Pine Pitch Glue: How to Make Pine Resin Glue and a Pitch Stick

What is pine pitch glue?

Conifers such as pine and spruce produce resin to seal wounds in their bark. Fresh resin is clear and runny. Exposed to air, it slowly thickens and hardens into amber-coloured lumps. Pure resin is sticky when warm but brittle when cold: it cracks like glass when the joint flexes. Mixing in fine charcoal powder, a filler, changes that. The charcoal stiffens the warm glue, reduces stickiness on your fingers and makes the hardened glue tougher.

That mixture is pitch glue, also called pine pitch, resin glue or simply pitch. Traditional recipes often added other fillers and binders, such as fine plant fibre, ground bark or dried animal dung. For a camp version you need just two ingredients, plus one optional extra:

• Resin from spruce, pine or another conifer: the glue itself.
• Charcoal from your fire, crushed to powder: the filler.
• Beeswax (optional), a small amount: makes the glue less brittle.

Pitch glue is a thermoplastic: warm it and it softens, cool it and it sets. There is no curing time and no chemical reaction, and that is why one pitch stick can be used again and again. The same property means it softens on a hot day in the sun and becomes brittle in hard frost.

How strong is pitch glue?

Strong enough for jobs where it fills gaps and is held mechanically: a point set into a slotted shaft and bound with cord, a sealed seam on a bark container, a coated whipping on the end of a rope. It is not a structural adhesive. Do not trust it alone on anything that carries your weight, takes heavy blows or holds a cutting edge to a handle. It is best seen as a gap-filling, waterproof sealant and binder that works together with lashings and good fits.

Which trees give the best resin?

Almost any conifer resin works. In Europe and much of North America the most common sources are spruce and pine, because both bleed visibly where bark is damaged. You do not need to know the species, but you should know the difference between conifers and the toxic yew. The full key is in identifying conifers.

Hardened, amber-coloured resin is easiest to work with because it is clean and does not smear. Fresh, clear resin is softer and gets everywhere; it is also part of the tree's active wound seal. Very old, crumbly resin still melts, but it may be darker and more brittle. Mixing resin from different trees is fine.

Collecting resin ethically and legally

Resin is a tree's wound dressing. The one rule that matters: collect only from existing wounds and dried runs, and never wound a tree to make it bleed. Cutting, peeling or scoring bark on a living tree damages it and opens the way for fungi and insects. Historically, resin was tapped commercially by cutting trees on purpose. That is not something to copy in the woods.

Good places to find resin

• Storm damage and broken branches: the tree has bled and sealed the wound; the runs below are often hard and easy to lift.
• Stumps after forestry work: resin collects on the cut surface. Ask before taking anything from a working forest.
• Fallen trees and firewood: resin on dead wood harms no one; logs in a woodpile often carry runs.
• Old fatwood: resin-rich pine stumps can be scraped or the resin melted out. See where to find fatwood.

How much do you need? For a pitch stick a small handful of resin is plenty. That handful should come from several trees. A walk through a spruce forest with a tin in your pocket is usually enough.

Resin is highly flammable: heat it safely

The same property that makes resin a superb fire starter makes melting it the riskiest part of this craft. Hot resin gives off flammable vapours, and if the can touches a flame or overheats, the contents can catch fire and burn fiercely with thick black smoke. Burning resin is also extremely sticky: a splash on skin keeps burning heat in place.

Safe heating methods

• Water bath (double boiler): stand the resin can in a pot of water and heat the pot on embers. The water limits the temperature to its boiling point, so the resin cannot overheat. This is the safest method and works well for most resin.
• Can on embers: if the resin stays too stiff in the water bath, set the can at the edge of a bed of glowing coals, never in flames, and heat in short bursts while stirring. Stay with it the whole time.
• Never: in or over open flames, on a stove at full power, indoors, in a tent or near your shelter.

Keep a lid or a flat stone that covers the can within reach. If the resin catches fire, put the lid on to smother it and take the can off the heat with a stick or pot grab. Do not pour water into burning resin: it can spatter hot material. The usual campfire rules apply as well: fire at least 5 m from tents and hammocks and 3 m from synthetic tarps, and no fire at all during fire bans. No permitted fire means no pitch making. Fire bans and danger levels are explained in when fire is allowed.

Work sitting or kneeling at a stable spot, with the can on a level surface. Wear long sleeves of wool or cotton rather than synthetics, and keep a pot of clean water nearby for cooling burns, not for the can. A small fire burned down to embers is ideal; the fire lay picker helps you choose one that gives a good coal bed.

Ingredients and ratios: how much charcoal?

There is no single correct recipe. Resin differs from tree to tree and from fresh to old, so ratios are starting points that you adjust after a test. The figures below are rules of thumb by volume, not weight.

Making the charcoal powder

Take charcoal from your own fire once it has burned down: pieces that are black all the way through, with no brown wood left inside. Let them cool completely. Wrap them in a scrap of cloth or bark and crush them between two stones, then grind until you have a fine, flour-like powder. Coarse grit makes lumpy, weak glue. Hardwood charcoal works well, but any well-charred wood will do. Never use barbecue briquettes with additives.

Beeswax: optional

A small piece of beeswax, as a rule of thumb no more than about a tenth of the resin volume, makes the glue less brittle, especially in cold weather. Too much wax makes it soft and greasy. If you have none, leave it out: resin and charcoal alone make perfectly good pitch.

How to make pine resin glue, step by step

With clean resin, charcoal powder and a safe heat source ready, mixing takes about ten to twenty minutes. Use a can you never want to cook in again: resin does not wash out. A small steel food can with a wire handle bent from a coat hanger or a stick through two holes works well.

Cleaning resin before melting

The less dirt you melt, the less you have to fish out. Spread your resin on a flat stone or a piece of bark, pick out obvious bark flakes, needles and insects, and break big lumps into pieces about the size of a pea. Small pieces melt evenly, so you need less heat and less time over the fire. Wet resin spits when heated; let it dry in the sun or in your pocket first.

Don't overheat it

Heating resin for a long time drives off its volatile components and makes the pitch harder and more brittle. Those vapours are flammable and irritate the eyes and lungs. Keep the heat low, the session short and your face out of the smoke, and work in the open air with the wind at your back. If the resin starts to smoke heavily, take it off the heat.

How to make a pitch stick

A pitch stick is the traditional way to store and carry pitch glue: a short stick with a thick blob of hardened pitch on one end. To use it, warm the blob, dab it on, and let it set again. A stick of about 20–30 cm, pencil to finger thick, gives you a handle long enough to keep your fingers away from the heat.

You can also pour leftover pitch into a mould, such as a twist of foil or a small tin, and break off pieces later. Never press hot pitch into shape with bare fingers: wet a flat stick or your knife spine and use that instead. Scrape any pitch left in the can into a final blob before it sets, or keep the can as your dedicated pitch pot.

Testing and adjusting the mix

Before you make the whole batch into a pitch stick, test a drop. Put a little pitch on a cold stone or drip it into cold water, wait a minute, then check it.

• Press with a thumbnail: good pitch is firm and leaves at most a slight dent. If it is soft and gummy, add charcoal.
• Bend or knock it: if it shatters at once, it is too brittle. Add a little resin or a small piece of beeswax.
• Touch it: cold pitch should not stick to your fingers. If it does, add charcoal or heat it a little longer.
• Stretch it warm: warm pitch should pull into a short, thick thread, not run like syrup.

What can you use pitch glue for?

• Hafting: the archaeological classic. Points were set into a slotted shaft, bound with sinew or plant fibre and sealed with pitch. For camp crafts the same method fixes a point to an arrow shaft or a fish spear, or a bone or antler piece to a handle. Bind first, then seal the binding.
• Sealing seams: pitch closes leaks in birch bark containers, baskets and wooden boxes. Warm the seam a little and work the pitch into the gap. Do not use it where hot food or drink touches the pitch: heat softens it.
• Waterproofing bindings: a thin coat over a whipping, a lashing or the end of natural cordage keeps out water and stops fraying.
• Small repairs: filling a crack in a wooden handle, fixing a loose ferrule, sealing a split in a bark sheath. For gear made of synthetic fabric, a proper patch from your repair kit is better: pitch is stiff and cracks when fabric flexes.
• Fire lighting: pitch burns hot and long, like fatwood. A pitch stick lights from a match and burns like a torch for a short while; shavings or crumbs of hard resin added to tinder help in damp weather.

What pitch glue is not for

Do not use pitch to fix an axe or hatchet head. A head is held by a tight fit and a wedge, and a loose head must be re-wedged or rehung, as shown in replacing an axe handle. Likewise, a broken knife handle needs a real repair, not a blob of pitch. Glue that softens in the sun is no substitute for a sound mechanical joint on a tool that you swing or cut with.

How to use a pitch stick for hafting and repairs

Pitch only sticks to clean, dry surfaces, and it grips better on rough ones. Prepare the joint before you warm the stick, so the glue does not set before you are ready.

For a smooth finish, pass the hardened joint briefly near the embers again so the surface melts slightly and flows. Excess pitch can be scraped off cold with the knife spine. To undo a pitch joint, warm it until it softens and pull the parts apart.

Storing pitch and cleaning your hands

Hardened pitch keeps for a long time. Store the pitch stick so that it cannot glue itself to the rest of your kit: in a small tin, wrapped in paper or a piece of bark, or in its own bag. Keep it out of hot cars and direct sun, where it can soften and stick. In hard frost it becomes brittle, so protect it from knocks in winter.

Getting resin and pitch off your hands

Water and soap alone barely touch resin. Rub your hands with a little oil or fat first, such as cooking oil, butter or lard from your camp kitchen, until the resin dissolves and rolls off, then wash with soap and warm water. Wipe tools and blades with oil or alcohol, as described in tool care, always from the spine side. On clothing, pitch is very hard to remove, so wear old clothes for this job.

Pitch glue with children

Pitch glue is not a craft for young children. Hot resin sticks to skin and causes deep burns, and the can is a fire risk. That does not mean children cannot take part. Younger children can help find old resin runs on a walk and learn why we never cut trees. Older children can crush charcoal and test cold drops. An adult does all heating, stirring and dipping, and keeps children at a safe distance from the hot can.

Teenagers with experience around fire can make their own pitch stick under close supervision, with long sleeves and a pot of cool water nearby. Age guidance and fire rules for groups are in campfires with children.

Troubleshooting pitch glue