First, I located some trees with white or yellow resin. Don’t use the liquid fresh stuff, the hardened one isn’t sticky and smells better.

Then, I used the can opener tool on my knife to chip it directly into my bag

Try to not hurt the tree and only remove a bit on more trees instead of massacring a single one.

Look at how much I collected in not even one hour!

The resin was still full of needles, moss, bark and whatever.
To refine it, I put it into a sock/ mesh/ whatever with a stone in it.

Then I threw it into bubbling hot water.

After just a few minutes, the resin liquified and drooped out of the mesh.

When cooled down, it sunk to the bottom

I then scraped it off the pot. It was surprisingly easy!

Finally, I put it onto paper towel to let it dry. You can easily touch it, it isn’t sticky at all.

Uses

  • As incense. It has similar capabilities as frankincense (Boswellia sp.). It’s calming, is great for meditation and smells great!
  • As ointment for wounds
  • As antibacterial chewing gum
  • And much more!
  • Günther Unlustig 🍄@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I made three quality grades.

    I will try the finest one for ointments and chewing gum, the middle grade as incense, and the one that looks like a turd maybe as fire starter?

    The best one was from the cotton bag, the second from the shopping net, and the worst one was the filter cake from the ones above.

    Any ideas for good uses?

    • TragicNotCute@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I’d love to see you try to take some and put it into alcohol as a precursor for home perfumery. ChatGPT says it would serve well as a fixative (and provide some scent as well). I’d be super curious to see you take on that process.

      • Günther Unlustig 🍄@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        It’s good that you already tried to research, but don’t trust ChatGPT for that. That answer sucked :)

        Why? Because resins are a mixture of biopolymers, terpenes, acids, and much more.
        Not one single thing.

        While it may be soluble in alcohol, it will leave a super sticky residue once it evaporates.
        You don’t wanna have that as perfume.

        Also, many of the polymers will parcipitate out of solution in a matter of days. That’s a property some chemists use to refine extracts, for example for cannabis crude oil to get a smoother smoking experience 🙃

        What you really want are the essentials oils (mostly terpenes). You can get them by steam distillation.

        Do you want that I do that? I have a distill at home 😁 lol

        • TragicNotCute@lemmy.worldEnglish
          01·
          2 months ago

          I was just trying to engage in the conversation when ultimately I come from a place of ignorance. I’ll take my LLM and go back to my corner with my bad ideas.

          • Günther Unlustig 🍄@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            No need to excuse, please! ✌️

            What I meant with my answer is just to notice you to take everything a LLM says with a grain of salt. I liked your idea and will definitely try to apply it!

            I’ll update you here in this community when it is ready ☺️

  • Kitchel@sopuli.xyz
    1·
    2 months ago

    I will definitely try this! Thanks for sharing. (I googled a bit and it seems to be an old age traditions. The resin acid fends off all sorts of bacteria and fungi.)