Looksee what I found....Pine Pitch

[dboles]

While splitting up some firewood I came across a couple of rounds trhat are incredibly full of pitch.From the rounds I managed to scrape over a pound of clean pitch.Some of the surrounding wood is also soaked with pitch resulting in quite a few pieces of very nice fatwood.You can start a fire with it with a single match on a surprisingly large piece of kindling.
I use some of the pitch to make a salve that I use on my hands.Mixed with petroleum jelly rubs on smooth withoput any stickyness I was surprised at that.Use it to cover my scent when hunting.I also make a beeswax waterproofing for my canvas coats,packs,tarps and hats.Next batch I will try a walnut sized lump in with the recipe.


Thanks for looking
Dan'l

[sapper1]

A very good find that,pine resin has no end of uses.Have you tried adding a little bit of crushed charcoal to make a strong glue?It makes it less brittle when dry.

[Nice65]

That's amazing. Having worked in a joinery for a time many years ago, I've seen resin pockets before, but never anything like that. It's like finding buried treasure. Do you know what type of conifer it came from?

[dboles]

What we call Western White Pine or pinus monticola (I think if I remember my latin,without looking it up)
Dan

[The Cumbrian]

That's great. It now gives me something else to look out for after reading Mistwalker's brilliant tutorial on finding fatwood in the bush.

Cheers, Michael.