Our Newest Forum...Neo Tribal

BossDog

KnifeDogs.com & USAknifemaker.com Owner
Staff member
Neo Tribal forum for everything Neo...If you have any post 'em.

WIP (work in progress) pic's are especially appreciated as for many entering knife making is often easiest done via Neo Tribal techniques..

Our first neo question is this:
What is old fashioned culters resin and how do you make it?
 
Tracy, you are the MAN.

Cultlers Resin or Pine Pitch Resin as I know it is like early hot melt adhesive. A lot of tangs were glued in with it. Bad thing is it will not stand a lot of heat without softening.

My receipt came from medieval days and is about 3 parts Pine Resin, 1 part beeswax and 1 part fine brick dust or fine wood ash. Heat in tin pan over low fire, Not Too Hot, pine pitch will burn big, stir into a paste and ladle on or in. If you harvest your own pine resin ( I live in the land of Pines) make sure you get all the needles and trash out as it's heating.
I also make my stitching wax like this, without the dust. As it is cooling I roll it into cakes. Gives a little more grip to your stitching material. This mixture also works well on slick knife and hatchet handles, gives it a little stickiness when wet......Randy

I like it here
 
This is gonna be a really cool section of the forum!

Can someone define what makes something neo-tribal? It is just modern blades made in traditional methods? or for traditional looks?
 
Brad, I don't know if I can answer that question. To me it's a way of life. Living in the present, learning for the future from the past . I call my knives "Blacksmith Made" because my methods are based more on those traditions and skills passed from generation to generation. Using what I have to make what I want or need. Sorry, ramblings from an old burnout......Randy
 
No, don't be sorry... I love to hear and see what other people are thinking and doing... my forging setup is pretty crude and I think making some neotribal stuff would be right up my alley... I love everything I've ever seen from you and can't wait for the next ones...
 
Getting back to our original story line;

5 parts pitch
1 part beeswax (tallow can replace this-available from your butcher)
1 part filler (wood dust, ash, metal dust, etc)
I use ground charcoal for the filler. I cook down dirty crusty barky pine pitch in a tin can with holes punched in the bottom and catch the strained drippings in another tin can. Then add beeswax and then the filler, stirring with a clean split stick. I let the mixture cool some and then I dip clean sticks in it (popcicle sized) till they load up with dollops of the resin, sorta like making tallow candles. These can be stored forever, carried on a trip, etc. When you need hot glue, heat everything before the fire, get that glue stick to dripping, and apply to the surfaces as needed.


I don't remember where I borrowed this idea from, maybe an archer, resin glue was used to attach flint arrowheads , but I like the way he cooks down the resin through holes in the can, that would save a lot of picking out trash and the way he stores it on a popsicle stick.
I seem to remember Mr. Goo adding some sort of critter dung to his recipe. Maybe if Tai happens by he will chime in......Randy
 
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Hi Randy, I recall that Chuck Burrows uses the pine pitch and beeswax on his thread for sewing leather also. Equal parts. I have some ive been meaning to melt together but dare not use mamas pot. I found a muffin tin at a garage sale to make some cakes now i need the melting pot.
Doug
 
Hey Doug, Mr. Burrows is a library of information and a heck of a craftsman. I have spent hours shamelessly slobbering over his site. I found some cast iron cornbread muffin things, shaped like ears of corn at a yard sale. I snapped them apart and ended up with 12 little crucibles. I melted pewter in one dozens of times before it cracked, should work fine for resin. My tin pan I use for resin is a Boy Scout cooking set left from when my boys were Scouts... ....Randy
 
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