Monday, February 26, 2007

Tar

I set out to make some tar two days ago. I needed to use it to make my moss roof patch more dense and effective. A leak in the roof was letting in not only water but some menacing winged pests.
I first had to find a good size boulder, not to difficult up here in old pasture country. I found a nice one about eight foot in diameter with a perfect divet on top. I went had to spend about an hour hunting down a sappy pine to get my "fat" stock. A nice fourty footer would give me plenty and them some extra fire wood. I cut that pine into thin pieces quartered and then eigthed and sixteenths. The "fat pine" the pieces loaded with resin then went in to a large iron kettle. Packed real tight I turned the kettle upside down over the divet in the stone. All I needed now was a piece of steel and some clay. I spent a good six hours earthing up some clay from the river and walking it back 50lbs at a time. The steel had to come from the cooking sheet that was on its way out anyhow. Under that kettle I slipped the steel with a slight bend in it to run off that tar once it got going. Around the outer rim between the kettle and the stone I packed a good amount of clay to keep my stock from burning. Next I satrted up a nice fireall around the kettle, I kept it burning with the dryer top part of the tree and some extra fire wood I had around. It took a while, I probably could have gotten the fire a bit hotter. but the tar was flowing with no real complaints. I saved about a quart of tar in an old tea kettle and was able to use it right away. Works pretty good.

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