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Pine resin is pretty amazing stuff. I once made pine pitch glue out of pine sap chunks I collected, and it's amazingly strong for something that's not availabl
by ravenstine 7y ago
Pine resin is pretty amazing stuff. I once made pine pitch glue out of pine sap chunks I collected, and it's amazingly strong for something that's not available at Home Depot. ;) You could easily mistake it for epoxy. From what I remember, I basically melted the sap and mixed in some ground dried grass and a little bit of ash. I honestly forget what exactly it was that I was gluing, though. At one point I was making an atlatl, so maybe it was for that.
As an aside, pine sap is also an amazing fuel in its liquid state. Once it gets going, it burns like gasoline. They're natrue's waterproof fire starters, and as there were neanderthals who used fire, I imagine they might have used pine sap to help start them.
- wjp3 7y agoWow... from 'atlatl' to the fire sticks... it's like we were in Scouts together. Thanks for the memories.
- keithnoizu 7y agoAnd allegedly you can make the world best baked potato with it, by boiling them in pine pitch, although obviously you can't eat the skin afterwards.
- keithnoizu 7y agoCorrection, Pine Rosin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFoB5OEtRA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFoB5OEtRA
- dredmorbius 7y agoThe Japanese during WWII, critically short of petroleum (consequence of US submarine patrols) experimented with producing aviation fuel from pine root turpentine. The practice would have required immense numbers of trees (the number 1,000, per flight, comes to mind), and denuded forests. It's not clear if the method was used militarily, though there's some documentation that turpentine fuels were used by civilians at the time (http://www.smokeriders.com/History/Honda_History/body_honda_history.html http://www.smokeriders.com/History/Honda_History/body_honda_.... Source: Daniel Yergin, The Prize. https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-money-power-with-a-new-epilogue/oclc/811407310 https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-...