Making a tar kiln the old fashioned way

Tar can be found in any sort of fat wood but getting it out of the wood, enough to coat a wooden chest, can be a bit of a venture. Previously I have sometimes made tar using a large bucket or sheet metal to guide the tar to the correct place and to keep the fire out. This is my first attempt to make tar without such devices. All I have to begin with are the tools made in previous videos and the forest and fire. And in a way that is enough. Some experience would have been nice to but hey, this is how you get that.
I have no idea where I learned about this method, I worked in a museum in my teens and have always been active in boys and girls scout, I probably picked it up at one of those places. And then I have also called up some of my friends and colleagues to freshen up the memory. What is special about this method is that the resin in the wood turns into tar when the charing fatwood heats up more fatwood coaling to become char coal. That means that the tar is heated up when made but then cooled down almost immediately after pouring out of the kiln. From what I have heard that makes particularly qualitative tar; red-ish brown tar, not black.
But this is a video about the kiln, not the tar. In this attempt I did not get very much tar and the tar I got was dark in colour due to extensive fire inside of the kiln. Fire is a problem in a kiln since it makes it too hot. Fire and extensive heat also produces coal dust making the tar black, thick and less ideal for treating wood. The kiln dirt eventually fell down in its lower parts making most of the tar pour out into the dirt.
It is also a video about the tools needed to make a kiln that works, particularly digging tools and a bucket. Without a bucket or other container tar manufacturing can not be made in these quantities.
Two episodes into the future there will be proper amounts of red-ish tar made in this kiln.
The fatwood is Swedish fir root where the parts with lesser resin are rotten away and only fat wood is left. There were the roots of six or seven trees and each log was split into a proper size to allow useful forging coal as well as tar. In the mound/ditch every log is then placed in a pattern that allow liquids to pour down to the bottom as effortless as possible. The main problem in this burn was that too much air came in through the bottom hole too early in the process. That led to fire in the mound and that the heat came to the bottom of the ditch before coaling the wood above. Next time there will be less air in the mound early in the process.

[@nobodxy]

Ah i can smell this video. Love it

[@gustavthane2233]

Yeah, the smell of warm tar...

[@ponderous_tomes]

love your channel, i hope you upload more soon !

[@patrickvaughan432]

Underrated channel. Glad I came across it. Keep it up!

[@gustavthane2233]

Thank you, I will😀

[@darkdoctoruploads7484]

I had a very stressful day and came across this absolutely breathtakingly shot and informative video that really made me feel alot calmer and better as a result so all I can say is thank you. This is very very well made and something I never knew I wanted to learn about but I'm so glad I did

[@gustavthane2233]

Thank you, it means a lot to hear that it helped you to calm down on a stressful day. That was one of my main concerns when making the videos; to welcome people into the woods to experience the fullness of beginnings.

[@RAMUNI-Viking]

Thats is an awesome and truly inspiring video. Thank for your time and effort to show and share this

[@gustavthane2233]

Ramuni I really appreciate you saying so. Thank you. It was truly rewarding to do it as well.

[@danwoodward3786]

The word that's inside the kiln has to sweat not burn that in turn releases the resin

[@tomt9543]

Great stuff! First time seeing your channel, but very impressed! I’m very interested in the old ways of making what they used to refer to as “naval stores” in eastern North Carolina, once a hotbed of this industry making pine tar, turpentine etc.. Just last night I was watching several Mikko Snellman videos, a couple of which dealt with recreating this type of product. Thank you for taking us along on your journey of discovery! Subbed!

[@gustavthane2233]

Thank you for your kind words, I am happy you liked the video. It was a challenge to start from the beginning this way and not use a metal bucket but is was so worth it. That feeling of having done something with your bare hands is really special. I hope to get the time to make a few more projects that can be shared here soon.

[@act.13.41]

I can smell it from here in my mind.

[@anonalpaca2513]

Thankyou! I ended up using this as an art reference.

[@gustavthane2233]

Sweet, I think of it as art as well, good to hear you used it that way. 👍

[@foopadr9076]

Ta på handskar! Mina fingrar fick massa sår och blev sjuk av bakterieinfektion. Har alltid handskar på mig nu.

[@seabournewolf2298]

Why use a pile of dead wood if it’s not even fat wood? Wouldn’t fresher wood produce more tar?

[@gustavthane2233]

It is not just dead wood, it is as fat as it gets. The inner core of old stubs, all non-fat wood has rotten away and only the fatest is left. Fresh fatwood has alot of water in it which cools down the fire and mix into the tar, it might be more liquid but not more tar.

[@Aethelvlad]

Fat wood is made when a tree dies and sends all its sap to the dead trunk.

[@foopadr9076]

Seems like alot of waste. Am sure there is a more efficiant way. Must be.

[@TheLordSod]

It's not supposed to burn. This is very wrong

[@gustavthane2233]

Yeah I know, I let too much oxygen into the bottom leading to fire and far to thick black tar. In my second attempt I handled this problem. That is what part 2 is all about. Check it out at kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4mzmmCEgamGj9Esi=Y-V6RAi1XveBeNWT

[@camerondaiss304]

Nine minutes and 30 seconds in when you're stripping bark from a standing tree; You've removed so much bark-an amount in length taller than you are even-that this tree will not survive. When taking bark from living trees you should never take more than a palm sized amount maximum and depending on the tree and influences even that can be iffy. This is a huge, gross impact on the environment and is not sustainable living.

[@gustavthane2233]

I can hear that you did not grow up on a farm. Sustainable living is not the same as refraining from harvest. I have spoken to the landowner and that particular tree is due to become firewood within a few years so the death of it is not a problem. It is always important to have permission when making an impact on the land. In Sweden we have an ancient law called allemansrätten (the right of all men) saying that a person is allowed to pick berries, mushrooms and firewood etc. in the woods even without permission from a landowner, we may even set up a tent and sleep there for one night without any sort of permission. Harvesting birch bark however, which is an activity that can be done on the lowest few meters of the trunk (without harming the trees at all) is not included in that law, such a harvest may only be done by whoever got permission from the owner. It is only the outer layer of the bark that is harvested, the inner bark normally keeps the tree alive.

[@camerondaiss304]

@@gustavthane2233 I feel like there's a miscommunication here....there's nothing wrong with harvesting. I'm not saying don't harvest. I'm saying, you're the only person who knew this tree was slated for firewood in the coming years prior to my comment. So anyone watching would think it's acceptable to take that amount of bark from any tree and think there wouldn't be consequences for the trees. I'm trying to say you should have mentioned that so others don't replicate the amount you took.

[@gustavthane2233]

@@camerondaiss304 Yes, you are correct. I failed to describe that this is not allowed in the average forest. I must have misunderstood you. This tree is not dead yet, but it may well die, and therefore I needed permission from the landowner, and I was not clear about that in this video. I scaled off a whole lot of bark in the early spring, that may be harmful to the tree. However, what I also tried to say was that this amount of outer bark harvest is not the main problem for the survival of the tree, the time of year is. If harvested a month later or two, just after the leaves fully comes out the outer bark would scale of with a snap and the tree would normally survive. It is illegal to harvest someone else trees but it is normally not deadly to the tree.

[@annanelson6830]

Thanks for this discussion. I wondered if the tree would survive the removal of outer bark when there was clearly inner bark remaining.

[@foopadr9076]

I like the idea.. but I can't make a road using this tutorial lol. I want at least 1 or 10 kilo for my roof man. Comon! You can do better.

[@wulf_95]

Metal bucket with holes in the bottom. Or, better yet, look up Advoko Makes and his video on Bushcraft Oil. Switch out the 5 gal bucket for a big metal drum if you want even more oil from a single load.