How To Make Pine Pitch Torch
A pine resin torch is going to be one of the torches that most everyone will have access to the raw material to make one. Any pine tree will do!
To make the torch first find a stick that you find suitable with regards to length, weight, strength etc. The choice is up to you but ideally it should be green and not old and dried out. Now split the end of the stick at the end. These splits will hold the pine resin. Split the stick 5 or more times. The splits will want to stay together in their original shape and form. This will act as a natural clamp to hold your pine resin in place.
To gather the sap you have two choices. One, find a pine tree and look for any injury to the tree. You can find pine sap on the injury and use that. If you can't find enough that way because you want a lot of sap then cut the bark away from a pine tree. Cut down to the wood so that you make a yellow looking streak on the tree that is about an inch or two wide and a few inches tall. The sap will flow from the wounds and you can collect it in a bucket if you like.
After the pine sap has dried you can use a piece of it placed in the slits of your branch to hold it. Then it is just a matter of lighting it and bam... torch!
Sap does not readily flow during the cold month. So collection of sap is best done during the warmer months so that you have enough to last. But usually you can find already hardened pine sap during the winter, you just can't induce it then yourself. Just look anywhere a branch has died or where insects have drilled holes!
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To make the torch first find a stick that you find suitable with regards to length, weight, strength etc. The choice is up to you but ideally it should be green and not old and dried out. Now split the end of the stick at the end. These splits will hold the pine resin. Split the stick 5 or more times. The splits will want to stay together in their original shape and form. This will act as a natural clamp to hold your pine resin in place.
To gather the sap you have two choices. One, find a pine tree and look for any injury to the tree. You can find pine sap on the injury and use that. If you can't find enough that way because you want a lot of sap then cut the bark away from a pine tree. Cut down to the wood so that you make a yellow looking streak on the tree that is about an inch or two wide and a few inches tall. The sap will flow from the wounds and you can collect it in a bucket if you like.
After the pine sap has dried you can use a piece of it placed in the slits of your branch to hold it. Then it is just a matter of lighting it and bam... torch!
Sap does not readily flow during the cold month. So collection of sap is best done during the warmer months so that you have enough to last. But usually you can find already hardened pine sap during the winter, you just can't induce it then yourself. Just look anywhere a branch has died or where insects have drilled holes!
Back to Torches
