Birch Tar

[Stew]

Hi Guys & Gals,

Does anyone have first hand experience of making Birch Tar.

I know the theory but I have some specific questions.

[Man of Tanith]

got a bit what would you like to know?

[Toddy]

If you mean made by using the two tins buried in the earth and hot embers piled around and on top, then I do. I've only made it from scratch twice though so you might be better with someone more experienced.

cheers,
M

[JonathanD]

I've done it a few times too.

[Lupin Rider]

did a little in a small tin at the bushmoot. was rather watery. how do you thicken it up to a tar?

[Stew]

Oops, forgot about this!

A few questions then:

1. How much tar output are you likely to get per amount of birch bark?
2. Roughly how long were you doing the burn for.
3. Can you try to do too much at once or is a large tin of bark ok?
4. What problems did you encounter. (A sneaky catch all! )

(I'm sure there were others but can't remember them now!)

[Lupin Rider]

i didnt coil the bark that well and ended up with pockets that the tar sat in rather than runnin gout to the condensor part - i suspect my first fire wasnt hot or long enough. second was too hot and too long!

[Guilty]

I've done it once, just for the hell of it!
Filled a 1kg Quality street tin (with a hole in the bottom middle) the with bark curled in a circle or concentric circles (apparently ensuring that the bark was all up the same way it was on the tree).
Dug a small hole to take a tin mug and set the tin on top. Loaded the embers from an already started fire on and around the tin and continued to feed the fire for about 3/4 of an hour.

The tar was thin and runny on 1st collection but I stood the mug on top of the tin with the embers around (not on top) the tin and the tar reduced down slowly, getting much thicker over a further 1/2 an hour. Do not allow the tar to catch fire, just heat through to 'reduce and thicken'.

I keep mine in a latex glove, simply because this was all that was available at the time.

Hope this is of some help

[bushcraftbob]

I've done it once, used a quality street tin (not the big one but the mid sized tin) and ended up with a fairly good knob of glue at the end of it, i am try to rig my chimine up to make small amounts of birch tar in my garden at the mo...

[Miyagi]

I believe that birch bark contains turpentine (hence it's ability to light easily).

What uses would you have for birch bark tar?

[JonathanD]

I believe that birch bark contains turpentine (hence it's ability to light easily).

What uses would you have for birch bark tar?

You can use it to make epoxy, used in arrow making, and allsorts.

I used an old tall biscuit tin. You need to wrapt it very tightly like a toilet roll. Go a good quarter of a pint from that. Thicken it with carcoal and curl it around a stick is it hardens.

[Toddy]

I stuffed a Syrup tin as full as I could get it, and put it ontop of a washed out baked bean can. The first time I just crammed the bark in any old how and I got maybe 2 cms worth at the bottom of the tin. The next time I carefully coiled the bark as tightly as I could get it and kept wriggling more into the can until it was absolutely 'heavy' feeling. That time I got about 4cms worth.
I know it was a fair amount of bark, but it felt dry, it kind of astonished me how much tar I got out of it.

Problems........it's a mess of a process to get it out of the tin In the end I just stirred ground charcoal into the mix in the tin and took a small flat stick to scrape it out while it was still wax hot. I rolled it into olive shapes.

The first time I tried it I heated it until it was really thick and then scraped it out onto some birch bark that I rolled up around it like a very thick leaded pencil. It set, but with any heat it runs and melts where I want it.
The birch bark tube thing works well, but because the tar is just tar, it'll go really sticky on a hot day and leaves a hell of a mess if I'm not careful where I keep it.

cheers,
Toddy

[Miyagi]

Thanks JD.

[Man of Tanith]

Oops, forgot about this!

A few questions then:

1. How much tar output are you likely to get per amount of birch bark?
2. Roughly how long were you doing the burn for.
3. Can you try to do too much at once or is a large tin of bark ok?
4. What problems did you encounter. (A sneaky catch all! )

(I'm sure there were others but can't remember them now!)

i forgot bout this one too whoops
Question 1 i used a paint tin full to the brim and got about half a pipe tobbaco tin's worth of tar

Question 2 i did the burn overnight using a corner of my cooking fire

Question 3- I suspect a large tin wouold be fine long as it gets enough of a burn over it long enough

Question 4- The tin i put beneath the bark filled tin was exactly the same diameter which resulted in soil falling into the receving tin so a smaller tin beneath would of been more suitable
hope these helped