Pine tar from scratch - How to make it using simple tools
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- čas přidán 23. 09. 2021
- This is a rather unusual way of making tar these days. It is also a way of making tar of a higher quality than you’d buy in the store. This is brown tar, or should I say reddish brown, with a higher resilience to water, ampler then black tar and on woodwork far more beautiful if you’d ask me. It is made from pine root in a tjärdal (tar ditch kiln) as tar has been made in Sweden for at least a thousand years. The old ditches can be found every here and there in the forests of Småland but I made my own one, about a fourth the size of what I believe is a normal size.
Making the kiln was a previous video where I also showed the splitting of pine stumps, the making of troughs/containers and how to dig without having a spade, check it out at: • Making a tar kiln the ...
This is one of the final episodes in a series where I explore craft processes without having a single hand tool to begin with and then make tools to make tools. Eventually the tools are used to build a tool chest from scratch to put the tools in. I just need tar to coat it and make sure the wood does not crack and bend. Check out one of the earlier videos here: • Off-grid forge part1 S... and the first one of proper woodwork here: • Making a Mästermyr che...
How pine tar is made:
First I adapt the ditch into a kiln by making a wooden pipe and cover it with dirt. The important part at this stage is to make sure the dirt does not fall into the kiln; hence the stones. Then all the bottom is covered in birch bark, not to make tar but to transport the tar down to the pipe, it is important to make sure the sheets overlap in a way that prevent tar to poor into the dirt. Fatwood is stacked as tightly as possible in the direction tar is supposed to flow, this might prove a bit tricky due to the bent shapes of roots. Eventually the whole pile is covered in birch bark, fir twigs, grass tufts and then dirt, all is covered except the highest point of the pile where lit charcoal is placed.
The charcoal then heats the fat wood but the kiln shall not be too hot. The brown quality tar occurs due to two reasons; one is that the temperature is kept relatively low the other is that the parts that do become warm cools down rather quickly as it pours out. A high temperature would make wood coal and sot darkening the tar making the liquid less concentrated whilst the low temperatures makes it more resilient and long lasting when applied on wood. That is why I keep smothering the flames.
When a large enough coaling of the fat wood has occurred I choke the top, waited a little bit and then opened up another air-hole in the bottom of the highest part… the most western part of the kiln, tar comes out in the eastern lower end… That way the wood will release tar but the tar will also slowly be pushed down closer to the pipe throughout the process. After a while I open up holes on the sides and then further down on the sides to keep pushing it downwards.
The smoke is the que, blue almost clear smoke means a high temperature and thick white smoke a lower temperature. It is important that the fatwood inside the kiln carbonizes without combusting/burning to much. The bluish smoke implies fire in the kiln… but this changes somewhat after a few hours. In the end no smoke is quite as thick as in the beginning, at that point it is mainly flames that are supposed to be avoided. I try to showcase the different sorts of smoke in the video throughout the process. When I made this batch it started to rain in the end of the process. The rain cooled down the kiln quite a bit and forced me to raise the temperature by opening all the air holes again. This action made a lot of the coal burn but allowed a bit more tar to come out.
Some numbers:
Eventually I collected around two liters (0,5 gallon) of brown tar. The tar was mixed with a little bit of turpentine that evaporated within a few days but prior to that mixed into the tar when heated. The preparations of braking pine stumps took about a day. Making the kiln took about a day. Filling it and covering it about half a day and then burning about 24 hours. The first centiliter of tar had dripped out about 10 hours after lighting the kiln but it did not start pouring continually until about three hours later, this is when I took out the plug. When the rain came (and woke me up) about 22 hours into the process tar kept coming in small amounts for another few hours until I called it a day and went to sleep again. The way I see it two liter of tar took about 36 hours to make. Even if many of those hours was spent on other work as well, like making birch bark slöjd, preparing the next kiln or making brushes and such, here is the video where I made brushes: • Brush made of human hair
The second this guy pulled out a custom hat for his pine tar spigot, I knew he was the real deal.
the method was perfect but if you use pine roots and the bowel of the trunk (the bit that goes in to the ground) they contain much much more tar than the trunk (the tree uses it to stop its roots rotting in the wet ground)
You sir are impressive. It did not dawn on me that I could use a method like this to make pine tar in mass with the use of dead/spare wood. Thank you for bringing and sharing this knowledge to us!
Thank you for letting me know, I appreciate it.
Very cool stuff! I like your historical approach and dedication, using just simple hand tools! Real bushcraft!
Thank you, what can I say, I enjoy the challenge. I must say, your channel is cool too.
What a great video this is! Thank you for showing how it’s Done!!
Thank you for telling me, I appreciate it.
The roots and any damaged areas full of resin work the best for producing pitch.
This kind of knowledge will always be useful.
It will, but I also believe we have some of this in our genes, the urge to live close to nature.
Amazing! Thank you for this tutorial!
Amazing video, I really enjoyed it, thank you.
Häftig kanal! Fortsätt med det du gör. Du kommer definitivt se att kanalen kommer växa.
Tackar, ja vi får väl se, jag gillar att hantverka men är nog inte riktigt lika talangfull på att marknadsföra... men ju fler som gillar delar o kommenterar desto större chans... jag fortsätter göra ibland oavsett... men kanske lite mer sällan bara.
@@gustavthane2233jeg har abonneret. Dine videoer er flotte! Forstår ikke hvorfor din kanal stadig er så lille :(
Excellent method! Thanks
Great video. Im going to try and extract oil/tar from birch bark in the near future. This is inspirational
That sounds great, of course you should. From what I have heard the simplest way to do that is to use a bucket or Steel can. Anyway I am really happy to have inspired you, good luck with your tar. Please share some info if it is sucsessful.
Fantastic video, Thanks
Incredible. Very good work.
Thank you😃
Love the sound of nature brother
Yeah, pouring water, singing birds and wind in the trees... and no mosquitoes.
GODLIKE, mr goode sent us :)
I’ve never seen this method but looks like great product I’ve only used the double can method pitched in the fire
Yeah, the double can makes a bit more sense since it only produce the amount you want and does so from a limited effort, it was the only one I had done before this as well, if a barrel counts as a can… The problem with that method is that the tar is easily overheated in the process producing vast amounts of coal sot. That is what makes it so black. In the method used here, the tar is almost red-ish in its dark brown colour meaning it is purer… as in less coal in it.
So cool
If you don’t mind modern tools, it’s pretty easy to make in a microwave. Be sure to use an old junky microwave and don’t let it get too hot because it can catch of fire. One good aspect of this method is that you can get nearly clear pitch.
Interesting... I have been thinking of making clear pich as flavour for spirits... could be the way to go.
@@gustavthane2233 Oh, my, I remember some pine resin flavored liquor from the Alps. Interesting stuff, but it was still difficult not to think of drinking Pinesol floor cleaner. And then there’s Greek Retsina wine, which gives the worst hangovers. But I don’t mean to discourage you on your explorations!
Interesting video!
Thank you, yes tar is a fascinating thing to have, such a versitile material.
Nice!
Thank you
Same method for making charcoal but with catch bason? Cool!
Yeah, but also filled with fat wood and also burned from the top rather than bottom, otherwise the same.
Så häftigt! Jag vill göra hudkräm med tjära, jag har eksem.
Klart du ska göra. Tjära är ju bra till det messta.
WOW!
Rewatched this today again, what beautiful red tint it has, and I love the setup, too. I heard that this used to be a often practiced industry in Finland, too. Today I went into the woods and made some birch tar in the coffee can method. Sadly my yield ended up being just about a small shot's worth after hour and a half of tending to the fire, but it was nice to spend an afternoon outside, listening to woodpeckers and crows/rooks flying overhead. I love the smell of it, smells like fire and smoke...and of course the family absolutely hates it to the point of arguments, pah! What a way to ruin a man's joy of making something. :P How did applying it to the chest work? How long did it dry? And did you preheat it beforehand?
That sounds like an excellent use of your time, I mean it is not as much for the yield as for the time and experience of doing something of meaning.
The chest turned out better than expected, but it took a whole winter for the tar to dry completely. Check out the video, I applied the tar warm, it made more sense at the time.
@@gustavthane2233 Thank you for the reply! It has been a nice afternoon, I just wish I remembered to pack a sausage or at least a potato to cook in the coals, hah! I am rather inspired by your chest, so after I figure out the next iteration of the bellows, that is the next project. Afterall, if I want a travelling smithy, having a toolchest sounds like a good idea, hah! Are you planning to make more videos by th way, come spring again?
@@Erikreaver I do have one more video that I never quite get the time to edit, but I hope yo get it done during the hollidays. Otherwise I am afraid it will be some time before I get to bring the camera ahain... but I am constantly planning and dreaming.
We have all kinds of pine trees here in Alaska can this be done with most pine trees? Definitely want to try ;) thanks
In theory any sort of tree that is green during winter can deliver tar. In practice you will need wood as fat as possible. You can see in Part one czcams.com/video/lq7H_je0VPY/video.html how I collect roots due to their high resin content. Wounded trees and branch roots would also work. Just find out where the most resin is in the local pine trees and use that. The parts of a stump that is still hard after 30 years in the ground are bound to be filled with tar. Good luck.
So the wood in the hole. Was?? Pine I guess? And was it set on fire. Or just smoldering under the pile of moss. And was there a hole for the first fire or is it to heat up the inside and not set the pine on fire
No, the first fire was just to put on the top of the pile. I made sure the wood became coal so I could make the pine stub pieces smolder under the moss in a controlled way. The reason I kept puting my hand in the smoke was to feel the temperure was low enough.
Fascinating! I must try this at some point. How did you start the fire?
Don't remember... I think it was matches. To early in the morning to do anything fancy.
@@gustavthane2233 fair enough
I can smell the bark tar in the distance... Damn that's manly
Greetings
Yeah, the smell...
What an incredible video, thank you. Does your tar have a smoky scent to it when made this way? How would you characterize the scent of what you made in this video? What do you think the average temperature of your kiln is here? Approximately 250 deg Celsius? What would the ideal temperature be? I made some tar, but it seemed to be dominated by a strong turpentine odor, but I was hoping for that beautiful Stockholm tar scent. Is there any way to do something to the tar I made to achieve a smoky scent? Sorry for all the questions. Bye the way, my tar was made with a homemade propane fired kiln combined with a miniature barrel method.
Ah ok, if I understand you correctly the miniature barrel method was a closed system? If so, you are getting all the sot from the process and the turpentine to stay in the tar, a black tar. My tar is reddish brown not quite black due to the smoke transporting much of the sot away. And the turpentine left in the tar separated as it cooled down so that I could pour it out as well. Yes it is a really nice smoky almost salty smell to it, a bit like smoked fish. I am not sure of the avrage temperature in the whole kiln, I do not think tar can even be produced below 300 degrees C. Perhaps ideal is 400-500? But the thing is that the whole kiln is not hot at the same time, only the part just above where the tar is produced. The way I judge temperature is to constantly feel the temperature of the smoke which is suppose to be around 50 degrees C.
Thanks for your feedback! Making pine tar really is an art and science, through and through. I'm still trying to fully understand the process, both the traditional way and the closed system way. Yes, my approach used a closed system, with the 'barrel' being a large coffee tin, sealed to a modified wok with clay, that served as the catchment basin to drain tar through a hole and into piping beneath. My overall understanding of tar making is that there are two types of tar produced from a closed system: 1) the high quality tar from the resin embedded in the 'fatwood', which is kind of gently 'melted' out of the wood as the channels that hold the resin in the wood expand and release that resin; and 2) the thinner blacker tar (almost like a bio oil) that gets produced when the lignin and cellulose fibers of the wood get heated above 300 deg celsius and release all sorts of compounds and vapors that then condense into a liquid. I believe this higher temperature tar has more vocs and hydrocarbons in it, along with acetic acid too. With my propane system, I tried to keep the temp around 250 deg Celsius, just high enough to coax the pure resin out of the wood, but not high enough to trigger the full on pyrolysis that produces the inferior black liquidy tar/bio oil. The only problem is that my low temp tar lacked any nice smoky scent, and had A LOT of turpentine mixed in. I'm just wondering if the pleasant smoky scent comes from the actual smoke from the smoldering 'shroud' of fatwood in a traditional kiln like yours? Or does your method simply have hotter temperatures for 'melting' out that fatwood resin, and those hotter temperatures change the resin in some way so that a smoky scent develops? And the reason you don't get the runny bio-oil like tar (from the wood fiber cellulose destruction at higher temps) is because all of those vapors get vented off through the top of your kiln? So many questions here. Thanks again for your reply, and any further insights.
Bye the way, the first jar of tar that came out of mine was a light brown (almost yellowy) turpentine heavy tar that was very opaque. In other words, the fatwood resin in its purest form. The 2nd and third jars were progressively more reddish darker brown with less turpentine. And zero smoky scent 🙁@@gustavthane2233
@@waver1731 well, I am not sure but I think it is suppose to change into the darker liquid, just not the thick black one, tar is not resin. Have you tried to make tar from birch bark? I have known since childhood how to make tar but never tried it this primitive before. Just before making this kiln I spoke to a friend who sat on the verry same information even thou none of us seem to remember where we got this knowledge. I guess it is just part of the common sence around here. But I do not know the chemistry behind it. As a master blacksmith I know a number of different hardening techniques and pressing a block of wood towards the back of a chisel until it carbonize the wood is one method to make it soft in a particular way. My knowledge about theory from that work suggest that wood turnes into carbon at 300 degrees, and the wood is allways turned into carbon when tar is produced, l have never heard about tar production without charcoal. I did ask around and had alot of additional knowledge back when I made this video but now it seems I only remember a fraction of it. Sorry I can not help you more.
Your knowledge and wisdom around this topic is incredibly impressive and very very helpful. Thank you again. I'm now convinced that with my initial tar yield in my first jar, only a small amount of pyrolysis is taking place at 250 Celsius, with most of the liquid simply being resin that seeps out of the wood because it becomes more fluid in the 220 to 250 Celsius heat. It's basically being sweated out. And it's not really tar yet, as you mentioned. I'm just getting the raw resin. In your technique, the resin also gets sweated out, but the higher temperatures will expose that resin to greater pyrolysis, resulting in more turpentine, water, etc., being evaporated off through the top of the kiln, thus making the tar darker and thinner, and of course more tar like (and of course a lot of other stuff surely happens at 300+ Celsius.) And I think the smoky aroma may come from the smoke that surely must be swirling around the inside of the kiln, while it waits to escape through an air hole. While that smoke is waiting its turn to escape, it must be infusing itself into the tar that is slowly seeping out, just before the tar makes its way down to the drainage channel. Either that, or there is some kind of chemical reaction that takes place in the resin when exposed to higher temperatures that causes the smoky scent. My hunch though is that it's the smoke from the smoldering 'fire' that is giving your tar the awesome aroma. And because my closed barrel technique is basically smokeless, no nice aroma happens. The only way I can test this theory is by placing a small closed can of the actual resin into my retort, and blasting it with 300+ C to see if anything changes. Of course I would have a small hole at the top of the tin, so that the emissions can escape into a primitive condensation system made up of pipes. These are the hypotheses I'm going with at the moment, but I find with the pursuit of tar making, my theories end up being wrong, and then I form a new theory, only to find that one was not fully correct in some way. Slowly but surely though, I seem to be getting there.
I've never tried making birch tar, but after seeing a video last week, I'd love to try doing so. Here is a link to the video:
czcams.com/video/vWthHqsEsi0/video.html
The funnel the fellow made out of sheet metal is very cool. Thanks again for responding to my questions, and I might need to try your approach at some point. @@gustavthane2233
it's supposed to burn down slowly from the top right, without much air vents to over burn it but enough to keep the fire slowly going down ?
Yes, simply put, that is about it. When it started to rain I opened up all the airvents to keep the temperature up, but otherwise I started on the top and did not open the lower airvents until later. But it is not really suppose to burn but rather to char. It pushes out the tar and gas from the wood and leave the coal to be dug up later. One need to be careful not to burning up the tar. That is the reason I keep probing the temperature of the smoke, when it gets so warm that I burn myself, there is fire somewhere, meaning that I have got to lower the oxygen intake, close the vents.
Check out part one too. I was less careful with the air flow in that attempt causing thicker and blacker tar, but also less tar. Most of that burned up.
@@gustavthane2233 alright that cleared things up a bit, thanks alot for the answer ^^
Is there anything that can't be made from birch bark? That was just as impressive.
Yeah I have asked myself the same thing, they speak about the stone ages but I am certain it would better have been described as the birch bark ages, such a versatile material.
Xylitol can be extracted from birch. It's a sweetener. The sap is collected in the Spring and completely boiled down to the sugar.
That burning must reeeek the whole environment
Yeah, but tar is a sweet perfume.
Hello my friend, I am a new subscriber. Extract this thing. What is it used for? I want to know more about it
I know you can use pine tar in homemade soaps
@@ajaywalia1649 Yes and it can also be used to make wood or textile water resistant. That is what I use it for this time. You can burn it in a torch. You can use it as glue to repair leaking birch bark containers and also to glue arrow heads on arrows for example. It is a verry good liquid that can be used for all sorts of things. I have even tasted alcohol flavoured with this thing (not healthy though).
Pine tar has a long storied history of being used in sailing vessels before people figured out how to use fossil fuel oil byproducts. . The best came from Sweden. Stockholm tar.
Love the smell of it.
Is there a non chemical way to make the pine tar thinner?
I would say that the least chemical way of making it thinner is to heat it, hot tar is less viscous. But if you keep it boiling for long it will become thicker and thicker. But what is the problem with chemicals? I mean pine tar is natural but it is a chemical as well isn't it? In the production of tar a biproduct is turpentine, and I always thought of turpentine as a typical chemical.
Instead of milking only one pine log, I suggest putting a couple next to each other, thus getting more tar :)
Thank you for the input, but there is no log being "milked" here. The log is just a pipe transporting the tar into my bucket. The tar comes from the special sort of wood. Here is a longer video of my first attempt: czcams.com/video/lq7H_je0VPY/video.html I had no log there but alot of tar that I unfortuanally burned due to the poor pipe.
Would it ve okay if i copied this idea but with birch instead? Id credit you
I´d be honoured. Of course you should. I have been planning a birch bark version as well but I never seem to get the time.
Great work! Would you say that it would also work to extract tar from birch bark?
Yes I would, from what I have heard that gives even yellower tar if produced properly. In Swedish we call pine tar "tjära" but birch bark tar is called "Ryssolja" directly translated into oil of Russians. It is a different product but smells the same and tastes better, from what I have been told... I have tasted syrup flavoured with birch bark tar and it was delicious. I have also tasted liquor flavoured with various concentrations of pine tar and it mainly tasted like chemicals smell, mixed with iron/blood.
@@gustavthane2233 I have been experimenting with primitive methods to extract birch tar, but nothing gave me a sufficient yield. I do not want to take clay pots (they work pretty well), because pottery was not available for Neanderthals. Maybe I should try it with your kiln...
@ Yes I see, beautiful channel you have built. Birch bark can be rolled up into a really tight big roll, that way they become quite similar to a metal bucket. Before aluminium foil, bark was used fish was cocked in the ground, rolled up in birch bark. The key when making tar is to make the bark turn into coal as cold as possible, to heat without overheating. check out this guy: czcams.com/video/vWthHqsEsi0/video.html he is overheating but this method ought to be applicable with the sort of construction I did. Wood release its tar and become coal at around 330-400 degrees Celsius and I think bark is the same.
@@gustavthane2233 thank you! This is a very reliable method for extracting birch tar. I hope I can transform it into a primitive method in the future.
@ yes, that Will be integrering to see. Good luck
Im curious...why do you call it pine tar when you use birch bark? Is it a mix of pine and birch?
Well the birch does nog give much tar at all when used like this, it is just there to guide the tar to the bottom groove. In birch tar the ammount and quality of bark is quite different.
@@gustavthane2233 Oh ok. I was just wondering. Its something new that I am venturing in to. Appreciate you sharing your video.
As Gen x I love this stuff it has a 1000 uses in craft, but the Millennials are probably asking is it gluten free.
"Wahhhh im better than the younger generations waaahhhhh look at me im so tough"
Hej Gustav! Erik från steneby här, ville bara säga att det var en jättefin film! Vi gjorde tjära på gymnasiet men det var så länge sedan så jag minns knappt hur vi gjorde. Hur mycket tjära fick du ut? Såg ut som att det blev en hel del! 😊👍
Hej va kul. tänk att du hade så roligt gymnasium du. Va fint att du gillade den. Jo men jag fick ut ungefär 2 liter, jag behövde ju förstås inte mer än vad som täcker en verkygslåda men det är kul o ha. Får se om det blir nått mer gjort av det i framtiden... kanske tvål
What uses has the pine tar for your purposes?
Pine tar can be used for anything from mosquito repellent and Liquor flavouring to waterproofing and rust prevention, but I made this tar to coat the tool chest I was working on at the time.
My pine tar seems to have water in it and it wont harden(if it's supposed to) any help?
Yes, it is not water but turpentine; a valuable thinner that can be used for all sorts of stuff... it will evaporate within a week if you leave the tar in a container without a lid on. It will also solve into your tar if you heat it but it will separate as soon as it cools down. Yes it makes the tar harden really slow, but it hardens eventually. As far as I know that gives a more flexible tar surface that is also drawn deeper into the wood, less lacquer-like.
@@gustavthane2233 it wasnt flammable and I'm pretty sure turpentine is. I poured it out while mixing the tar at the same time and it was orange and smelled like the tar. The tar rn still hasnt hardened, I've been told to heat it up to evaporate everything out and it should be good, do you think this would work? Thank you for the help
@@darthanubis4204 Yes I had a lot of it to... but red as wine, not orange. Mine evaporated by itself within a week. Boiling tar is a common practice and it makes it thicker and useful for other purposes. I see no problem with doing that. Depending on the water content of your wood I guess some of the water may have mixed with the turpentine and tar.
What kind of wood did you use?
It is pine root.
Hello
I am wanting to make pine tar to use on my horses feet
I have 5-6 huge pines in my yard with lots of sap and resin oozing out of them plus plenty of dead stuff to work with
This is amazing
But I need a little simpler method and plus I'm in eastern WA. So I don't have the moss and dampness to work with ...
Any suggestions ?
I mean no offense
I REALLY appreciate your skill and usefulness of what's been given to us
Thanks
Nice! This is better man! Perfect amount for my roof. But now you have to make a road lmao.
Если надо много смолы и меньшими трудозатратами можно порезать ствол живой сосны до слоя где течёт смола и подставить воронку из бересты. Сделать таким образом несколько деревьев. Так добывали сосновую смолу позднее викингов. m.czcams.com/video/eOAXg0-NFWY/video.html&pp=ygUi0JTQvtCx0YvRh9CwINGB0LzQvtC70Ysg0YHQvtGB0L3Riw%3D%3D
Ah yes I did that some time ago but I did not get as much as I thought, it must have been the wrong time of the year or something.
The rolled up pants was a good touch, makes me want to get a Starbucks after pounding sone craft beers
Yeah, need to work with the details 😉
Shit, I will just order some up off amazon.
yeah, sounds simpler... what will you use it for?
@@gustavthane2233 Is for my old ladies chastity belt.
@Travis k Here is an idea: why not order a chastity belt up off amazon? complete with the tar and everything, that way you won´t need to order up the tar to begin with. ah? ah? blows one´s mind does it?
So basically it’s a primitive distillation process?
well, some of the tar is destilled from the smoke but compared to moonshine it is not about concentrating the liquid but rather to get it out of the wood and to chemically change it... somehow. Too low a temperature and it is just resin pouring out and that is not good, to high and everything burns filling the tar with ashes and sot which is not good either.
You don't explain anything. Why or what reason to the method..... so nope!
But I do. Over 900 words. First i describe the context, that this is an old Swedish way of making tar, then I get into the hands-on method of what I did and then eventually a short section about the resulting tar... so yup 😀
That burning must reeeek the whole environment
That burning must reeeek the whole environment