Something old that is still better than the stuff you find in the labs and on the shelves at Walmart

Pine Tar is something most people don’t think about, just because it is dark most shun it and want to use colorful products in cute bottles and jars.

But for the person who wants to become self-sufficient and survive in the wild, it is an essential material that has 1001 uses. They run the gamut for sealing your shelter from the wind and rain. It protects your tools and weapons. It provides hair care and soap that helps fight skin problems. This is just the shortlist.

Today, we are going to learn what it is, how to harvest it, process it, and then some of the benefits of using it besides causing scandals in the game of baseball though it is good on baseball bats as well. Fortunately, there are many more uses than that, and on the uses of Pine Tar and Pine products, there are over 200 videos that can make you Pine Tar Savvy in no time.

We’ve selected some that will illustrate just how versatile Pine Tar is.

When you are through reading, you will be better equipped to survive outside in the wild without depending on modern conveniences that can go away without warning in these days of Eco-threats, storms, and man-made catastrophes. Pine Tar extracts easily and once you start using it you’ll never buy the products that cost big bucks for as you can do the same with a product made DIY from wood you found on the ground.

You are now on your way to becoming self-sufficient.

How To Make Pine Tar & What To Do With It

What Is Pine Tar?

Pine Tar is the partially carbonized product made from the wood and sap of the Pine Tree. The usual source for pine tar is from pine stumps and roots. That’s because when the tree dies, the resins concentrate in these areas. For example, if you were to want to harvest Fatwood you would cut the core area of a stump as it holds the most resin.

The uses for Pine Tar waterproofs rope and makes Paracord less slippery. It is the perfect fuel for a DIY Riki torch, and you can make the wick from cordage you whip up from some tree bark or grass. You can use this oil-like substance for many other purposes that we will show you later.

But first, we need to separate from the wood in pine tar production we want to extract the resins, and we use dry distillation to render the wood to get the most Pine Tar possible. In this article, we want to get the Pine Tar to flow out of the wood into a suitable container as we are about to show you.

Extracting It

The process is quite simple. Place small pieces of pine wood, cones, and Fatwood into a metal container. An old iron pot, Dutch Oven, tub, etc…

Seal it leaving a small opening to let the liquid drain out. You can construct a small trough to collect this and set it at a slope that lets it all flow down to a collecting container. Close off the metal container, if the lid doesn’t seal then cover it with mud or clay.

Stack wood around it. Keep the area around the collection area free. You then start the wood-burning. After a few minutes, you will see a liquid moving down the trough and there you have it. You can collect two to 3 cups of Pine tar in this way, and that goes a long way.

Benefits And Uses Of Pine Tar?

Hair Care

Taking a mixture of 1 tsp of Coal Tar, 1/4 Tsp of Cayenne red pepper 1/2 cup of coconut oil is one of the best air restorers, and scalp invigorates on the planet. It increases blood flow to the follicle of each hair and scrubs the scalp clean of dirt and dead skin cells. It also helps get rid of dandruff as well. Another use is for those who want Thin Edges, and again you have a DIY hair prep mixture that is almost miraculous in its properties. Here is one version that works wonders.

Coal Tar has antimicrobial as well as antibacterial properties. That means Pine Tree Tar and Apple cider vinegar can help a child who has come down with Ring Worm. It can be used in the general prevention of hair loss.

So you can see Pine Tar allows you to give you a variety of options to taking care of your hair.

But it isn’t just limited to helping with the hair on top of your head. It is also good for taking care of the hair on your head as well or helping you remove to help you with your daily grooming as well.

Beard Care

On the other side of the coin, Pine tar can be used to make a beard healthy and grow thicker.

He is a multiple “Beard Champion” that gives you a leg up on having the best beard possible. If you look at some of the old books on barbering, you see just how important it was to the grooming of a man in the 18th, 19th centuries and up to the 1950s. Check on page 146 in “The Practice and Standard of Barbering”.

Pine Tar soap has been used for a long time, and you can see that even today you can buy a Pine Tar Soap that’s been in use since the late 1800s.

But of course, we don’t want to buy the soap we want to make it ourselves and here is how.

Pine Tar Soap

One of the many uses of Pine Tar is in the creation of soaps That can clean your skin and helps clear up skin conditions as well.

There are many different ways to make soaps and is just one way of making this soap. You can see the lady in this video is using heat to make her soaps. You can also make your soap using a cold process as well.

The Cold Process soap seems to last longer than the hot process. With a bar of Pine Tar Soap, you can then start saving on your shaving costs as well as you’ll find out next.

Shaving With Cold Steel And Pine Tar Soap

This is for the gents and ladies out there who are tired of the high cost of disposable blades, razors, and shaving creams. As of this writing when you go to buy a pack of blades for your cartridge razors you will first off see that the prices have gone up to where it is almost better to let your beard grow out rather than being clean Shaven.

In addition to that, you are looking at 5-6 edges of microscopically thin blades that clog up with the first use. That means you have to replace your cartridges much sooner and if you see a pattern here, we’ll spell it out. Prices are going up, and you have to replace the cartridges sooner. The end result is, of course, you can guess.

This writer rebelled a few years ago and went back to shaving in the day just before safety razors came out.

In fact, the blade that is being used today is almost 100 years old, and it still works as good as any cartridge blade. Going back to the days of Grandpa’s Straight Razor and using Pine Tar Soap has made the difference and now the shaving bill is hundreds of dollars less every year. So by switching to a Straight Razor and Pine Tar Soap can change your shaving habits forever.

But, one of the things that Preppers like best about Pine Tar is that it makes for wood structures to be able to resist water, damp, and make them and other things like boats waterproof.

Sealing A Boat With Pine Tar

The Vikings were the undisputed master mariners of their time, and even today there are few who have been able to match their exploits on the waves. The secret to their relatively small craft was Pine Tar. This kept the Dragon Boat’s hull watertight enough to cross the oceans to Europe England and the Americas.

The formula was a closely guarded secret that if revealed to an outsider meant death. But, today the secret formula is freely given to those who want a boat that will last and remain dry for years.

It consisted of:

• Combine equal parts of Genuine Pine Tar and Purified Raw Linseed Oil.
• Heat to 25°C (80°F) and mix thoroughly.
• Apply warm if possible.

So, when you want to roam the local pond or lake without fears of becoming water log do as the Viking Sailors did of old. Another method that also has been in use on these shores for a number of years is shown here in this video.

In a different area of being self-sufficient Gunstocks and bows along with bowstrings, can benefit from Pine tar as well.

Gun Stocks, Bows, And Just About Everything, You Want To Seal

One of the uses that is often needed by Preppers, survivalists, and gun owners are, how to keep their weapons in tip-top conditions and protect them from the wet and how to prevent them from slipping out of their hands in the winter or it there is blood or water on them.

This is something that Pine tar is famous for and here is the formula that some of the best winter soldiers in the world use, the Finns. This comes to use from the people who know at the M-14 forum.

Finnish Pine Tar mix is a combination of:

• Beeswax
• Natural Turpentine
• Pine Tar in equal amounts

From there it is a simple matter to apply it to both kinds of wood as well as metal.

However, if you don’t want to try it without seeing it done first, we will grant your wish.

Lastly, we will look at one of the most unusual uses of pine tar that have been overlooked by many. But, this use could have direct consequences if you are intending to survive if/when the SHTF. That’s the use of Pine Tar in the sealing of leather to hold water.

Sealing Drinking Vessels And Water Containers

One unusual use of pine tar is the sealing of drinking vessels. Most people are used to drinking out of ceramic, porcelain, and plastic. But in England, France, and Germany Leather drinking Jack Boots. This is also the origin of the insult directed at the British soldiers as, “Drinking from their boots.”

But, if you are in a survival situation and you don’t have the right materials to do pottery you can make use of Pine Tar to seal a leather container instead. You first need to collect the Pine Tar and then turn it into the pitch. From there you line the vessel with the Pine Tar Pitch, and you have an English “Black Jack” to drink from.

You now have seen what you can do to replace your drinking cups and mugs around the home now.

Final Thoughts

The Topic of Pine Tar is a vast undertaking, and we could write a book about this subject. We’ve not even covered making pitch, dyes, as well as a plethora of other uses. But with today’s introduction, you now know some of its uses, and now you can add this knowledge to your survival and outdoor lore that can come in handy if you want to save on the high costs that some of the product you ordinarily use.

Whether you are a camper, hiker, and Prepper you’ve received invaluable information today. We hope you enjoyed your tour of Pine Tar and come back to visit us again to explore other aspects of living off the land in the Wild, as our ancestors did.