What's this stuff in my trunk?

[Maxwellol]

Hi all, would appreciate a bit of help identifying what the stuff in below picture is. It's probably obvious to a knowledgeable person but I'm still a complete layman when it comes to trees.

This is from spruce pine - I'd just started recycling my Christmas tree into spoons, stripping off the bark. On one side near the base was a blob of white stuff, it looked just like bird crap so that's what I thought it was (the tree had been sat neglected in my back yard since new year) but once I took the bark off, this strange pit of sticky crystalline stuff was underneath!

At first I thought it might be sap or resin or something, but it didn't smell like the usual pine resin smell. Smelt almost like menthol cigarettes.

Thanks

 

[Mesquite]

Looks like resin to me

 

[ozzy1977]

Looks like resin to mee to. Was it a spruce or pine?

 

[Harvestman]

Spruce resin. Smells vary according to species, as do the properties of the resin, such as how flammable it is.

 

[Toddy]

Oh nice find.....hang onto that stuff

Good for glue, for fires, for incense, for varnishy things too....not sure about chewing it though.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Maxwellol]

Durr so it was resin after all. Thanks all for clearing that up anyway.

Oh nice find.....hang onto that stuff

Good for glue, for fires, for incense, for varnishy things too....not sure about chewing it though.

cheers,
Toddy

Thanks for the tip Toddy. Although there's only a thimbleful there I'd be mighty interested in the experiment. How can I store/preserve it?

 

[Kerne]

Resin - brill stuff. Loadsa uses - try this:
http://www.primitiveways.com/pine_pitch_stick.html

 

[Ogri the trog]

Oh nice find.....

....not sure about chewing it though.

cheers,
Toddy

I am, DON'T - not yet at least
Resin for chewing has to be powder dry or it just melts and sticks to your teeth for days.

When it is dry, try a small piece - it will initially taste and feel very dry and powdery, but keep with it, as it softens it gets quite pleasant

That's how I do it anyway.

Ogri the trog

 

[andyc54]

I am, DON'T - not yet at least
Resin for chewing has to be powder dry or it just melts and sticks to your teeth for days.

When it is dry, try a small piece - it will initially taste and feel very dry and powdery, but keep with it, as it softens it gets quite pleasant

That's how I do it anyway.

Ogri the trog

thats a fantastic bit of learning can this be done with any tree resin ?

 

[Ogri the trog]

thats a fantastic bit of learning can this be done with any tree resin ?

Conifer resin is the one that is accepted as beneficial/medicinal and only conifer resin will set up hard in a short time period. Most conifer resins can be used as fire lighting accelerants, glue bases etc as they contain high concentrations of volatile hydrocarbons.

That is not to say that deciduous tree saps aren't beneficial - birch sap, like maple and sycamore to a lesser extent, can be drunk, or boiled to concentrate it into syrup, or eventually hardened "boiled sweet's" as they are mainly a water/sugar mix.
Other trees were bled or cut and processed for the oils in their saps - Beech for creosote, Birch roots for Betula(sp) oils or Stockholm tar.

HTH

Ogri the trog

 

[andyc54]

Thanks for that need to get out to some conifer trees to try it

 

[shaggystu]

....Beech for creosote...

I didn't know that, just spent a fascinating five minutes reading about creosote, thanks

 

[Mesquite]

I didn't know that, just spent a fascinating five minutes reading about creosote, thanks

Likewise, that's today's little nugget of knowledge learnt