Pitch recipies

[GregB]

That would be great Pat, nothing like seeing it first hand to know if you're getting it right or not!

[JackCrafty]

Brewer's Pitch----http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=373

[captyn cron]

Saw this thread and had to ask......Do you have to find pine trees with damage to them (or do the damage and wait) to get the sap or is there a way to extract it from the wood?

[Pat B]

The old timers up here in the mountains would boil stumps to extract the pitch.   If you live near pine trees you can find pitch on some of them around scars, broken limbs and insect damage.. You can also tap them like maples for the pitch.

[captyn cron]

one thing about east texas is we got plenty on pines! couple questions tho.

Does it have to be the stump or could you use logs?

When you boil it does the sap float to the top and you just skim it?

ok so three....To tap a pine would you just drill a hole in it and stick a pipe in it with a bucket under?

[Pat B]

With plenty of pine trees you should be able to find pitch. Look close at the pines around you. I'd bet you will find pitch.You can cut a slash in the tree and the sap will run to seal the wound.  I have never boiled stumps or trunks so I don't know but if it has pitch in it and you boil it the pitch will come out.

[captyn cron]

Thank you Pat you have been very helpful

chris

[JackCrafty]

Just like to add some things:

Here is a link to a good article on collecting pine sap---http://www.wikihow.com/Tap-a-Pine-Tree

Also, I tried collecting pine sap when I was a kid (for a Boy Scout project) and the thing I remember was that it was MUCH easier to get sap from damaged trees (that have been dripping sap for a while) than to tap the trees.

As far as boiling pine wood, I don't think you'll get much sap that way.  The specific gravity of pine tar is .988 so I guess it would float to the top and could be skimmed off....but I've never tried it.  I think the knots, roots, and bark would contain a lot more sap than clear wood, in any case.

Stumps and roots were heated in an enclosed container (or pit) to extract pine tar, with charcoal as the byproduct.  I've not heard of boiling pine to extract the pitch.

Hope that helps.

[Pat B]

Steve Parker told me about boiling to extract pitch. Maybe he will chine in with more details.
  It is way easier to collect already oozed pitch from damaged trees than to force it out.

[stickbender]

 
     My Grandfather used to gather pine sap, for a turpentine company, just like the maple sap gathering, when he was a boy.  He would carry a bunch of buckets, and spouts, auger. and a mallet, and long handled stick, with a chain, and ball with a hawks bill blade on it.  He would swing the ball and cut a groove, in one direction, and then do the same in the other direction, making a " V " and pound the spout in the hole made with the auger, and hang the little pail on it, and go on to the next tree.  As far as boiling stumps, sounds like a lot of work.  But I would assume that they were boiling " Lighter " stumps.  They make great firewood, and kingling sticks.  Full of settled sap, and hard as a rock!  You can dull a good axe real quick!  But burns hot, and long!
You can cut a groove in a pine tree, and in a few days, you will have a sap ooze starting to build up.  Just don't do it when the pine borers are infesting, like in the dry season.  No point in helping the little $#@!!.   Besides there won't be much sap at all anyway, that is why the beetles do so well.  We have had some pretty bad dry spells down here and the pine borers, are wrecking havoc.  You can see acres, and acres of dead, and dying trees.

                                                                                                  Wayne

[Pat B]

I believe the reason they boiled stumps here in the mountains is because that is where the richest pitch deposits were. Very little fat wood here in the mountains, at least not like we had on the coast. I have seen giant dead standing long leaf yellow pine trees, 4' in diameter. You could cut a slab 4" thick off one of those trees and see light through it. They are so rich you had to use a brass ax to split then to keep from creating a spark.