Pine Resin Glue

Hi folks, just a short write up on making pine resin (pitch) glue. On Saturday past i spent about an hour and a half collecting resin from spruce and managed to gather only but a fistful but not deterred i was determined to make myself some natural glue for my fish hooks.


Today i set about using my gas camping stove and a bean can to heat the resin gently to turn it to a liquid form. The chances are you will not get pure resin straight off the tree as i found mine was full of debris that had fallen from the canopy above, needles, bark, insects etc. To get rid of this matter i used another bean can and simply drilled holes in it to make a simple strainer and a third bean can below this can to collect the now 'clean' resin

First burn of the pine resin into liquid for note a split stick for a handle, very handy

                                                 

You now take the liquified resin from the first burn can pour it through the strainer into the collection can. Be quick here as the resin solidifies soon after coming off the heat and i cant stress enough to be careful not to get burnt by the resin a pair of gloves should be used if your not too sure. If your resin solidifies place it back on the heat to melt it down again.

Next you will need dry charcoal ground down in a pestle and mortar to a fine powder. You will also need dried grass matter ground down and to get this i collected pre ground grasses in the form of deer dung as the works done for you! This has to be dried and ground down also. For quantites i used 5 parts pine resin to 1 part charcoal and 1 part grass matter just add these to the pine resin and mix thoroughly and its pretty much done. You will now need a stick to roll the resin onto and you will need to keep putting the mix back on the heat to prevent it solidifing while you get it rolled on the stick

Roll the glue on a rock or cold surface to make it harden quicker then pop it back into the mixture for a few seconds then out and roll it onto the stick, repeat this process until you have a nice big ball on the end of your stick which can be heated over a fire on the trail and applied to whatever you need to stick for example fletching arrows, applying arrowheads, fish hooks, temporary field repairs, the uses are endless.

 

Fish Hook

Fish hook complete with pine resin to both strengthen it and waterproof it for use

Many thanks, sorry for some pic quality and lack of them as i didnt really have much time to stop and take them as you will find out,

Davy K.                             

NI-Wild Forum Day.

We had a great day with the good people from the NI-Wild Outdoors forum who came along to Carnfunnock for a Bushcraft day.
our thyme for the day was "Fire"
Firstly Paul and Andy took them for a walk around Carnfunnock's extensive grounds to identify good sources of tinder and kindling, explaining the importance of good preparation.
 After that, it was back to camp and everyone had a go at lighting their fire with only 1 match.
After a demo of good match lighting technique (yes, there is such a thing) there were plenty of successes  at the "One Match Challenge"
(I'll refer to everyone in the pictures by their NI-Wild forum names)

Samm gets the fire going with her single match

Next on the "To Do" list was to make Feather Sticks and then get them lit using only a "Fire Steel"

Suspect Monkey carving his feathers.

We demoed Fire using a battery and Steel wool, Potassium Permanganate and Glycerol, and traditional Flint and steel.

Grace lights her "Char Cloth" using flint and steel.

Finally, we had the Bow Drill fire by friction

 Andy from the NIBA shows how to blow a Bow Drill ember to flame.

Oisin tries the Bow drill

Kat showed great perseverance to finally, after  much trying, get her ember.

Suspect Monkey blows his ember to flame

A hearty Lunch was enjoyed.

Everyone got involved in the day's events, and she did have a go at the bow drill. It was tiring work!

Thanks from all of us at the NIBA  goes to NI-Wild forum for such a fun day.

Hopefully we'll all get together again soon.

GM

A few more photos from the day

 

Bone Arrow Heads

After making a few bone fish hooks, I decided to make some Arrow heads as well. All made with hand tools (Razor saw, hand files and sand paper)
I use a Cow shin for the bone.  First I sawed the bone into pieces, then drew on the shape in pencil and sawed off the excess. The longest part of the job was trying to get the bone fairly flat, as the shin bone is round, so a long process of sanding the basic arrow head shape on some sand paper on a flat surface.
Once the basic shape was right, I then moved on to a course hand file and then on to some finer needle files for the final shaping. Last process was hand sanding with fine sand paper.
Next job will be to mount them on Arrow shafts.
gm