I read a lot about urushiol and where to get it from, as I'm from North America I was looking for alternatives to the asian lacquers shown on the internet. I wanted something that would be native to my area so I considered poison sumac but apparently poison sumac would be the worst type of tree to extract it from. it is the most toxic tree in north america, the areas where these type of trees are found makes it a pain in the ass to harvest said tree, and the configuration of the tree makes it difficult to not get the rest of your body in contact with the tree. plus they say the sap is way more watery in terms of ratio of urushiol /water compared to traditional asian trees that do have urushiol.
ive seen then, switched my approach and think of harvesting pine and spruce resin, to either mix with beeswax or lindseed oil. i know the finish wont be lacquer like and will have to be applied throughout the years but i still think it is the more natural and easiest way to acheive the results i want.
other types of lacquers I learned about that did not contain urushiol were insects based, and I do not intend to start a colony of insects to harvest their secretions.
if you guys have different results and experiences i'd like to kbnow about it,
thanks,
