Nowadays in modern times the soap is the most useful. It smells manly and it really helps against mosquitoes or city women :D. I also tend to use it on axe handles it gives grip in rainy conditions.
Making of the pine tar and birch oil.
Both are made in the same way but they have a different source. Birch oil is mainly made of rolled up bark of the birch tree. You need quite a bit of bark to get a decent volume of oil it makes it more expensive than pine tar. Pine tar is made of the fatwood of pine trees. Most of the fatwood are in the roots or where a branch use to be. Fatwood is easy to recognize it looks fat, shiny and darker than the surrounding wood.
For birch oil you first need to fill a 10 liter can to make almost a liter of birch oil. For pine-tar you only need a 5 liter can to make a liter of tar.
Destructive distillation
It sounds very high tech, but it basically means that you heat something up without contact to oxygen. The heated wood will than decompose into charcoal, gas and tar/oil. For this to work we need to 2 cans. A big can with some holes in the bottom and a smaller can to collect the tar.
- Step 1:
Make a hole in the middle of the big can. You make this hole with hammering a nail from the inside out. This way the oil can drip down later. Than fill the can with material and close it off with a lid or a flat piece of metal. - Step 2:
Bury the small can in the ground and place the big can on top. They have to stay connected during the fire so place them in a stable position. It should look a bit like on the picture. - Step 3:
Make a good fire around it for several hours and let it cool down. The next day you can check if the process worked. It's all very hot so just be patient. Tar burns are the worst you can imagine so simply don't try to rush the process and wait a day till its cooled down.
A good video about how Ray Mars makes it with very little materials. (A second good video)
If your not a fan of science projects and you simply want to buy it than pay attention it's really pinetar. Most tars are based on petroleum and aren't healthy in anyway.
