General discussion > Contemporary Accoutrements

Pine Tar Pitch??

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Darrin McDonal:
Here is one mothod for collecting pine pitch. It is an old, traditional method but not too complicated either.
First you take a metal or iron pot. The type like an iron kettle ( not dutch oven-it has the wrong shape) works the best. Pack it tight full of fatwood sticks, standing straight up if that makes sense. Now the way it used to be done is you would turn that tightly packed kettle upside down on a flat rock. The rock was slanted a little bit and there was a shallow groove chiseled in the rock to act as a trough or spout to channel the pitch from under the kettle to the edge of the rock to collect it as it ran out.  next you build a fire on and around the kettle to heat up that fatwood. The fire does not need to be a bon fire but steady heat is best.
Does this make sense???? Hope so.
Darrin

Clark Badgett:
Darrin that method makes perfect since as it is basically a rough charcoal retort, but the low heat would cook out the tar instead of turn it to gas that would need to be recooled by the water. Enclose the kettle and put a small exhaust vent on it that had a hose into some water and it would do the same, much more efficiently.

Pine Tar specifically needs pine wood to do this, but most plants it.

Darrin McDonal:
I am not sure what you mean by a retort but it sound like a simple still to me. I', sorry but I'm not sure I follw you but I'm listening??Why turn it into a vapor and then convert it to a liquid instead of just collect the tar/pitch running out??
D

Clark Badgett:

--- Quote ---Why turn it into a vapor and then convert it to a liquid instead of just collect the tar/pitch running out??
--- End quote ---

Tar is only one of the by products. Keep distilling the exhaust and you can even get a form of gas, called producer gas. You can also vent the exhaust around back into the fire that is heating the retort (basically an oven) to use less fuel to produce the charcoal. Just read a neat book on this subject not too long ago.

Dphariss:

--- Quote from: Darrin McDonal on September 18, 2008, 10:55:22 PM ---I am not sure what you mean by a retort but it sound like a simple still to me. I', sorry but I'm not sure I follw you but I'm listening??Why turn it into a vapor and then convert it to a liquid instead of just collect the tar/pitch running out??
D

--- End quote ---

For some processes a retort is more like a hi temp sealed oven. In other processes its a still. It is often used "dry" at higher temps where as a whiskey still is a "wet" still used in the temperature range of boiling water.

In making charcoal for BP for example they did not want to remove all the volatile components of the wood so temperature and atmosphere are controlled. Creosote is an important component in making BP. Burning (cooking?) the charcoal in a way that reduces the creosote levels too far makes for a powder with undesirable characteristics for a propellant. Thus the use of a retort to make charcoal resulted in a much improved BP.
Now if there was a way to distill salable products from the gases vented from the retort in making charcoal I am sure they did it. Or they could have cooked the wood specifically for the distillation products in some cases and simply used the charcoal left over for cooking.
Pine tar making is outside my field of knowledge.

Dan

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