Birch bark oil

[BowEd]

Here's a little project to make to waterproof your leather shoes or gloves or whatever.It's called birch bark oil.As good or better than mink oil or beeswax.It does an excellent job.Easy to make yourself.1 ounce of this stuff will go a long ways.It will darken your leather some if you don't mind that.It has other very good medicinal qualities to it like being a very good antiseptic on wounds as well.I've never tried it but I would imagine it would waterproof wood very well.It will burn from a wick as a lantern a very long time also,or can be used to help start a fire.
There are U tube showings of how to make this stuff too.
First I used a 1 gallon metal paint can.I put a 1/16" to 1/8" hole dead center at bottom of can.Stuffed it as tightly full as I could with bits and pieces of birch bark.Sealed the lid on.I put a brick or weight on top then too.Got another can a bit smaller like a old soup can with the lid off it.
I dug a hole the depth of the smaller can and set the larger can on top of it.Filed the hole in around the smaller can to dirt level and bottom of gallon can.
I slowly build up a fire around and over top of the gallon can till I get enough coals to completely cover the can.
After around 2 to 3 hours and the coals have cooled completely off I carefully uncover the can from underneath the gallon can without any dirt getting in the smaller can.
And there you have it....birch oil.No need to refrigerate.I keep this jar in a drawer for use.The 1 gallon paint can stuffed tightly full will yield around 2 to 3 ounces of birch bark oil.It has to be birch bark that's used.I did 2 burns.
5 ounce jar of birch oil.


While making it I did'nt take pictures but here's a drawing showing the set up.The XXX's are the coals over gallon can.

[Outbackbob48]

Ed, Got lots of yellow birch here, as long as I,m lookin for chaga I may as well collect some bark and make a little oil, I,ll let ya know how it works out. Bob

[GlisGlis]

In the documentary "happy people - a year in the taiga" it was used mainly as mosquitos repellent

[BowEd]

Yes it can be thinned to use as a spray for that also.Thing is if you don't like the natural smoky fragrance an additive of some sort is added to neutralize the natural smoky fragrance.

[BowEd]

I imagine yellow birch bark could be use also.
The process is much like making char cloth for flint and steel fire making.

[M2A]

real cool. Thanks for sharing. I find this kind of stuff very interesting. I watched a video where they were "distilling" birch bark to for glue to haft points with only using primitive methods(if I recall right). I wonder what the difference in process is between getting oil or a glue, if any. Either way that's something I need to put on my list of things to do.
Mike         

[BowEd]

Yes your right M2A.I think the process to make make glue from birch oil is to just slowly heat the oil mixing in finely ground coal material and adding a little fiber [I used ground up dry rabbit turds]to keep it from getting too brittle.
Long ago a fellow we don't hear from much any more [IowaBo] experimented using willow coal as the best type of coal to use.There is a tutorial shown by IowaBo on the primitive skills thread.U tubes' available  on that but I am not able to bring those up for some reason.

[Hawkdancer]

Neat idea!  Have to give that a try down the track!
Hawkdancer

[Mesophilic]

I've extracted birch tar using a solvent (turpentine or alcohol, can't remember but I'mleaning toward turpentine).   Don't have a whole lot of birch here,  just a few that were plamted for landscaping.   So I put what bark I could get in a jar and covered with solvent,  let it sit for a few weeks.   Evaporated off the solvent and was left with these birch tar crystals. 

I can't speak for the use as a glue as I didn't get much,  but I use it for its medicinal properties anyway.  Being hard I can crush it in a mortar and pestle to add to salves pretty easily.  Works good on certain skin conditions and cuts.

[BowEd]

Cool....A little bit of that stuff can go a long ways.An adjuvent like turpentine is used to dissolve tree resin for pitch glue too.Birch does'nt grow naturally here either,but through the years I've acquired a fair amount and instead of starting fires with it I decided to made some oil from remnants of bark.As an oil it waterproofs leather an amazingly long time.
I still have some for myself for backings on bows etc.I can't part with it really as I need it for future projects on bows.

[WhistlingBadger]

Great idea, Ed.  We have some river birch around here.  Might have to try this.  I wonder if it would work with alder, too--It's closely related and grows in the same habitats, and they're both said to have waxy/oily bark.  Alder is even said to have oily wood, so I suspect you could get some oil from the sawdust, too.

I bet that birch oil smells amazing.  Thanks for sharing.
T

[BowEd]

It has a distinct smoky aroma to it.I would say the river birch bark would work but not sure about the alder.Just the bark though not the wood with birch.

[paulc]

BowEd, I tried your method with some river birch bark and got about 1/2" of oil in the bottom can.  I am amazed! :-)  I heard a loud pop early on in the process, it took me a while to figure out the lid was what had popped.  I had to finagle a cinder block onto the top without knocking anything over in the middle of the fire...hot shins!  I have zero idea what I am looking at...does it look about right?  I have more bark to process so I hope to burn again tomorrow at least one more time....such a neat thing!  Thanks for sharing the info and how you made it work.

Paul

[BowEd]

That's the stuff Paul.Nice going!River birch bark should work great for getting some nice oil.It is rather expensive to buy.Around $30.00 an ounce.I was amazed as to how well or durable it waterproofs leather.
I'm thinking of using it too to apply on bellys of bows while limbs are hot during the heat treatment process for better waterproofing.Not sure if finish like spar varnish will stick to it yet.I know anything will stick to shellack.Another natural finish.
It would definitely darken the belly.

[paulc]

Can anyone speak to condition/quality of the bark for success?  Does it have to be fresh harvest?  Or will bark that has been dried out for "a while" still be able to release oil?  My last attempt was a complete failure for various reasons I think.  Want to eliminate dried out bark before I try one more time.

thanks, Paul