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Uses for "pine" sap?

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Pine Sap saw HEAVY use before and during the 18th century to make "brewers pitch" which was a waterproof coating inside leather drinking jacks and other leather containers to hold liquids, including fire buckets. They also used it inside some wooden jacks, barrels, etc.

Gus
 
Sorry to bump up an old post, but I just made my first batch of pine pitch glue.

Pretty simple to make and really good stuff, it's like primitive hot glue. Could easily find the ingredients and be made if you needed some glue when out and about away from the civilized world - hunting, fishing, camping or whatever... Just warm what you are to glue so is spreads better then heat the pitch glue to apply, hardens like any other glue.

Pine sap also has medicinal properties as well: antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial

Treat wounds – apply it to cuts like you would super glue.

Stop bleeding – apply a soft glob (heat if necessary) to help stop bleeding.

Treat skin rashes and eczema with ointments, tinctures, and salves. For tinctures, use 190 proof Everclear since resin won’t dissolve with watered down alcohols.

Chew softer sap straight off the tree like a gum for sore throats and colds. You could pre-make “gum” with these ingredients: beeswax, pine sap, and honey.

20220511_160811a.jpg
 
I don't know bob, sounds like a little BS, where do you get pine pollen in winter time? White or Red? Knock at my door.
Wish I had known that before. Had a winter home in South West Florida until this spring. February and March one could not keep a car clean for the amount of green pollen from Pine Trees ever present on the surface.
It could have easily been brushed up and collected.
Not that I believe the tale however.

But wait, this stuff was green, not yellow.
 
I thought everyone knew to use it on flints and flint leather to keep them from working loose.
 
A friend of mine knaps flint knives and arrowheads,hunts strictly primitive bow, and makes everything himself. Uses pine sap over the sinew to hold blades and heads.He made me a 7 1/2" blade W/ a cow shinbone handle.Great knife, just dont drop it..

I'd love to see a picture of that! I'm just getting into flinknapping, the hardest thing I've ever tried to learn...

I'm guessing that he used pine pitch glue, just using pine sap is either to sticky or to brittle.
 
Being from Georgia originally, I've been to tapped pine forests and sap processing facilities. Longleaf and slash pine are the ones that they tap. I remember the HUGE outdoor boilers filled with golden, bubbling sap; the heat could be felt 25 yards away. In addition to turpentine, pitch, varnishes and various types of amber, the distillates went into many pharmaceuticals and household products. A popular first aid product called "Astyptodyne" was and is still made. Georgia remains the main supplier of "naval stores", producing all but a small percent of all naval stores worldwide.

Rosin is much used in sports and could be used in homemade gunstock finishes and fillers. I have no idea if it could be used on porous materials such a leather. Still usable for wooden boats, though, as wooden shipbuilding is mostly a thing of the past. Both petroleum and pine tar use is only limited by one's imagination.
I make thread wax for saddle stitching using beeswax and pine resin(rosin?). Makes a slightly tacky cake of wax that you can run your thread through before stitching.
 
That's awesome! Hopefully someday I will get there... I am really good at breaking great starts of arrowheads in half!
finish the base first. guaranteed to break if the tip and shoulders are thinned first. try chert like Georgetown to learn on. Obsidian will have you slitting your wrists on purpose it is so fragile.
my first successful knife blade from Dacite. Dacite is very forgiving but still avoid pressure flaking the base after the point and sides are thinned.
20220527_125951.jpg
 
That is an excellent piece!

I have a bunch of "dragon glass" and you are right it's driving me mad... I also have quite a bit of dacite so I've been working with that lately. I'm getting there, but have a hard time thinning without breaking. I'd like to make a knife at some point but want to refine my method before attempting that. Flintknapping is extremely difficult for me but a heck of a lot of fun, up until that point breaks in half...
20220424_110048a.jpg

Here is my best point so far, but again thick and has some crookedness to it and not real sharp. But it works for decoration...

These would make reasonable trinkets, but way too thick. Might make the bottom left one into an atlatl point.
a.jpg
 
Pine Sap saw HEAVY use before and during the 18th century to make "brewers pitch" which was a waterproof coating inside leather drinking jacks and other leather containers to hold liquids, including fire buckets. They also used it inside some wooden jacks, barrels, etc.

Gus
I've read some where that capes on hunting frocks were water proofed , maybe pitch/pine resin or whatever? It seems logical that they would be treated some how.
 

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