Pine Pitch adhesive

[Buck67]

I had a chance to spend some quality time in a pine forest with my pocket knife.  I collected about 2 pounds of hard dry chunks of rosin.  How do I prepare this for use.  I have seen recommendations of dropping the hardened rosin in turpentine to soften it first.  Before I do anything I'll be sorry for I'd appreciate your advice.

[mullet]

Put it in a pan that you don't want to cook in again and slowly heat it up while stirring. Do not get it too hot, it will catch on fire. Then mix in a little beeswax, ashes, and a little filler, like dried rabbit or deer poop to get the consistency you are looking for. Too much beeswax and it stays sticky, to little and it is too brittle.

[Pat B]

What Eddie said. Do your heating outside. Pine pitch is very volatile when heated. I use bees wax and finely ground charcoal to make pitch glue but the other fillers tat Eddie mentioned is good also.

[bowandarrow473]

I heat it up and add some finely ground charcoal from the last fire, and then some cattail fluf. I do this until I get the pitch black that I want and can see some cattail fluff strands in every piece. I find that this makes a strong, hard glue that has the benefit of me not having to go collect rabbit poop!

[Buck67]

Thanks for the answers.  I'll find an old tin can to heat it in, and a metal lid to cover it up with.

[gutpile]

hard pitch can get brittle when cooked..soft is better..so cook slowly..you can mix ash, charcoal, even deer dropping... I use bees wax and hardwood ash and make pitch sticks.....gut

[Buck67]

I was surprised at the small amount of usable pitch that I got out of a big handful of dried sap.  I got enough globs to make four pitch sticks.  I first tried using a double boiler, but the temperature was too low, after 3 hours I decided that it wasn't going to work that way, so I took the can out of the boiler and put it on direct heat.  That finally worked.  I poured the melted mess over a piece of screen wire to separate the pitch from the solids, then mixed the strained sap with finely ground charcoal.  I haven't had a chance to use the pitch sticks yet.  Looking forward to the next step.

[Pappy]

You will need to add some bee wax /paraffin/deer tallow or it will be brittle. Once I have mine mixed close to what I think it should be, I melt a little dob about the size of a quarter on a sheet of paper, let it dry and if it is still sticky I add more filler if it breaks when you bend the paper I add a little more wax.  You should be able to push your finger nail in the pitch stick.
 Pappy

[RBLusthaus]

You will need to add some bee wax /paraffin/deer tallow or it will be brittle. Once I have mine mixed close to what I think it should be, I melt a little dob about the size of a quarter on a sheet of paper, let it dry and if it is still sticky I add more filler if it breaks when you bend the paper I add a little more wax.  You should be able to push your finger nail in the pitch stick.
 Pappy

X2 - very good advice.

[jeffp51]

The method I tried worked well.  Take a small tin can and cover the top with aluminum foil.  dish it out so that there is a nice bowl shape filling the top half of the can.  Poke a couple of small holes in the foil and add a big glob of pitch in the "bowl."  now light it on fire (outside, obviously) and let the pitch start melting.  This will burn off some of the volatiles and filter the gunk out.  When it has all burned off or dripped through,  pull the foil off and add the wax and filler (I used sawdust) until it is the right consistency.  I got pretty good stuff out of that.

[Buck67]

Thanks Pappy.  I'll be adding some beeswax to my mix.