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Cut a piece of elder and remove bark and pith, this will leave you with a hollow tube. Cut two small hazel plugs to fit.
Grind down some charcoal with a rounded stone.
Ideally the charcoal should be reduced to a fine powder.
Gather up some pine resin using coltsfoot instead of your pockets!
Place flat rock on the fire stones, once warmed add the resin. (Be careful in your selection of rock as they might explode) My favourite rock had a bowl shape hammered out of it but it grew legs on a course last year and went walkabout.
Once the resin starts to melt down scrape it into a heap and add a little beeswax. Any impurities should be scraped to one side.
Now add some charcoal powder and mix.
Gather and push into elder tube.
Make enough pitch to fill chamber and cap it with the other plug. It's a great way of carrying the pitch in your kit bag.
When you need to use it simply heat over the fire and spread.
Many thanks to Patrick of Backwoods Survival School for supplying this article.
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