Pine tree sap burns

dipbait

dipbait

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Feb 9, 2008
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I dont live anywhere near pine forest. This past summer while vacationing in Montana I noticed a bunch of sticky sappy globs on a pine tree. I figured this stuff would burn. I stuck a gob on a stick and lit it. It didnt light quickly but when it did take, it burnt for a long time , dripping like melted plastic and creating a lot of black smoke. Im guessing its the same resin that is in fatwood. Am I wrong?
 
Yep resin with moisture in it, fatwood is essentially moisture free so it burns better.
 
Yessir that's exactly it !! I've got a couple of coffee cans full of the stuff from a bunch of hikes ad plan on melting it down and getting all the debris out of it.. I'm hoping to either make some torches or firestarters out of some of it.. ot sure what else as of yet other than some pitch maybe.. Will have to look up the process for making some...
 
Sap will not burn. It is mostly water, with dissolved nutrients. It moves up the xylem, and down the phloem to feed the plant from within. When it is distilled, we eat it on pancakes. :)

The stuff that burns is resin, which is a secretion that contains hydrocarbons (and is thus flammable).

peace out

:thumbup:
 
I keep knots of dried sap with drier lint in my fire kit. Awesome combination, and fun to hunt for around your camp site.
 
you can harvest sap too. Wire a tin can to the trunk of a pine tree, then take your axe and make a 45 deg gash in the bark and wood (not deep). Drive a nail into the tree and angle it into the can. During warm months it will ooze sap down the gash, along the nail and into the tin can.

Thats how Dad used to gather lots of sap every year, then he would heat it up and dip a stick into it . The stick would have very coarse steel wool tightly wired onto it. extremely hot burning fire stick for starting the furnace.
 
If you live near any areas with Pine Beetle problems you can fill a coffee can in less than 1/2 hour. Every place that they bore in, it leaves a nice volcano of resin, as well as a massive heap of sap/sawdust at the base of the tree. We gather it each deer season and make various flammable whimsys with it. I keep an old snuff can full of the dust and a few chunks of resin for fire starting backup.

Beckerhead
 
powernoodle said:
Sap will not burn. It is mostly water, with dissolved nutrients. It moves up the xylem, and down the phloem to feed the plant from within. When it is distilled, we eat it on pancakes. :)



:thumbup:
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Next time Im at IHOP Im getting some pine syrup. :)
 
Turpentine is produced from pine pitch, and it is certainly flammable. I wonder how this could be useful?
 
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