permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>]

On Thu, 22 Feb 2001 11:33:51 -0800, "Yaya Balinci" <yaya@telus.net>
wrote:

>Thank you for all your suggestions Lawrence.
>If I do not have pine sap, then do you think a mixture of beeswax and
>linseed oil would be acceptable/worth a try?

Sure, as Pete suggested. Then there's pine rosin, used on
violin bows - there may be a commercial source for this,
possibly in granular form, at an affordable price. Some
bulk materials suppliers might have this;  musical instruments,
artists supplies, etc. My thought is that if used in moderate
quantities it might improve the waterproofing qualities of the mix,
as would paraffin or wax from old candle stubs. If you burn candles
maybe you wouldn't object to using leftovers in the mix.

Here's some info on resin and rosin from:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/V6460E/v6460e05.htm

"Crude resin obtained by tapping living pine trees is a thick, sticky,
but usually, still fluid material. It is opaque (due to the presence
of occluded moisture), milky-gray in colour, and inevitably contains a
certain amount of forest debris (pine needles, insects, etc.) when it
is collected from the trees. Most Pinus species 'bleed' when the stem
wood (xylem) is cut or otherwise injured, but probably only a few
dozen of approximately 100 species which exist has ever been tapped
commercially as a source of resin for rosin and turpentine production;
in the others, poor yields and/or quality of the resin make
exploitation uneconomic."

"Rosin is the major product obtained from pine resin. It remains
behind as the involatile residue after distillation of the turpentine
and is a brittle, transparent, glassy solid. It is insoluble in water
but soluble in many organic solvents. It is graded and sold on the
basis of colour, the palest shades of yellow-brown being the better
quality. <...> Several other physico-chemical characteristics
influence the quality and these are largely dependent on the species
of pine from which the rosin is obtained, i.e., they are determined
more by genetic than environmental and processing factors." 

<>

The furniture finish I made from:
raw pine sap scraped off trees
candles
beeswax
and .....
I forgot, I didn't use linseed oil, instead:
rendered lamb fat (gleaned from a large roast,
boiled for a long time and well-filtered)
For future mixes I would use linseed oil.

.... worked very well and produces a relatively
waterproof finish ..... for a while; needs to be
reapplied a few times a year

<>

I also made a fence post treatment from:

linseed oil, paraffin and turpentine, carefully heated
in a vat only long enough to melt the paraffin.


Lawrence F. London, Jr.  ICQ # 27930345  
lflondon@mindspring.com  london@ibiblio.org  
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech