pine pitch and Otzi arrows

[Chicknlady]

Hi everyone, my latest experiment has been to make some new rose-arrows using pine pitch glue for the fletching.  Like the Otzi arrows, with the pitch all around the fletching part of the shaft. 

I had a pretty decent batch of glue, not too brittle, at room temperature I can easily put a finger nail dent in it, and it's pretty tacky at room temperature.  And stayed tacky until I took them out to shoot.  It was cold out, about 30, and immediately I started getting chunks of glue crack off the shaft, as you can see:




Any suggestions?  My mix was pitch, tallow, and powdered charcoal from the woodstove.  Maybe I need some deer poo?

Thanks!

[ojibwatbowyer]

Awesome, theres a really good vid on youtube where a guy replicated an otzi arrow, he had used birch tar. Maybe birch tar would be a better fit, seeing as how otzi was found frozen in the mountains. I think it would be worth looking into.

[bowtarist]

I've always heard:  5 parts hard pitch, 1 part tallow or wax, and one part ash/charcoal/deer poo/crumbled dry grass which ever you choose.

Otzi video did say he used birch tar.  I hope to give birch tar a try soon. 

There are a lot of guys who use pitch glue on here, hopefully another will pop in.

Good luck and keep us posted, dpgratz

[Chicknlady]

Thanks for the replies!  Ojibwatbowyer, the video is what got my interest to try this, but he didn't go into much detail about the birch tar, other than how to make it and where to put it.  I'd like to try the birch tar, but it looked like he used paper birch and we don't have that much around here, just yellow and black birch, don't know anything about them.

Does anyone else have problems with pine pitch glue getting brittle in cold temperatures?

Thanks!

[Pappy]

Had that problem with mounting points ,mixed a little more wax in it and solved it for me. If it is still a little tacky you probably have to much pitch. Cool arrows by the way,how do they fly with the extra weight on the back ?
   Pappy

[Chicknlady]

Pappy, I'll try some extra wax, thanks!

The arrows actually flew just fine.  Surprised me. I did, however, make the thick end of the shoot the point-end, to try to counterbalance the extra weight on the nock end.  I only shot at 15 yards, so I don't know if a longer distance would be different.  Not that I can hit the hay-bales much further than that anyways!   

[JackCrafty]

The only easy solution to the cold weather problem is to use "brewer's pitch".  It is pine rosin mixed with a secret ingredient that keeps it flexible...  probably petroleum jelly.  It's not that good in warm weather, though.

[Sparrow]

Pappy's spot on,touch more bees wax seems to make it more cold durable.  '  Frank

[Chicknlady]

I used beef tallow in the original glue, would more of that work as well as the beeswax?  Or does beeswax work better for cold/brittle problems than tallow?

Thanks!  I have a couple dozen rose shafts dried and ready to make into arrows, and kinda like the Otzi-look.

[fiddler49]

Birch bark tar, does not get brittle like pitch. I think thats what Otzi used. It is a low temp hot glue that sticks to anything, easy to repair and reuse. Check out my article on PrimitiveWays, cheers fiddler49

http://www.primitiveways.com/birch_bark_tar.html

[Chicknlady]

Fiddler, now I'm going to have to try this!  It really doesn't sound any harder than making pine pitch glue, and I'll be really interested to see how it works with the fletching.

We only have yellow and black birch here, but they definitely have "oily" bark.  They grow like weeds along the roads on our hill, and I might just have to go do some pruning today.  I'm tired of making cookies.   

Thanks! 

[crooketarrow]

   CHEAT just add a coat of supper glue over your pitck glue.

[Chicknlady]

I might have to cheat!  I tried the process... didn't work.  I used black birch for this try:



the bark was so tight this time of year I had to use the draw knife to get it off...  it smelled great though!  The wintergreen smell was so strong it takes your breath away.



pizza sauce jar with lid screwed to tin can:




pieces of bark in tin can:




After about three hours:



a little foul-smelling liquid, clear, very watery, with a little ash that fell in.  The liquid isn't sticky or anything... just moisture condensed out of the green bark?




I guess I just have to try the yellow birch now...  Or cut down someone's pretty paper birch in their front lawn!  Thanks for viewing!

[JackCrafty]

Interesting!  Thanks for doing this!