Making Pine Tar

Hey all, first post.  I hoping someone can tell me what I am doing wrong.  I have made a decent amount of pine tar, but its coming out like glass.  I have to break it out of the bottom of the barrel with tools to harvest.

I am guessing its my setup causing this, (will ask on that at the end) but the more pertinent question is whether its ok for me to add a liquid to make it so I can use the pine tar without heating it up (looking for goopy consistency).  If so, any suggestion on if I should do water or oil, if oil what type, and the ratio.  Keep in mind I am wanting to use this for a number of different applications, so I will only add turpentine when prepping a small batch for use on a tool handle.  I've got an entire camp coffee pot full so I got quite a bit so it'd be nice to be able to just scoop out some when I need it rather than heating up the whole pot.

Last question is about my setup.  I have a 20 or 30 gallon steel barrel that I seal with mud/clay, but there is no drainage pipe so I assume that the reason my pine tar is rock solid is because I have cooked all the liquid out (can't remember the name of the watery stuff that comes out with pine tar atm).  Assuming thats my issue, what is the best way to add drain?  My thought was a bulwark fitting with high heat silicone washers and copper piping capped off with valve.

Okay, I'm not an expert but I am from a country where making tar was a big thing back in the days. I did some research and..

Yes, the problem is not having a drain to get the tar out of the barrel. In the videos I watched the drainage pipe was buried undergroung for about two meters, to cool down the steam and the tar. The watery stuff (direct translation from Finnish is "tar piss") comes first and the container you are draining the tar is emptied to another container and then the actual tar is being collected.

That kind of raises the question if the product you made is actual tar, as you cooked it down in the barrel with the tar piss.

I don't have any advise on how to add the drain. I do know that you don't need a valve.

Here's a video of the setup if you want to have a look. It's in Finnish but if there's any questions about the stuff in the video, just ask and I can translate.



As for thinning, traditionally linseed (flaxseed) oil or/and linseed varnish was used alongside the pine turpentine, the proportions I saw mentioned were 1:1:1 but it depends on the use. However, as those instructions were for thinning tar made the correct way I don't know how to apply it to your situation. I think you just have to try.


I hope this helps even a tiny bit and maybe someone more knowledgeable will notice this and help now that I bump it a bit!

Awesome vid and response, thanks a ton!  I actually tried posting an update to my thread, but looks like it didn't go through.

I did a bit more research and finally determined that my method created pine pitch rather than pine tar; basically I burned off all the "tar piss" (lol) to make a much thicker substance that when cool is like glass.  I don't think it will be an issue that I burned off all of the tar piss considering that stuff is all highly combustible/flammable so I don't think it would have left over much of anything.

I am going to make another batch but add a valve, I have a lever lock lid on mine but I am not sure if I will flip it over like in this video. I am a bit concerned of leakage, was that caulk they used in the vid?

I am going to heat up existing pitch and add oil to a portion of it to make it more workable.  Would definitly love to get more input on this as well.  Thanks for pitching in! : p

Wil Odin wrote:was that caulk they used in the vid?

The direct translation is "fire mortar", mortar that is used to mason (to lay?) firebricks. Mortar that can handle the heat.

I'm sorry, I don't really know any of the words for these, I'm hanging on to the translator for my dear life. Hope it makes sense.

Hi Wil. Welcome to Permies!

You're doing some cool stuff. Thanks for posting!