Collection and Preparation of Pine Pitch

1.  Walk through the pines - look for white-grey lumps or streams of sticky, shiny sap.  Look for recently lost limbs or animal rubs/scratches.  Resin will also ooze out of broken knots.

2.  Slip a knife under the resin lump and slice around the edges, moving the knife in a circle around the lump.

3.  Slide the knife under the bottom and pull the knife toward you to "pop" off the resin lump.

4.  Catch the lump before it hits the ground.  The less non-resin debris, the better.

5.  Compress lumps harvested, and keep in a metal container, such as a soup can.

Making Pitch


1.  Soup cans work well, with pre-punched holes in the bottom of the can.  Holes should be approximately the size of common finish nails and placed randomly.

2.  For melting the resin, use an empty tuna can.  The soup can should fit inside the tuna can, like a double-broiler.

3.  Place the tuna can, with the soup can inside, on a small fire.  NOTE:  Resin is VERY volitile.  It will turn into a high flame if you are not careful.

4.  The resin will smoke heavily as it heats up.  Take a stick and push the bark/sediment/resin slowly down to the bottom of the soup can.  Push pine resin out of straining holes into the tuna can as it melts.

5.  Once all of the resin is separated from the bark/debris, take the setup off the fire and slowly remove the soup can from the tuna can.  The cans will be very hot - use tongs, etc. to slowly lift the cans.

6.  Put the tuna can back onto the heat source and warm up the resin back to a resin state.  Stir as it liquifies.

7.  Add a filler (fire ash) to bind the resin and help strengthen the pitch.  To 1/3 tuna can resin, add 2 pinches crushed ash.

8.  Add fat, tallow, or beeswax.  This is an additive to keep the final product workable without getting too brittle when dry.

9.  Reheat and mix all ingredients with a stick.  Use a stick with a diameter of a pencil and it will become a "slow match" when you apply pitch.

10.  Keep mixing until you get the consistency of a good, thick tar.  Notice that it starts to harden quite fast.  Take a small glob and ball it up on the end of a stick.  Lick your hand to keep the pitch from sticking to them.  Knead it into an oblong shape on the end of the stick as it hardens.  When pitch is needed, light the end and allow to drip.

11.  Leftover pitch can be stored in a sealed metal container and re-melted as needed.