Oakum is the tarred strands of picked apart rope, wedged into gaps in the planking and sealed with a seam of pine tar to prevent deck and hull leaks. When a donor gifted the Penobscot Marine Museum with a roll of tarred oakum, the evocative sweet smell transported me back to tall ship voyages and the attendant memories of fresh sea air, sun, and the mix of peace and adrenaline of sailing. It sealed the cracks between deck and hull planks from rain coming down and seas washing over them. The wood of a pine tree is placed in an airtight space and subjected to high heat and pressure. How Pine Tar is Made Pine tar comes from destructive distillation. Use this recipe to thin Pine Tar with Purified Organic Raw Linseed Oil. Works well for preserving wood used underground. Pine Tar is an excellent wood preservative and substitute for pressure treated wood. Tar prevented rot in the ship timbers and standing rigging (ropes holding up the masts, yards, and booms). Pine tar, originating in Scandinavia, is a strong and sticky substance that is a byproduct of high-temperature carbonization of pinewood. Pine tar is just one of many aids that batters can choose from to help improve their control when hitting, along with batting gloves. Pine Tar is used for wood preservation on utility and fence poles, cottages, splint roofs, boats et cetera. Traditionally, pine roots and stumps are burned slowly to extract a thick liquid. One highly prized resource was Pinus rigida (pitch pine), which provided the tar that preserved the watercraft. Pine tar is a liquid distilled from the wood of various pine relatives. Having depleted those resources in Europe by the 1700s, they sent work parties and eventually colonists to extract these materials vital for feeding and shipping goods back to the motherland. The riches that the British, French, and Dutch explorers found in Maine came not from gold, but in the form of fish and lumber. Image courtesy of Penobscot Marine Museum Collection, PMM2015.5.1
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |