]

There have been a few suggestions made for this resin/ sap. Some like it for glue, some don't. It has also been suggested that it's a really good varnish.
The most recent threads are these two:-

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=5071&highlight=cherry
from about post 18 onwards

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=7481&highlight=cherry

Cheers,
Toddy, who's trees have yet to show any of the stuff

 

[torjusg]

Me too, Toddy! The only time I have ever seen resin from cherry was from a bird cherry. An ember/blackish colored lump that felt a little like rubber. Quite good size too. Stupid me, jumped to the conclusion that this wasn't usable for anything and just threw it away.

Torjus Gaaren

 

[benjamin.oneill]

Thank you guys

I thought the same which is why i gathered it. I'm trying to clean it up by boiling it up with water, straining it and then boiling it down. I think I'll leave it in a greased up bowl in a very low oven overnight to let it set.

What do you think would happen if i boiled it up with some linseed oil?

Also, as to finding it... these were wild bird cherries and some trees had it, others didn't. The only thing i noticed was trees with a fair bit of ivy were more likely to have some oozing out.

I might have a play and let you the world know if anything miraculous happens.

 

[Ketchup]

What do you think would happen if i boiled it up with some linseed oil?
...

I might have a play and let you the world know if anything miraculous happens.

As you're experimenting, and as its seems gum/varnish like, try using it for shining or varnishing, diluted in turpentine if you're for all narural products, white spirit or acetone if you don't care.

Please keep us informed. I have old Japanese cherry trees in the neighbourhood, and they do "bleed" too. I know it's generally sick/rot trees that bleed.

 

[Don Redondo]

I'm intruiged. [proffesional hat on here]

Cherry is'nt what I would call a 'resinous' tree. But cherry does exude a resin like material.... as part of a Bacterial Canker Psedomonas syringae.

This is what Strouts and Winter: Diagnosis of Ill health in Trees. has to say about it:

..........dead and dying bark on affected branches, probably girdling them. amber coloured gum exudes copiously here and there from from bark on affected branches and stem................

My suggestion, form here [given that I have'nt seen the trees in question] you dispose of what you have collected and then you sterilise whatever you used, such as knives, containers etc, to avoid any chance of cross contamination with other Prunus species [cherry, plum, etc]


BTW...as noted in another post, if you find black oozing pustules this might be Phytophthora which is highly infectious to other trees and woody plants. again clean and sterilize.

Be very carefull in what you collect from trees. Unless you are competent in Tree Pathology, only take resin from coniferous trees, and only if it is dry. Clean off your tools between trees with meths. If in doubt leave well alone.

 

[benjamin.oneill]

I'm intruiged. [proffesional hat on here]

Cherry is'nt what I would call a 'resinous' tree. But cherry does exude a resin like material.... as part of a Bacterial Canker Psedomonas syringae.

This is what Strouts and Winter: Diagnosis of Ill health in Trees. has to say about it:

..........dead and dying bark on affected branches, probably girdling them. amber coloured gum exudes copiously here and there from from bark on affected branches and stem................

My suggestion, form here [given that I have'nt seen the trees in question] you dispose of what you have collected and then you sterilise whatever you used, such as knives, containers etc, to avoid any chance of cross contamination with other Prunus species [cherry, plum, etc]


BTW...as noted in another post, if you find black oozing pustules this might be Phytophthora which is highly infectious to other trees and woody plants. again clean and sterilize.

Be very carefull in what you collect from trees. Unless you are competent in Tree Pathology, only take resin from coniferous trees, and only if it is dry. Clean off your tools between trees with meths. If in doubt leave well alone.

oops! Thank you for the words of caution... The resin i collected has been boiled or heated in a very hot oven for some time so i'm assuming what I have now will be safe. The bag i used has been thrown and my little opi is all cleaned up.

In future I'll heed your warning.

 

[Don Redondo]

Apologies for the slightly officious tones in my post but there's a very important point to make.

Those involved with bushcraft and other outdoor pursuits, can unwittingly through lack of knowledge cause a great deal of problems.......

For example [although not bushcraft related] japanese knotweed has spread prolifically through this country, affecting roadside verges, woodland edges and watercourses. The main vector [means of transmittion].. the humble JCB. all it needed was a bit of root stuck in a bit of mud, and the damage was done.

when I was a lad, straight from college, I was a Dutch elm surveyor, which involved taking a square of bark from a tree with a chisel and inspecting the vascular area under the cambium. I was required to sterilise the chisel between each tree with meths, which was considered strong enough to kill the fungus. I never new for sure whether this was 100% effective though.

These days the UK's tree stock is under increased pressure from pollution, exotic imports, new strains of pathogens and now global warming [several hot, dry summers have put a great deal of stress on our treestock].

You need to be aware of phytophthora in particular as this has been indicted in California in cases of Sudden Oak Death [SOD].......... and now it's here, on infected nursery stock. So far it's only affected rhododendron and azalea, but if it makes the cross to oak we are in deep do-do as it will affect sweet chestnut and beech also....

So if you are out and about using your tools when you get back clean them and then sterelize them. prefereably with meths and then a blast from a blowtorch


BTW.... be on the lookout for bleeding canker [black nasties oozing from a wound or crack] on chestnut [both sorts] beech, and birch...... if anyone wants, I'll try and expand on this in another thread.


here's a handy website for tree related thingies. click on the fungus - photo for some good ID photos:

http://www.aie.org.uk/

 

[Ketchup]

Duely noted and understood.

 

[Big John]

That's a really good link, thanks Don. I had no idea that fungi could be used so effectively to indicate rot in tree's - I thought they happily lived alongside each other.

I'll look more carefully next time I put my basha up on a windy day!

 

[Don Redondo]

That's a really good link, thanks Don. I had no idea that fungi could be used so effectively to indicate rot in tree's - I thought they happily lived alongside each other.

I'll look more carefully next time I put my basha up on a windy day!

I certainly woul'nt be camping anywhere near a beach with Meripilus, that's for sure

 

[benjamin.oneill]

Thanks Don,

What you've said is really interesting. The neigbour was having a garden bonfire yesterday so the remnants went on that. Another dutch elm type problem really would be a crisis.

A year or two ago a magnificent yew in a churchyard near suddenly died and no one knew why. It was the biggest specimen of yew I knew of. A second tragedy was that I wasn't around when they where cutting it up to nab a few chunks of the great tree.

 

[Don Redondo]

Old old yews really do'nt like root disturbance either mechanical or chemical. Had any work taken place near it in the previous couple of years? When you are that old it does'nt take much to tip you over the edge.

I bet all the arisings went as firewood


I notice you are in East Sussex. I spent some time there 86 -88 as the county elm officer. I started work the day of the great storm, so you can imagine what I had to put up with!

 

[-Switch-]

I notice you are in East Sussex. I spent some time there 86 -88 as the county elm officer. I started work the day of the great storm, so you can imagine what I had to put up with!

Woah! Talk about being thrown in at the deep end
While the rest of us were enjoying a few days at home, unable to get to work, you were having probably the busiest time of your career!

 

[Don Redondo]

you could say that

there were 4 brand new chainsaws in store. They all went out to the emergency gangs, without any idea of who was using them. H&S went right out the window. When I got them back some months later, they were all right offs. Things were so bad in the days and weeks afterwards that we ran out of engine and chain oil and were using waste oil from the local chippies for a few days!

 

[benjamin.oneill]

I'm not sure Don,

I wasn't around, just heard that the experts couldn't pin it. Sadly, I think you might be right about where the wood ended up although I know of one turner who pinched a few bits on the way back from the pub and I heard that a bowyer got his hands on some. Hopefully, some of this tree lives on.

Yes, I'm here in East Sussex (in the next village to Mr Meares) but at uni in Exeter so between the two a bit. When I was a kid at the time of the storm we lived in the Kimberly, the north of Western Australia. Shame I wasn't old enough to pick up some bushcraft tips back then, tho apparently my mother let me swim with crocs!!!!!!!!!!! (i should say freshwater before someone calls the NSPCC)