cooking pitch

[wolfsire]

i may be wrong here, but i think that the grease/oil/wax are all interchangeable. i think he meant that the persentage of whichever of those substances you choose should be droped down to around 5 percent. im not sure about the charcoal

Recurve shooter is right. 

I wont go into the degree to which other materials can replace charcoal, but as you can see from Jackcrafty's pix, charcoal is not essential.  Conversely can be used in abundance.  I have not tried any amount of charcoal over 50%, but 25-50% is fine.  IIRC, I've only used oil separated from salad dressing, lol, but I now other have used animal fats.

I typically mix equal parts of sap and charcoal, then add a dash of bees wax.  If it is too soft, I add more sap and charcoal.  If I want the strength of fiber, I add enough to get the consistancy I want, which will depend on the kind of fiber.  I prefer 3mm bits of sisal stands becauce I read a couple engineering reports about the effectiveness of that material and size for concrete and baked clay ... and it is not poop.  But crumbled herbavore waste gets you small fibers.  I don't know what else is in the poop or whether it has any impact on the pitch.

There are all different kinds of recipes.  Undoubtely some are better for different uses and climates.  As long as you don't overcook, generally it is pretty easy to fix a batch by adding more stuff of one kind or another.

[mullet]

 The resin, by itself, and wrapped with sinew works. The point only has to stay on till it is in the meat. The people using stone points in ancient times probally didn't cry about a lost point as much as we do.

[recurve shooter]

true that. i think that i'll use epoxy!

[sailordad]

true that. i think that i'll use epoxy!

epoxy?  seriously?

you wont be able readjust them once it sets up,and good luck removing them if you ever want to switch them

[recurve shooter]

hey, i never claimed i knew what i was talking about! 

[Pat B]

If you're hunting, use what you are comfortable with and confident with!      BUT, the more you play with pitch glue the more you will appreciate its simplicity and effectiveness. It has worked very well for millennium.

[Sleep Junkie]

Ah okay, I got ya now.  This time around I will have the ratio right.  I did not know that you could use wax.  I have a whole brick of it here at the house.  It's called Gulf canning wax.  It's more than enough for all the raw sap I have stored.  I would much rather use that instead of grease anyway.  See, when I was mixing up my pitch, I had the ingredients set out before hand.  The charcoal was in a paper cup and the bacon grease was on some wax paper.  Well, when I had my back turned, the dog got into the first batch of grease.  I shoulda known better to put it on the floor when she was around, but I didn't think she would go near the Coleman.  It was still within the first few minutes when you have to have the flames turned way up to help preheat the rest of the fuel in the tank.  Normally she is afraid to get within two feet of flames, but the bacon smell must have been too much.  I swear, sometimes she acts as if no one feeds her!  Thankfully she only ate about a tablespoons worth because I caught her in the middle of it and thankfully, she didn't get sick.  LOL  I will just have to chalk this up to another lesson learned.  Thanks guys!

[paulc]

So I need to be careful about overcooking the pitch...?  So no rolling boil...?  Just get it hot enough to melt the pitch is what you want to do...And add some ash if I want to?  TIA

[mullet]

 I glue my stone points on with TB3 and then smear pitch on them to fake everybody out.

[wolfsire]

So I need to be careful about overcooking the pitch...?  So no rolling boil...?  Just get it hot enough to melt the pitch is what you want to do...And add some ash if I want to?  TIA

I know people use ash, though I do not know anything else about it.  But, yes, you want to be careful about overcooking pitch.  If it boils too long it will turn grainy and lose its adhesiveness.  A little boiling wont do that, but then there is no need to boil at all.  Most of cooking is done on a coffee warmer, which probably only gets to 140F.

[mullet]

 If you over cook it just add some Turpentine, it will rejuvenate it.

[Pappy]

I am real interested in doing this and live in a pine thicket,Question,if you put a wound on a tree
say with a knife or small axe make how long would you suspect it would take to get the pitch.
Is is pretty quick or dose it take a while. I cut one yesterday and was wondering how long it would take.I also found some on one tree I trimmed some limbs on a year or 2 ago.
   Pappy

[recurve shooter]

pappy i aint got the slightest idea, but one of them said something about boiling heart pine (pine knot, starter pine, pitch pine, whatever). that seems like what i'll do.

[JackCrafty]

Pappy, the bigger the wound the more pitch you'll get.  It only takes a few days before the pitch makes a scab over the would.  You have to keep picking at it to get a constant supply...although I've never been able to get very much, personally.  I think the professionals use a tap similar to the ones used for maple trees.

[sailordad]

it also helps to have the pine tree very well hydrated,as the more water in it the more sap can flow