Making Birch Oil From Birch Bark - Ancient Medicine and Natural Super Glue
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Bushcraft Special - Using our land for everything we can is very important to us. Collecting oil from the bark of the Birch tree. We used an old pot with a hole drilled in the bottom, filled the pot with birch bark, and placed it above an old soup can that was buried up to about an inch below the rim. A fire was kept burning around the pot for 2 hours and the end result was 50ml of birch oil.
Human use of birch tar, which is made by further reducing the birch oil, dates back thousands of years with evidence of it being used to attach arrowheads, build canoes and even being used as a chewing gum. There is also indigenous knowledge of the oil being used to treat conditions like psoriasis and eczema. The oil is said to have anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal properties because the bark contains Salicylic Acid and botulin, which are part of the tree’s natural defense system.
Here's an article about the chemist and indigenous professor teaming up to study birch oil:
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This video was incredible! Very well done.👏 So much information and very fascinating. The bark is sustainably harvested as well. 🙏
Thanks for the shout out! 👍👊🙏
It is important to note that the can used to collect the oil does not have any coatings. Some cans are coated with plastic or Teflon. When exposed to heat, these coatings can contaminate the good oil and potentially cause health issues.
That "ash" left in the pot is high energy char for starting fires. You can make char from organic cloth (cotton), wood, bark, dense grass, etc in a partially sealed metal container just like you did. It's one of the best ways to start a fire from a simple spark. Save that stuff for emergency SHTF situations.
Excellent video! Birch tar is a traditional medicine medicine in my homecountry, Finland. My grandfather from my mother´s side used to make tar from pine wood and he made also healing clay which he boiled in a bowl made of turnip! -How about that!? LOL!
A bowl made of turnip - VERY COOL!!
Good attempt! There should have been close to a liter of oil there, I think you had this going too hot and for too long. The fact that you had such a big hole after the handle fell off, also didn't help. Ideally the bark does not catch fire. You can also aid the procedure by stacking the birch upright, instead of laying it flat, this will help in draining the oil down quicker. Also, make sure the hole in the bark vessel is cone shaped to the outside, like a funnel. It is not a good idea to just drill a straight hole as the oil will just stay trapped on the flat bottom, instead of running toward the outlet hole. You could drill the hole on the edge of the vessel and then tip the vessel slightly...either way. Thanks for sharing!
Will put these suggestions to use the next time we try!
Birch oil is not water soluble but it is oil soluble, same as pine tar. You can increase your yield slightly by rinsing your can with the appropriate oil. I was always taught to never take birch oil internally as it is probably one of the most powerful natural antimicrobials in the world and could have catastrophic results to the natural balance of the digestive system.
It remind's me of Cod Liver oil, it tastes like hell but if you get in a Capsule form ???
@@damageincorporatedmetal43v73 it isn't a taste problem. It will kill every good microbe inside you.
Don't do it.
Also, I like cod liver oil.
I bring my doughter out every weekend to a local state park and teach her basic survival skills so I like watching videos like this . The more you know the more you growso thank you
Amazing! This would be a really fun thing for you to do with her.
I love the ethical way you recommend for harvesting birch bark, great video also
you just made biochar with the bark. add that with ash in soil and your garen will be amazing
Good call
Lol, i made the same remark 😆 good call!
Fascinating! I am going to give this a try.
Gold Shaw Farm let us know how it works out and any changes you make to the process! -A
Glad to have found this site.Been wanting to do this..Thank you.
Good luck!
Thank you for sharing!
Wow, that's something that I never knew about, this old man is really learning some really neat stuff, thankyou!
Great video. I have *some* birch, but not sure I have enough to try this. I need to trudge around in the woods again.....
Oak Knob Farm anything down on the ground you find will work Dave. We have so much here. Can’t wait to tap these trees in the spring! - D
Thanks! Give thanks 🙏 you have freely given may you freely receive!
In order for your oil not to cook and protect it from the heat. What i habe seen is that people bring up the dirt about a third up the side of the pot. That way your collecting pot is completely insulated from the hot coals. Nice video. I’m totally going to look for wind fall birch tree next time and will collect some bark with my daughters. Great video, thanks for the inspiration!
Great tip Francis! Good luck with the birch oil!
Wonderful video, really enjoyed it. I have been looking into harvesting birch bark for containers but like you, I am a little concerned about harming trees! This was awesome to find out another use! Great job 👍
Simple Living Alaska one thing we know, you need REALLY big trees to harvest the bark from the live ones sustainably, without harming them. That tree at the start of the video would be the smallest we’d want to harvest from. We have some much larger trees here that we’ll show in a later video. Those will be yellow birch.
Your channel is really cool. We do lots of similar projects :) I use this oil for my viking age items I have to preserve,leathers and wood. It makes them look nice and it's historically correct treatment for those items of that time.
finaly someone who does it the right way. i hate all this "medival" black smiths etc who create swords, tools and other items, but finally use epoxy or other modern ingredients.
your dog reminds me of mine, as soon as i am doing something on my knees he comes and pushes himself between me and the work im doing. just out of curiosity, i believe.
great video, ty
Dogs are so funny!
I have arthritis fingers became gareld and very painful,couldn't sleep,growing crooked.Gaused up the fingers and duct taped the first two fingers poured birched tar oil. With a very short time pain sudsided.Function returned Fully.Now just an occaional bandaid
with birch tar oil on it.
Now i wanna make birch bark soap!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and method. I enjoyed watching. Cheers!
I love that you got puppy kisses and puppy hugs (when they lean on you) while you were trying to work! My puppers do that too!
Great video. Going to watch again when the lumberjack gets home.
Normally we make tea out of the bark to stay in good health but this is good too
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo 😊
Thanks that's cool. Well explained and executed. Can't wait to try this!
This was fantastic! I wish we had birch trees on our property! I could definitely use this! Doesn't mean I'm not going to go double check the trees just in case, but thank you so much for this information.
Salicylic acid first identified in Willow (Latin name: Salix) Wintergreen also contains salicylic compounds.The original source for aspirin.Sadly all commercial aspirin is made from petroleum distillates. Crude oil. All in the name of mass production.
ooooh! Look at the sweet puppy!! I wants to pet it!!
Thank you for making the distinction between removing bark from dead and live trees. This is a unique video! Where did you learn to do this? ~Heather
Lots of research!! And digging into some indigenous knowledge! Now you have a place to come back to when you want to try it out!
Fascinating! This is awesome to know. Plenty of birch around these parts.
And the aroma of the finished product!! Absolutely intense and amazing!!
I had to cut out a couple of birch trees that my buddy was worried were going to snap in the wind and fall on his camp. Last spring, when I started using it as firewood I started saving all the bark to make basically the same video... BTW, Chaga is not a mushroom per se, has mushrooms are the fruiting body of the mycelium. Chaga is a sclerosis (basically a scab) caused by the birch tree trying to eliminate the parasitoid (a parasite that kills its host) mycelium.
Good info Tim, thanks! We'll have to make sure to explain that when we do the Chaga harvest video. We'll keep our eyes peeled for your birch oil video too!
@@Wilderstead now I have to figure out a new take on the retort... ;)
No chaga IS a mushroom, formed on a scar of the tree. It is not formed from the tree
@@brettbarce8563 No Brett, I am afraid that you have been misled. A mushroom is the fruiting body of a mycelium growth. The mycelium that causes what we collect as Chaga only fruits after it has killed the tree. Chaga is a Parasitic Growth. The tree tries to force the parasitic growth out and Chaga is the resultant blister/scab containing medicinals from both the mycelium and the Birch sap... Do yourself a favour and do some research based in Science, Medicine and Mycology, not just the sales brochures of born again hippies trying to sell you what they have collected.
I'd keep the bark spiraled and vertical so as not to cause the drippings to collect on top of and have to filter through other pieces of bark like coffee drippings through a filter.
Very well done. 👏
I happen to be a young indigenous reconnecting with my roots. and this was very informative and useful knowledge. do you know any more about chaga? Because i know some of its medicinal purposes but i hear old stories and i know it has so much more use and i want to know more uncommon facts about it. seeing you are very well educated outdoors.
edit: the elders are tight lipped about chaga recipes specifically mostly because of an interesting reason i am interested in its medicinal properties
Two questions... 1. Have you ever tried a paper shredder to increase packing efficiency? 2. Have you ever tried setting up a distillation apparatus similar to what you would do for harvesting "Wood gas?" Note there is a TH-cam video on the second one (for wood gas, not for harvesting birch oil) It seems logical to me, from looking at the waste product that they are the same process. Going to have to try it sometime.
Have not tried either of the things you mentioned. Might make for a good experiment though. Maybe we'll try it out.
that sure does help and makes me feel better , now i just need to bring down the cost and time . its just so amazing to make something my dad made 70 years ago and he loved my efforts so much . glad he could taste the fruits of my labour
Wow ! I always admire how much work goes into something like this !!! Love your intro music !!! My husband and I love dancing West Coast , and this is perfect !
Great interesting video.
I hadn't heard of Birch Oil before. That's really interesting. Really enjoyed the video. Looking forward to seeing how you put it to use. Go Green Dream Project!
Almost Homestead Jay, Guy in a Beaver Coat likely knows about this stuff! This stuff was the tar that held early canoes together ;). - D
Dans Bois Homestead Haha! Pretty amazing stuff.
😃
That was very cool! Thanks for showing us how you make this oil.
WOW, WOW, FANTASTIC FILM. THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU. REGARDS . I would cut it/ shred it before packing in to pot.
I know I keep saying it, but im learning so much from you guys! All super cool, getting my creative juices going!
Awesome Angie!
Pretty cool, now I know how to maje birch oil.
Incredible video! Thank you for sharing 👍
Maam, I'm a Micmac Indian I own a Foodi Ninja that does an excellent job... 🤔
Cool! Great video! I have only ever used birch bark to start fires.
Now you know why it's such a great fire starter! That oil is *HIGHLY* flammable!
Cool, I didn't realize this about birch mushrooms. Really cool process to see how you made that oil.
Awesome tip. Thanks for sharing.
Great video. Now that the fire ban is lifted I think I will try this. Just need to find an old pot. Maybe make Joe some beard oil.
Go for it!
O I'll be watching A lot of your channel. Great Info. Love it!! Have a good one!
Glad to have you here!!!
Cool Video 👍
Thank U for the Info 👍
No problem 👍
Salicylic acid, that’s aspirin, so yes, an anti inflammatory something, neat video! No birches here, sadly.
Super Video groeten uit Nederland
The "ash" is also good far adding to a homemade water filter system in a SHTF situation.
Thick is good ,I put it on fingers and knees full strenth.
Good video
Thanks! And thanks for watching Lone Pine Forge - Alberta!
Yes, that's the way to do it!
Try mixing it with the essence of grapefruit peel for an anti mosquito repellent!
Thanks for the tip!
Birch trees here are about as common as hens teeth.. Seem they have cut them out of the forests almost all together.
Great demo on getting the oil.
All the best Dave
Great tutorial young lady, thank you. That's charcoal
Glad it was helpful!
Ok so you now have Burch Oil. What next? As for the ash, that is active coal. It can be used in water filters and in the same way as activated charcoal. When the handle came out of the pot, it turns the pot into a gasifier. That burning gas can be used to run engines. There are three useful functions in this method.
Lots of neat stuff in this video for sure. Our birch oil uses/recipes are in other videos linked in the description and in the end screen. Cheers!
steel cans have a thin layer of plastic on the inside i would recommend burning the out before using it
good idea
Lol
Why not use the ash to make saponification material then use the oil to add to a bath soap??
OMG IM HOOKED , WELL DONE , WELL SPOKEN , very good video camera work . i was just boiling maple sap and really enjoyed your meethod . super big thumbs up . heres a question ?
Great video, though be careful with metal cans as they're liked with plastic on the inside which might effect the final product as a result of it mixing from the intense heat
Yes, it’s a good idea to burn the can thoroughly to remove the lining. We should have mentioned that and we’ll make a point of doing that in an updated version of this video very soon. Thanks for watching!
@@Wilderstead for glue that might be fine but it'd probably be best to use an unlined container for stuff you plan on using medically as the charred plastic could probably still seep in somehow.. no clue though, would probably be fine after a good scrub with a wire brush
thanks for the reply btw :) not enough youtubers out there that engage with their community so actively
Pack an aluminium cooking pot full off Birch bark from dead tree.
Place lid on top and fix so is on nice and tight.
Build fire around pot using wood from more trees.
Keep throwing more wood from killed tress onto fire for several hours.
Get pot out of fire and pour the 6 tablespoons worth of liquid into a jar!
Repeat.
Makes for a fun day outside! Thanks for watching!
I made this salve for a friend of mine, within days it started to heal... 🤔
What is the aroma? Does it smell like wood or ash?
The aroma is like a birch campfire
Cool, will try something out.
Is there a better time in the year to harvest birch bark for tar, or is it good to harvest year round?
Year round is fine. And harvesting from fallen dead trees is your best idea. Have fun!
I enjoyed that..very interesting. Would love to see similar done with clay pots like I am guessing people must have done centuries ago. 🤔
That would be really neat to see!
Maybe you know, but salicylic (sp?) acid is the active ingerdient in wart removing ointments.
A cup or so of water in the pot will get the bark heated up much more quickly. And an old-fashioned screw driver is far easier to carry.
Looking forward to see how you use this
Should have a couple of videos out this coming week with what we have been doing with it. Monday and Thursday are our regular upload days!
She needs to play Salt n Pepa next time she does this so she can push it real good
I had no clue that this was a thing. Great video!
Nor did we until we started to research what we could do with all these birch. It is a pretty cool process, looking forward to making more, I hear the yellow birch has more of a wintergreen scent! -A
@@Wilderstead Very nice! I can't wait to see what you're doing with it too!
@@Wilderstead if you chew on the twigs of yellow birch you taste winter green great show
i wonder if the carbon left from the bark can be used as a filter for something. im pretty sure the large pieces have some very particular filtering capabilities. im gonna try it to see if theres anything to talk about.
il let you know.
Wow thanks for the video shame my pay as u go credit ran out, didn't expect to watch u cut all that bark or give a history lesson, thanks anyway.
You don't have to be too skeptical of salicylic acid, lol, it's basically aspirin.
The skepticism is about the hype of most homeopathic remedies. This particular item, though, definitely holds some medicinal properties.
Probably 2/3 of my forest are birch. Def going to do this. Any ideas on when to tap for syrup? I’m reading conflicting info online. Thanks for HME on Insta! I love your channel. Subbed 👍
Hey!! Thanks for stopping by! With tapping bitch trees, here in northern Ontario, it’s done just after the maple trees have finished up for the season. So in our area, that’s early to mid April. Luckily in our mixed forest of birch and maple, we can just move our sap buckets from the maple trees straight over to the Birch trees. We love your channel and the info you are sharing. Keep rockin it!!!
Salicylic acid from Birch bark is the fundament of acetylsalicylic acid or as we call it, Aspirin.
If you replace Birch with Willow, then you are right.
Very nice video, I found your knowledge of this subject to be spot on. I Wish birch trees would grow as large as yours in my area. I live in the USA New Jersey Pine Barrens and the largest white birch tree I’ve seen growing here is about 6” in diameter. We have lots of dwarf trees. Thank you for making this video!
Thanks for watching Dennis! And yes, we are very lucky to have such large birch trees here. Some are much bigger than the ones seen in this video too.
Is there anyway to make the oil more pure?
Can you also use it internally?
Could you use this on sun burn or as an anti aging cream? I have had 127 carcinoma removed from my face and arms because the dermatologist says I have 100’s of pre-cancer due to a absence of some DNA marker and life time in the sun. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
why stopped the video ?
Nice way of breaking a can
It sure is
As we aged we relied on Cast Iron... The original Non stick pan !!! Non of that Non stick teflon shit that's been known to cause cancer.
That black ash is probly close to biochar vs charcoal. Could potentially be used like a fine fertilizer mixture for water. Might want to check the ph tho. Probably will spike it some on the acidic side possibly
I wonder if the birch ash would make good lye for soap... I’ll research that
That was totally interesting. Do you know if you can distill oil from other plants that way? I'll try to catch your videos about how you use the oil. I love projects like this but it's always hard to get it all together. Good job! ~Janette
The Neals' Homestead , I am sure you can do this with other plants, how effective it is would depend on just how much oil is in the plant material. I have seen it also done with steam, which might be "kinder" on more delicate plants. Will try to figure a DIY of that at some point.
2 years in a row a got a batch of super light syrup that looks more like light / clear honey but taste great and really thick . do you have an answer for me ? i thick thick comes from over boiling but is so light because im using wrong kind of maple tree ?
Hi Alain. Usually the early season sap produces a might lighter syrup. As the season progresses, the final product tends to be a darker colour. Hope that helps!
Wow! This is amazing. I’ve read that aspirin is made from Birch so I wonder how the oil would do as a headache reliever? This makes me want to head up north to my trailer now and try this out. Thanks for sharing!
Willow my dear, willow.
That's a different tree.
De-barking (up) the wrong tree... 🐶
Can I make this in a pressure cooker?
I'm not sure that it would work.
That's very interesting. Can you use the same process with willow (salix) to get more salicylic acid?
Christine Haylock , hey! I haven't seen anyone do anything with willow. Possibly because the bark is harder to separate from the tree... or it might contain less oil. Not sure. -A
That's a lot of time and energy for a small quantity of oil. I can't help thinking that there must be a more efficient extraction method, but it does show that there is a lot of wastage when preparing usable end products from natural raw material.
Very True, but it is important to notes if there wasn’t a blow torch in the handle hole we would have gotten more 🙂
Sure would be hard to pull off without modern containers. They did it somehow.
Probably clay pots or something of the sort. Indigenous genius stuff for sure.
Look forward to finding out what you will use it for ! Can it get too well done, or does its reduction make it more potent ?
TheCanadianBubba good question, cooking it hotter and longer makes it thicker... and getting too thick and hot may make it less pliable. Not sure.
I made chaga tea once and got red dots all over the palms of my hands for a few days. not sure what was happening there.