Friday, June 17, 2016

Distilling Pine Tar

Rosin


As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

For my personal notes, a registry of the creation of pine tar, pitch and resin.

The three are different, but all same source related from the evergreen woods.



In Virginia it was commonly made from the resinous roots and wood of various pines. The wood was heaped into a conical stack depressed at the center, covered with earth, and fired. The tar ran into a hollowed-out place in the soil beneath the stack of wood. Pitch was a dark-colored viscous substance obtained as a residue in distilling pine tar, and widely used for caulking seams of boats.

J. Paul Hudson. A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and Industries



Pitch which is tar, is a gathering of sticky pine pitch, placed into a can with holes to heat it to liquid, which is also highly flammable. Use soup can with holes, and larger can to capture the pine tar.
To this strained fluid add ash or sawdust, and a like amount of tallow or beeswax to create tar for patching things.

In addition, pine sap or pitch, can be distilled in a copper boiler as in whiskey making, to distill out the product known as turpentine or other essential oils.

What is left is rosin, which is what is used for bows or other like lubrication.

I am more interested in the burner, as this would be wonderful for cooking. Placed upon bricks, one could feed this indefinitely while cooking some concoction to ward off starvation.


Pine tar is a necessity for cut and wound dressing for infections. It is the parent of sulfa. These pine resins, as turpentine will cure fungal infections of toenails, and other like maladies.

People used to die of scurvy and entire pine forests had in their needles the natural Vitamin C cure.

Nuff Said.


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