Viking Crafts Guide (Ep. 5) Birch Bark Tar and Pitch | Viking Archery and Bushcraft

Important: Study the possible health issues related to producing and handling birch tar and pitch. There is much debate on this but even though it is a natural material it is not considered safe with absolute certainty. In this video I take you along for a very another kind of viking experience. I need to fix a broken arrow and for that I need glue. There are different ways to make different glues and this is just one way. First I extract the oil/tar from the birch bark in a kiln with two clay containers. Then I reduce the tar and mix it with crushed charcoals to produce birch bark pitch - a form of glue. Other types of glue would include hide glue and pine resin glue. This is an attempt of showing how birch bar tar and pitch production could look in a very small scale on the go. I try to use only period items, tools and methods. This is my third attempt of making birch bark oil, pitch and tar and I am by no means an expert but the product works for me. Burning times will depend on the size of your kiln and heat of your fire. As will the time needed to reduce the tar into pitch. The pitch glue I produced here was slightly to soft and in the end did not hold the arrow head well in place. I ended up using a different batch I made earlier to fix it. But with these things the result is secondary. The proces and the experience is primary. Some items in this video is not made by me: The clay containers: Helmut Studer Knife and handle (not sheath): Jesper Christensen from ASK Arrows: Jesper Christensen from ASK Bow: Jonas Bigler Firesteel: Kim Andreasen the Dragon Smith Gokstad Pouch for my firesteel: Thomas Nichols Music is played by me on my homemade Hurdy Gurdy. Main theme is “Langt ude I Skoven“ danish folk song and the slow part in the middle is some A minor improvisation. No animals were harmed during the making of this video. I am not a hunter. I did not shoot for the hare. The wild boars and deers in the end is filmed in Klelund Plantage. The sound is a little funny in this video since a kindergarden arrived at my camp site just as I lid the kiln. They were enjoying them self fishing for tadpoles, having lunch and playing in the forest. So a lot of the original sound was useless and I had to make it work somehow. Thank you for reading and watching. If you have ANY questions please lets talk in the comments below.