Let's Talk About Real Pine Tree Turpentine and BLO.

[64Springer]

Growing the pine tree could prove time consuming.

 

[longcruise]

I'm not short on trees. Many with scars that are leaking resin. Just don't know what to do with it

 

[Redlemur60]

I'm not short on trees. Many with scars that are leaking resin. Just don't know what to do with it

Start here! Save it. Waterproof
With it. Crazy fire starter. Canteen liner. Glue. And a lot of other tings!
Rosin your bow. Make hands grippy for uneven parallel bars!

 

[longcruise]

Start here! Save it. Waterproof
With it. Crazy fire starter. Canteen liner. Glue. And a lot of other tings!
Rosin your bow. Make hands grippy for uneven parallel bars!

C'mon Red! Where's the turpentine recipe?

If it's secret I'll swap you my number 1 in North America Pancake recipe.

 

[TDM]

What would be involved in making your own turpentine?

Old time Spirits of Gum Turpentine is made only with pine rosin and distilled. I’m not sure what parts of the tree are used. Sometime over the last 10 to 30 years what you buy at Lowe’s or HD is called turpentine but it’s a byproduct of the lumber industry. I don’t know how much pine resin is still included. I’ve read there’s one ingredient missing in the modern turpentine, don’t remember what it is. Some people believe in taking a teaspoon of gum turpentine for digestive health. I’ll pass on that. But I remember growing up that we had a large glass bottle of homemade liniment that was my grandfather’s recipe. It was mostly gum turpentine with other ingredients. It was used on all cuts and scrapes.

 

[TDM]

A good artist's stand oil from pressed linseed and truly boiled instead of just using chemical dryers is a good choice for good linseed. Hardware stuff is not really boiled oil like the old days.

I use turpentine to cut my boiled linseed in half 50/50 for the initial soaking coat, leave it sit sopping for a while, keep feeding the end grain areas and areas that a soaking it up, wipe off fully and put in sun or other uv to dry and then I start applying a little at a time, rubbing til my hand gets hot and then curing each application with sun.

Capt. Jas has the right idea of shopping art supplies for BLO and turpentine. You don’t need a huge amount for stock finishing so it’s affordable to buy the real thing in smaller bottles.
I searched for prices on pure Spirits of Gum Turpentine and the cheapest I found was $40 delivered for 16ozs!
4 or 5 ozs would be plenty for a project.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I remember the original Creosote!Man did that stuff stink!

 

[TDM]

I remember the original Creosote!Man did that stuff stink!

Yes it did, but it was a wonderful wood preservative. Power poles treated with Creosote would last a long, long time. There were numerous “pole yards” in south Louisiana & south Mississippi that had the creosote ponds for that use. Wasn’t exactly environmentally friendly. They all disappeared in the late 80’s I believe.

 

[HighUintas]

Real gum turp is made by slashing the bark and outer wood layer of the "slash" pine tree, collecting the rosin, and distilling it.

Hardware store stuff is often made from leftover from lumber production wood (not sure what all parts), I believe by adding a solvent or some other chemical but I can't remember for sure, then distilling. They will also add other solvents sometimes to increase solvency.

Real turps is primarily made up of alpha and beta pinene. This is the best solvent for various resins or gums that would be used to make a varnish.

I'm not sure, but I believe real turps has a little bit of resin left in it, which would help to harden the finish when the blo/turp mix cures.

 

[TDM]

Real gum turp is made by slashing the bark and outer wood layer of the "slash" pine tree, collecting the rosin, and distilling it.

Hardware store stuff is often made from leftover from lumber production wood (not sure what all parts), I believe by adding a solvent or some other chemical but I can't remember for sure, then distilling. They will also add other solvents sometimes to increase solvency.

Real turps is primarily made up of alpha and beta pinene. This is the best solvent for various resins or gums that would be used to make a varnish.

I'm not sure, but I believe real turps has a little bit of resin left in it, which would help to harden the finish when the blo/turp mix cures.

Yeah, I think Pinene was the name of the ingredient missing in “modern” turpentine. Just couldn’t remember.

 

[LANEY REECE]

If you stood by them long it would burn skin (pole barns)

 

[The Crisco Kid]

My Dad told me that when he was a little kid his mother made him and his siblings eat a teaspoon full of sugar soaked in turpentine once a month to keep them from getting worms. He said other kids had worms but they didn't. His Dad also de-wormed the dogs by tossing them a ball of hamburger with a shot of turpentine in it. Backwoods medicine from the 1920's and who knows how long before.

 

[Bucolic Buffalo]

Here is where I got mine. And unlike the photos on their website, my bottle is an amber or tobacco color. I have never mixed it with BLO. The scent is not overpowering. A little sticky compared to the box store type of products.

http://www.diamondgforestproducts.com/index.html

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Turpentine is also the only solvent I've tried that will extract the red stain from alkanet root. Any others have any experience with this?

 

[TDM]

@The Crisco Kid do you use the alkanet dye for cloth or wood?

 

[DuncNZ]

I have bought both natural artists grade Pine turpentine and artists grade boiled linseed oil from an art supply shop . They are both in small volumes of about 10 oz and are a lot more expensive than anything from the local Mart . But they are very high quality , give better finishes and as I only use a finger dip a time they go a long way , I think I purchased the bottles I have at the end of last centaury .

 

[TDM]

Yep, I’m going to do that myself. You don’t need much and I want the real thing of both.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

@The Crisco Kid do you use the alkanet dye for cloth or wood?

I've used it on walnut. It gives a reddish tone. It takes several coats to give the color.

 

[TDM]

I've used it on walnut. It gives a reddish tone. It takes several coats to give the color.

Neat!

 

[Century to late]

The mix I've used for fine furniture and gunstocks is a 1:1:1 pure turpentine, BLO and oil varnish. You can vary the mix depending on temps and kind of wood. I retired from the coating business and bought gallons of this stuff. Another good source is old small town lumber and hardware stores. I've found some great coatings in those places. Generally if the container doesn't list the voc's it's good stuff.