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!
  • 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 ☺️