DW:
Indeed; I paid close to the gallon price of the regular Auson for a liter of the kiln burned pine tar.
Interesting comments/insights into the various Auson products. My thinking was that I wanted to get a kiln-burned product, which is traditional, vs. what I presume to be a more modern process (either steam distillation or production of charcoal).
I've wondered about the Auson statement 'high in resin and low in pitch' before. That simply puzzled me -- I don't know, nor have I been able to find, a chemical definition of pitch, and I certainly assumed that the traditional pitch had to contain alot of resin. Thus, my conclusion, perhaps erroneous, was that the 'pitch' they reference is something different from the 'pitch' we talk about. I just don't see how the traditional pine tar/pitch, made from tree stumps, etc., wouldn't have contained lots of resin and various other chemicals. I don't think they did a further chemical distillation of the remnants after the turpentine was distilled.
This article:
www.natmus.dk/cons/lab/tjaere/tjaere.pdf has a chemical breakdown of the chemical contents of a traditional kiln-burned pine tar -- nowhere is 'pitch' listed, although obviously 'pitch' is in there; my conclusion is that our 'pitch' is a combination of a bunch of different chemicals. (Anyone out there have a chemistry degree?)
Here is a definition/description of turpentine I found: 1. Turpentines: A large group of oleoresins from gymnospermous trees. Raw or crude turpentine is essentially the sticky sap or pitch from coniferous trees. In the U.S., raw turpentine is largely derived from southeastern pines, including longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and slash pine (P. elliotti) grown in large plantations. Crude turpentine is distilled in order to separate the volatile essential oils called "spirits" from the nonvolatile diterpene residue called rosin. Spirits of turpentine are used in thinners and other organic solvents, while rosin is used in the manufacture of varnishes and oil base paints (and for violin bows and baseball pitchers). Oil base paints also contain unsaturated drying oils, such as castor, tung and linseed oils. The settlement of North America was partially due to England's desire to rid herself of dependence on Scandinavian sources of resin, since the pitch was used to caulk ships and waterproof the rigging. Source:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/chemid1.htm#resins And:
Tar, a complex combination distillate containing thousands of substances (one estimate is up to 8000-15000 substances), produced by the high temperature carbonization of pine wood in anoxic conditions (dry distillation). It consists primarily of aromatic hydrocarbons, tar acids and tar bases (Simomaa et. al 2000, Lehtonen & Hotti 2001, Egenberg 2003). Components of tar vary according to the pyrolytic process (e.g. method, duration, temperature) and origin of the wood (e.g. age of pine trees, type of soil and moisture conditions during tree growth). The choice of wood, design of kiln, burning and collection of the tar can vary from burning to burning. Only stumps and roots of pine can be used for traditional production of pine tar.
Wood cellulose creates at 240-375 oC aliphatic hydrocarbons such as fats and their esters and
Main components of traditional kiln made pine tar:
- resin acids and aldehydes (e.g. dehydroabietic acid, abietic acid, palustric acid, pimaric acid) 19% w/w
- decarboxylated resin acids and alkylphenantrenes (e.g. retene) 7.5-9.5% w/w
- fatty acids (mainly C14-18) 8% w/w
- phenols (e.g. methyl- and ethylguaiacol, guaiacol, cresols, phenol) <5% w/w
- monoterpenoids (e.g. alfa-pinene, 3-carene, limonene, camphene) <5% w/w
from:
www.klif.no/nyheter/.../essential_use_form_pinetar_nor_final.pdf Whew....
Lance
