Pine pitch

[sailordad]

A good source of almost pure sap is the cones.  They are covered in pure, clean sap, I've just got to figure out an easy way of getting it off.  I figure filling a big pot with a bunch of them, putting a lid on and just heating them up will do it but it will still be messy and you can kiss the pot goodbye for cooking after

use a large metal coffe can
i always use large metal soup cans when i make it,but my pitch is almost clean.very little debris in it.
i find rows of pines in the ditches where the county has cut them back in the spring,and go collect it during the summer.
big juicy globuals of pine sap  just waiting to be taken and melted down.

[Marc St Louis]

use a large metal coffe can
i always use large metal soup cans when i make it,but my pitch is almost clean.very little debris in it.
i find rows of pines in the ditches where the county has cut them back in the spring,and go collect it during the summer.
big juicy globuals of pine sap  just waiting to be taken and melted down.

I use a large coffee can to melting sap collected off trees for cleaning but they are way too small for getting it off the cones.  You need something really big as the Pine cones are quite large and it wouldn't be worthwhile doing them in small batches

[mullet]

 I take pieces of pine wood and heart pine and boil it in a large can. Then I take a stick and twirl it in the sap that floats to the top until I have a big ball of sap on a stick.

[Marc St Louis]

I take pieces of pine wood and heart pine and boil it in a large can. Then I take a stick and twirl it in the sap that floats to the top until I have a big ball of sap on a stick.

Good idea

[stringstretcher]

LOL...Mullet, I ask about doing that about a year ago, and everyone thought i was crazy.....lol.  Does it give you a fair amount of sap for the effort?  I would love to see the results the next time you boil some out.  Thanks

[mullet]

 Wayne, with a piece of Fat Lighter split up it takes no time at all to get a nice size ball.

[Pat B]

I think boiling the pine cones is a good way to separate the pitch. It will self separate from the water.
  Steve parker talked about a pitch separater(from stumps I think) that the mountain folks used. Basically it was a large cast iron pot on a fire(or in the coals) and covered so air(oxygen) doesn't get in and allow it to burn. I think the intense heat drives the pitch out of the wood.

[Pappy]

Are we talking about pine cones when they are green or after they fall ?
   Pappy

[Marc St Louis]

After they fall.  They are just coated with sap.  The winged seeds would be a pain boiling in water though

[mullet]

 Like I said, I just boil Heart pine, Lighter knot, Fat pine, whatever you want to call it, split up and the sap piles up on the surface. Real simple and easy.

[Pat B]

We used to find fat lighter "fagots" laying around the woods at our hunt club near Bluffton, SC.  We also had the skeletons of big, long leaf yellow pines that were still standing. You could cut a slab from a log an inch thick, hold it towards the sun and see light through it. I has a slab that was almost 4' in diameter and 8" to 10" thick as a table top in my yard down there. Splinter a little off whenever you needed to start a fire.   JW, this is the stuff I've mentioned to you. I never tried boiling it.

[mullet]

 Pat, A buddy of mine down here has made two bows from fence post that were all heart pine. You could hold them up to the sun and see amber light also.

[HoBow]

Anyone ever used coffee grounds as a filler?

[Pat B]

It would probably work fine Jeff. You want them very dry before you add them to hot pitch! 

[beetlebailey1977]

Well now yall have me planning to go collect some sap now.  I have plenty of sources since I cut a few small pines down during the fall and trimmed some limbs.  Plus it should be hard and all the turps evaporated out.  Got the beeswax also.