Survival Pine Tar: Pitchsticks, Fire Starter, Super Glue!!

How to make Pine Tar Pitch Sticks! These are very cool, and interesting way to turn simple Sap, and turn it into a very useful substance! Pine Tar, otherwise known as 'Pitch Sticks'; are used mainly as resin, super glue, fire starters, and quite often used to bond blades to arrows and knives. These are the perfect survival things to keep with you!

So without further ado, let's get started!

So to start this project you will need a heat source. If you are out camping, or surviving in the wild; you would want a camp fire. But if you want to do this at home, you could simple just use a candle. Here I dug a hole about 1/2ft. deep, and then inserted some Newspaper along with some scrapwood. Then, I used my torch to light the fire. But if you were in the wild, you probably wouldn't have a torch... I just used it because it is a quick and easy heat source.

Once your fire is lit, you're ready for the next step!

While your fire is burning, it's time to gather some materials. For this, I need 2 resources: Charcoal, and Rabbit Dung. For the Charcoal, I just ground it up with a smooth rock, and turned it into a fine-powder. What the charcoal does it is allows the pitch to harden easily, and catch a char pretty easily. Then, I took some Rabbit Dung and ground it into a fine powder as well. You want some very dry droppings, because these will help re-enforce the pitch so that it doesn't bubble too much and become brittle. And of course; the pitch. I gathered this pitch from a pine tree, and was able to get about a pound of it. You want to gather some fairly dried up pitch. Your measurements will be about 50% pitch, 50% charcoal, and 25% fine fibers. So, because i'm doing a small serving, I did about 2 ounces of pitch, 2 ounces of charcoal, and 1/2 ounce of fine fibers.

Once your materials are gathered, you can move on.

Now you're ready to start making the tar. By now your fire should be pretty burnt down, almost to coals. So, what you'll do is place some Wire mesh on top of the fire. If you were in the wild, just some green alive sticks would work just as good. So I placed it over the fire, along with a small Altoids Tin with 2 ounces of pitch inside. If you don't have one of these, a rock with a bit of a concave would work as well. Once over the fire, I let it sit for about 5 mins.

So now that everything is over the fire, you're going to want to let your pitch melt. You want it to be almost like syrup, and make sure that every piece of pitch is melted. You may notice in the pictures above, that the two pieces are still not melted yet; so you want to make sure they melt completely. And one more thing; do NOT let your pitch boil over and into your fire. This is very dangerous, because the pitch will drip and catch fire, along with the tin full of pitch. Try your very hardest to prevent this, because letting the pitch get too hot will make it too brittle and unable to use. And as you can see in the images above, it tried doing that to me.

Now that your pitch is melted, and almost like syrup; you're ready to pour in your materials. I added the charcoal first, and mixed it up. Then, with the tin still over the burning coals, I added the fine fibers. Then, I mixed it up and took the tin out of the fire. Let sit until it starts to get tough like Oatmeal.

Now you're ready to apply it. Here I took a twig that I picked up, and started scooping as much pitch as I can at one time, on the stick. Once you do this, you will need to lick your fingers or palm of your hand, and start rolling the pitch into a ball. You will want to do this because the pitch will burn you, so you got to be careful. Keep repeating this step until all the pitch is out of the tin. Once done, you're done!

Now your pitch is ready to be used! You can simply use it as glue, a fire-starter, or even a torch! This is a very great thing to bring with you or make while you're camping, out in the wild, or just want to prep! It's a very handy thing to have on-hand, and I hope you all found this helpful.

So until next time, thank you for viewing and 'Create Something'.

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