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How to Make a Pine Pitch

Pine pitch, along with animal collagen, is one of the two most ancient glues. It begins with pine resin, which is made by boiling the turpentine out of pine sap. The solids that remain may be used for embalming mummies, enhancing batters' grips or to rosin archery bow strings and the bows of stringed instruments. It becomes pine pitch when fillers like carbon and cellulose are added. Ten thousand years ago it was used to fasten projectile points to wood shafts. It has no practical use today.

Things You'll Need

Cordless electric drill
1/4 inch drill bit
12 pine trees
Disposable cups
Untreated charcoal briquettes
Hammer
Food processor
Very dry grass
Cast iron skillet
Wooden spoon

Instructions

- 1
  Drill 3-inch deep holes into a dozen pine trees with a cordless electric drill and a 1/4 inch drill bit. The holes will not hurt the trees.
- 2
  Collect the globs of pine sap that appear below the holes you drill. Measure the volume of the sap you collect in disposable cups.
- 3
  Break one or more untreated charcoal briquettes into small pieces with any hammer. The number of briquettes you need varies depending on the volume of pine sap you collected.
- 4
  Crush the charcoal pieces to fine powder in a food processor. Measure out a volume of charcoal powder equal to the 3/4 of the amount of pine sap you collected using disposable cups.
- 5
  Collect several handfuls of very dry grass. Reduce the very dry grass to small particles in a food processor. Measure out a volume of dry grass particles that is about 1/10 the volume of the powdered charcoal you already measured out.
- 6
  Simmer the pine sap in a cast iron skillet over a low fire in a well ventilated location for 5 minutes. Add the volumes of charcoal and dry grass you measured out. Quickly stir the mixture with a wooden spoon before the pine resin hardens.
- 7
  Pour the pine pitch into one or more disposable cups and store them in a cool place.

Artifacts