Brief Summary
This video explains how to identify, collect, and process pine resin into useful products like fire starters, glue, and antiseptic salve. It covers the properties of pine resin, how to render it, and how to combine it with other materials like animal fat and charcoal to create different products.
- Pine resin is a versatile substance exuded by conifers to heal wounds, useful for making glue, antiseptic salves, and for caulking.
- The video demonstrates how to render pine resin using a primitive pottery sieve and fire, and what to do if the resin overheats.
- Different formulations of pine resin with animal fat can be used as leather preservatives, wood sealers, and antiseptic salves.
Introduction to Pine Resin
The video begins by introducing pine resin, a sticky substance produced by coniferous trees to seal wounds and protect against insects and diseases. Pine resin is a versatile material with many uses, including making glue, antiseptic salves, and caulking for wooden boats. The presenter aims to demonstrate how to collect pine resin and process it into useful items.
Finding and Collecting Pine Resin
All conifers produce resin, but some, like Ponderosa pines, produce more than others. To find resin, look for trees with wounds caused by broken branches, logging equipment, or animals. The resin can vary from runny and fresh to hard nodules, all of which can be used with different processing methods. The presenter demonstrates collecting a large amount of resin from a productive tree.
Rendering Pine Resin
The collected resin is loaded into a primitive pottery sieve with holes and placed over a cool fire to render it. The presenter cautions against overheating the resin, as it is flammable and difficult to extinguish once ignited. The sieve allows the pure resin to drip through, leaving debris behind. The leftover debris can be used to make fire starters by mixing it with dry, fibrous materials like wood shavings or dry grass.
Filtering and Processing the Resin
The process of rendering the pine resin is shown, with a reminder to keep the fire relatively cool to prevent the resin from catching fire. After rendering, the filtered pine pitch is left to cool overnight, resulting in a glassy substance. The texture of the cooled resin depends on the original resin's softness; harder nodules will result in a brittle substance that requires the addition of oils or fats to make it usable.
Making Pine Pitch Glue
The video discusses different methods for making pine pitch glue, including using softer resin with charcoal and rabbit droppings, or harder nodules with animal fats. The presenter's unscientific testing suggests that the strongest glue is made from hard nodules, a small amount of animal fat, and cattail fluff as a binder. This formulation withstood over 110 lbs of pressure in shear tests. The presenter encourages viewers to share links to more controlled experiments on pitch glue formulations.
Creating Salve, Wood Sealer, and Leather Preservative
The presenter describes making a salve, wood sealer, and leather preservative by combining approximately 75% rendered animal fat (such as elk tallow) with 25% pine pitch. This mixture can be used as a leather preservative, a primitive wood sealer for bows and arrows, and an antiseptic salve for cuts. The fat content makes the mixture soft and easy to apply, unlike pure resin.
Applications and Conclusion
The video concludes by highlighting the primary uses of pine resin, including medicine, leather preservation, wood sealing, and glue. Pine resin has historical uses such as sealing seams in birch bark canoes and wooden boats. The presenter encourages viewers to collect pine resin and experiment with making their own salves, leather conditioners, and wood preservatives.
