Main Discussion Area > Arrows
cooking pitch
wolfsire:
I've noticed that wax will make it less brittle, but to see that i need a piece 1/2" x 3" with a bend test. The waxed will bend more before it breaks. Fiber, in addition to filler, can act as rebar. I've seen that in action too, where broken pieces of pitch are held together by strands. I'm sure both of these make a differences in pitch ability to take stress, but whether those differences makes any difference for practical pruposes, I don't know. I supect proper molding is even more important.
Sleep Junkie:
I am pretty new to the primitive archery scene and the other day I made some pitch sticks or tried to. I started out by getting out my Coleman camping stove and firing it up. Yea, yea, I know. Not very primitive but I figured that it would be easier for my first attempt. There are a few reason for this. First is that it was raining so I was able to work in the garage on the cement floor. Second is that I can better adjust the needed heat.
Next I took out the chucks of sap that I had collected and I put it in an old tin can. I then placed this on low heat so it could melt slowly. From what I have read, you should try to keep it from boiling unless your sap is the soft kind and then you actually want to boil it a little bit to cook out some of the turpentine. If it starts giving off a whitish smoke, get it off the heat because it is about to catch fire. This is flammable stuff. At this point it still had dirt, sticks and bugs in it, so I needed to filter it. I bought a few of those cheap screen filters with handles that will just fit over a tin can or a coffee cup from Wal-mart. I think they are used for making tea and they were in the housewares section. When the sap got runny enough, I poured it through the screen into another tin can that I had on the other burner. You will have to do this a little bit at a time if your sap was a dirty as mine. The screen is pretty fine so it clogs easy but that is okay because it taps out easy enough if you do it while the sap is still runny.
Now that I had my sap warm and clean I got out the ingredients. What I used was bacon grease that had congealed into lard in the fridge and crushed up charcoal from I fire that I had burning a few days earlier. From what I read, grill charcoal doesn't work, but I could be mistaken. You might want to look that up if you plan on using it. I had my charcoal crushed up and my lard ready before hand, so I tried to spoon in one part charcoal dust and one part lard for every two parts of melted sap. There are a couple different ratios on here that I have seen listed so you will have to experiment to see what works for you because I believe it differs slightly depending on your ingredients.
Now that you have the ingredients in there, make sure to mix it up real good. From what I have read, I think it is supposed to be the consistency of runny peanut butter. If that is what you have, take a sharpened stick and swirl it around and get some on there. When you pull it out, dip it in some cold water to cool it off and harden it up some. Then dip it again and repeat with the water. Keep doing this until you have as much on your stick as you want and you have a pitch stick.
Now keep in mind that this was my first time and I failed miserably, so take what I have said with a grain of salt. It seemed to work out okay, but when the pitch stick was completely dry it was still too soft and sticky. I think I put in too much grease and on top of that, I don't think I cooked off enough turpentine. It is a learning experience though and I feel sure that I will do better the next time around. Good luck and I hope I have helped.
wolfsire:
If I read you right, you used about 25% bacon greese. I have no idea if the salt makes a difference. I've found that oil and wax work better about about 5%, give or take. You can remelt and add more sap and charcoal and it should be fine. Runny sap does not need to be boiled to burn off the volitiles, though that would speed it up at the risk of ruining it by turning it grainy and non-tacky. A little boil is ok though.
Sleep Junkie:
Yea, you are right about the 25% bacon grease. I tried to mix it 50% pitch, 25% charcoal and 25% bacon grease/lard.
When you said, "I've found that oil and wax work better about about 5%, give or take.", do you mean that I should use oil and wax instead of charcoal and grease or did you mean that I should only replace the grease with wax and oil? On top of that, what kind of oil do you use and if I am only replacing the grease what is the mixture of wax and oil to one another? Should it be a wax and oil mixture of 50/50 and then added as only 5% oil/wax to 95% pine sap? I really hope I don't have to cut out the charcoal. I really liked the deep black color that it ends up! Ahhh well. Hit me up and let me know cause I am thoroughly confused now. LOL
recurve shooter:
i may be wrong here, but i think that the grease/oil/wax are all interchangeable. i think he meant that the persentage of whichever of those substances you choose should be droped down to around 5 percent. im not sure about the charcoal
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