Survival- Emergency Tree Resin Torch

this torch was entirely made using materials that were easily gathered from the surrounding forests a torch has several uses it is a great way to provide light when there is none it can also be used as a deterrent against wild animals or as an emergency signal light in the dark and it is also an excellent way to transport fire especially in wet conditions if you want to see how I did it stay tuned in order to make my torch I first needed to gather some tree resin most evergreen trees produce this highly flammable and very sticky substance pine spruce and fir trees are all popular sources of resin in my area Here I am gathering some pine resin when the bark of an evergreen is damaged or a branch is broken near its trunk resin will ooze from the wound sealing it off from the open air this keeps fungus and bugs from being able to infiltrate the injury when I remove the resin I made sure to leave a layer so that the tree would still be protected however if the tree needs to it can simply produce more resin to fill in any new openings Here I am collecting some spruce resin my next step was to make a simple handle for the torch one which would be used to hold the resin securely in place as it burned I selected a small maple sapling for my handle a torch handle needs to be made from green wood as opposed to dead or dry wood this is to prevent the handle from catching fire while the torch is lit the only thing that the torch should burn is its fuel when resin becomes hot it turns runny so I needed to find something that would soak the resin up and hold it in place while it burned much the same way that a wick works in a kerosene lantern I found three items that I could use as a sort of wick for my torch a spruce cone cattail and a pair of socks that I kept in my pack as an experiment I decided to make three torches using these three items to see which one was best now I had all the materials that I needed for my torch the fuel the wig and the handle the next step was to prepare the handles I cut spikes in the opposite ends of the handles so that I could stand them upright in the ground I used my axe to split the end of each handle into quarters I use two twigs to temporarily hold the splits open I then melted the resin over a fire being very careful not to let it get too hot otherwise the resin would catch fire I coated the spruce cone cat tail and socks in the liquefied resin in its liquefied form the resin is best able to soak into the makeshift wicks however in the event that heating the resin wouldn't be possible I could simply smear the resin over the wicks instead after coating the spruce comme cat tail and socks I inserted them into the split ends of the handles then I remove the twigs allowing the handles to further clamp down on the wicks even with the wicks there is still a chance that the torch might drip some resin as it burns so be sure to tilt it away from yourself when carrying it and keep it away from anything that might easily catch fire basically just use your common sense the cat tail ended up burning for 10 minutes before needing another coating of resin the spruce cone burned for 15 minutes and the socks burned the brightest and the longest at 25 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes or even 25 minutes might not seem like very long but it might make all the difference in a survival situation so there you have it a simple emergency torch do you have an idea for a different material that might make a good torchwick shared in the comments below thanks for watching

Channel: The Outsider

Views: 1,537,704

Keywords: torch, survival, resin, pine, spruce, tar, pitch, fire, bushcraft, outsidefun1, outsider, ray mears, survivorman, man vs. wild, bear grylls, les stroud, flame, signal

Id: Gq7pyVxLP1s

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/HumanLeatherDuster]

Pine would be an excellent addition to the game. Needles can be boiled for vitamin c, cone can be used as tinder, wood burns well because of the sap. The boughs can be used for padding in shelters, or to improve structural integrity of a snow shelter too.