How To Make Birch Oil 

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Hi Lilly, birch oil is also a great tick repellant. Rub the oil on shoe laces or thin elastic and wear around your ankles and wrists when foraging in the woods. Also rub on the dogs collar. If you take the ashes from the birch after oiling and sprinkle them around the bug-out camp, you will be tick free for a long time. I learned this from a Russian friend of mine. She showed us this same process at my own fort/camp a few months back. You are awesome!

It's surprising that the bark burns so well but not the oil. Thanks Lilly

When you split wood with the ax, turn the ax upside-down after it bites a hold in the log. Then the weight of the wood will split it over the ax, rather than your muscle-power. Thanks for the recipe on birch tar. You can also make "tea" from the birch bark, and use it to relieve headaches and menstrual pains. The sap from the birch may help against dandruff and eczema. Further the leafs contains vitamin C.

This is really cool! All the years I spent in jungles and woodlands it never occurred to me to rendef oils out of tree barks. I have extracted oils for medical use. You have changed my paradigm.

If you didn't know (I guess you probably did, but whatever :), birch oil is a good antiseptic, it was actually used in hospitals some time ago. It also helps to heal skin problems (but it is very hard to wash from clothes and so on).

Birch oil is called tökötti here in Finland and and I'm going to make it to treat wood against rotting in near future. Like Your channel, it's so real... :)

actually,birch oil is not flammable so if u want to make a wooden pot,plz cover the exterior with birch oil for cooking purposes so your pot won't burn

scraping the birch bark to catch the spark is so simple and so smart. I've always just shredded it. thanks mam

In Sibiria they mix the oil with fish oil (can't remember the ratio), as a mosquito repellent. If it is anything like pine oil, you don't want to use pure oil in the sun (it can burn the skin). I mix pine oil, beeswax and woolfat (lanolin) for the Swedish summer. When I go to the far north of Sweden I add a little "Djungle oil" (20% DEET). Super effective and last a long time. I made about 40ml without DEET a year ago and till got most left.

Moin Lilly, klasse Video!!! super gezeigt und ist ja wirklich einfach. Das mit den Pfeilen kam mir auch gleich in den Sinn. Danke fürs zeigen LG Toffer

Interesting. I always like watching your videos. They tend to be clear and to the point. I would be interested in hearing additional uses for this stuff.

You made "birch" tar like the Swedish pine tar (one of my favorite products) - great wood finish with linseed oil, also used as a topical for psoriasis and as a bug repellent (saw on a movie from the Siberian Tiaga). Makes great soap and lotion too.

Nicely done - I loved the way you handled that big chopper, perfect

we use pine tar. i mix it with boiled linseed oil to treat my axe handles. birch oil or tar would most likely work as the same as pine tar for making soap and treating wood as a preservative . thanks for posting

Birch bark has so many use but especially to assist starting a fire, even in the rain.

Make up some fluffy cordage and then soak it in the birch oil, then wrap the rope around a stick. The rope should be around seven to ten feet in length to get a good bundle.

I wonder if you mix the tar with water and boil it, maybe you can refine the oil to make it more flammable? The idea is that the heavy stuff should sink to the bottom while the pure oil should float to the top. You can then pour that into another container and boil off the water to be left with pure oil. I don't know if it would work, but it might be worth a try. Being able to produce fuel for an oil lamp should be a useful skill.

you forget to mention that you can make soap with birch oil ... to make hard soap , you can mix the oil with algae (or ashes that come from plant who grow in very salty soil ) and boil it, then pour in a mold (because algae contains caustic soda)

hey Lilly, when you chop large pieces of firewood, turn the ax up side down after the first chop. when you chop the ax in the stump with the log above, the log will split at once due to its on weight

very nice :) i have made pine tar the same way but i used a 200L oil drum with fatwood and a 10L bucket to collect the tar in.

You can use birch oil to make birch tar that can be used as a glue for building shelter

So simple, and cool butterfly at the end.

I have few tips for making birch oil/tar: - do not create a hole on a top of bark container - make more holes in bottom of that container - collecting container should be a metal one, buried in wet sand/dirt, and should be deep - bark container should to be buried withs sand to 1/3 of height - bark must be dried, and and placed in can with vertical spiral (that helps pack more bark into can, and helps gas escapes) As final product You have 2 gradations - oil and tar (and some water, if bark is not dried). That substance is great to protect wood, leather, even to protect against mosquitos, flies etc, helps with any problems with skin (wounds, scratches, tinea etc) and many many more applications. Good luck!

I'm a new subscriber from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. I am an old bush whacker and pilot turned therapist in my later years. This was a great video. I never heard of birch oil before although I had an uncle who made birch sap wine. I really enjoy all your videos. You have a lot of experience and it shows. It's interesting that that the bush area where you make the videos is very similar to where I plan to build a bug out camp north of Winnipeg about 50 miles in the Interlake district. The wood is mostly poplar with some pine and a local variety of oak (the best firewood besides birch). I hope you continue the good work.

It's good repellent from mosquitos, bugs. For the disinfection the wounds. Also, it's good for the skin. You can mix it with cream and put on the body (for repellent).

Wie immer, saubere Arbeit Lilly. LG Carlos

MAN ON VIDEO LIKE 6 of yours and had to say WOW. super cool stuff. I do some hiking stuff mainly not to Much survivaly type stuff but the adventure archive guys sent me your way and like I said love the channel. I'll be beng watching this weekend for sure. thanks again..

In Alaska the native people, mainly those of the First Nations, use birch oil and pine pitch as an oil to the skin to prevent mosquitoes. I noticed you have issues with the little vampire females (only the females suck blood). Try looking into it.

Hi Lily. Nice video. Have you ever tried flipping the log upside down on your down-swing? I do this by embedding the axe head deep into a log as you do, then swing up both the axe and the log as you do in the video, then flip the axe-head upside down before I drop the log; thus the axe head hits the stump first, and splits the log like presto!

Great work, great little dwelling there too

Birch oil is a good antiseptic, same as pine needles and honey ,all 3 work equally well

Nice video.. good information .. but the WING pattern on the butterfly was AMAZING! and spectacular...

It makes a good wood preservative. Cut it about 50/50 with turpentine.

Can be used also for skin conditions treatment for wounds as you mention and is safe but around not for direct blood contact. Also soap with this stuff is avesome, if you use it then bugs ticks an mosquitos are not interested at all I also prepare multipurpose damage treating creme with tar, comfrey gliceride and usually another plant extracts bees wax and resin on various base oils and it makes wonder full things for cuts, irritations and plenty other issues and it really helps with keeping flying and biting creatures away :)

This oil works great as bug repellant. Smear small amount over your face, hands to repel mosquitoes. People use it on dogs for the same purpose too.

Better use honey on wounds, it's antiseptic and pulls out wetness. But yes, birch oil can be like tree sap, which is also antiseptic.

That's so kool,thanks,Lilly.I will try that sometime.

You know if you had a tap syrup spigot you could use a live birch tree as a secondary source of watery nutritious birch sap.

thanx for making it simple and easy...very helpful...peace and love

It makes fantastic beer,its great as a waterproofing agent,its anti septic,its the best thing to treat burns with.When plumbed straght from the tree it can be consumed with fantastic health benifits

Hi Lilly, new subscriber! My last caming spot was Killarney, Muskoka......great canoeing!! I really want to do the La Cloche 7 day hike there...that's the next challenge soon I hope! Prost!

Great how to vidio. I never heard of birch bark oil. I have seen a few documentaries mentioning birch bark tar used as an adhesive. Some anthropologists speculate neanderthal did this. Thanks Lilly.

This is how you cook willow to make charcoal for black powder. That process also produces an oily creosote. I wonder if you could distill the oil from the bark using steam?

not sure but I have heard that birch oil makes a great bug repellant, if you try it and it works please let me know. Keep making more videos, they are a true inspiration for so many people.

Short, sweet and informative 👌

I've seen several YT videos on this subject, but this one was the first I seen that used a hole in the top. It must make a difference (whether good or bad). I have a can of birch bark ready to go to try this method since spring, but keep forgetting about it! Maybe tomorrow! Nice video - even without Daxs......

Thanks for the video. I never knew about birch oil before.

Sauber! Tolles Ergebnis Lilly. LG Sepp

I would say fresh resin will still have loads of water in it. Might burn better when set. Good for glueing stuff aswell i guess.

Great video... just wish it was longer.. could watch all day

Some potent power stokes with that axe! Really good stuff! Thank you for the video - Martin

Lilly, if you make a 3 chamber device, you can make the birch oil (bottom), char (middle), and then the condensed vapors of water and methanol (wood alcohol) from green wood. Still good vid. 10*

Thank you! I never knew about birch oil before.

Hy Lilly, klasse erkärt, wünsche eine schöne Woche, Grüße Michel

Awesome Lilly. I'm goingto have to try this. No birch where I live, but lots of pine. You are very good at explaining this kind of stuff very simply. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next tutorial. Peace :)

Fantastic, so thats how it's made! Nice one, danke.

great job on starting the fire too

Good video Lilly. I love the woods. I've got 99 problems but a birtch ain't one!!😉

I would like to see you maybe make some videos showing the uses of birch oil. I have also heard of putting it on wounds but have never had the chance to try it. Can it be used like pine pitch tar as a binding agent on containers and what not? Thanks Lily!

Very interesting. Thanks Lilly!

Very good work Lilly :) Thumbs up! :)

Wow much better ratio then I had when I tried making birchbark oil!

Another great video Lilly!

soo glad I found this channel

so cool i realy want to try it! thanks for all great videos!

Hey just a thought but you should try and build a underground root cellar and a shed for your firewood

Check out a RU-vid video Titled [ Happy People : A year in the Taiga ] I tried a copy paste of the URL and that wasnt allowed for some reason. it is a very long documentary with four 50 plus minute segments. He shows making birch bark oil and using it as mosquito repellant for himself and his dog. It layers on like tar and you dont wash it off. But the insects dont bite thru it. There is another video you should see. Paul Wheaton who runs the permaculture channel has a video Titled [ Sepp Holzer's Bone Sauce/salve ] It is a video of a German doing a outdoor seminar who gives a lecture in German (voiced over translation in english) and then does a live practical demonstration of how he makes the sauce. He uses animal bones and vegetable oil to make a animal pest repellant to protect his fruit trees from deer and also used for naturalpathic medical purposes also. Pine Tar is used in many of the same ways you used birch tar in this video. It is a superior wood protector from weather and moisture.

Super Arbeit! Ich mag deine Videos!

Clear explanattion. The best I saw. Tanks Lilly ->->@ .

это конечно неплохо, но при Пиролизе - хим реакции из-за которой кора дерева превратилась в деготь, необходимо максимально ограничить поступление воздуха и выхода паров горения с "чана" с корой. А так часть коры сгорело от высокой температуры и сажа дала свой цвет дегтю - черный, так бы его можно было бы разнообразно использовать. Таким же способом делается древесный уголь.

where I live in Canada we make birch beer, it's sweet and bubbly like champagne.

It would have been great if u could have explaned more of the uses of birch bark ie can u cook with it?and what can u cook with it? can u waterproof shoes with it?water proof shelters with it? to plug a hole in a boat? just to mention a few. thanks shaz

Great video. You can make great soap out of Pine Tar. I suspect Birch Oil would make some great soap, also. An idea for a future video is to make a kit similar to Ötzi the Ice Man.

Maybe if you had a tube to catch the light gas and oils and mix them back with the heavy tar to make actual lighter oil.

great video lily, if you refine your oil it will burn better and you can run a generator wit, great job x

that was pretty successful, well dne Lilly! :)

Love the slow-mo axe wielding!

Hi lily you are amazing bushcraft teacher and please make more videos

Great video. If you come across any more uses for birch oil, please share! Also, Joe is awesome.

That is very interesting, Lilly. Thank you.

I think Far North Bushcraft has more videos on the uses of birch oil. Well done Lilly!

Good video; thanks for sharing!

Cool video. Didn't know about birch oil but I do now.

dilute it to 10% with vegetable oil, and when applied topically its a repellent for black flies and other insects; if you don't mind the 'black face' look :D

birch oil is also anti-bacterial too,

A warning to those using birch oil, if you are allergic to aspirin DO NOT use birch oil. It has the same properties when broken down.

I hear it's a good bug repellent as well. Another great video!

Thanks Lilly for sharing your knowledge, Have a wonderful Merry Vhristmas

that's pretty impressive with the axe. Rock On Lilly!!!

I understood. I don't speak english. I love your videos. tks. Sérgio - Brazil

Love your videos very informative.

i am very impressed, cool camp you've made. You are what a real woman is made off, keep it up! ;)

I wonder if the evaporation is collectable? Will the gases ignite, without exploding? Maybe attach a metal tube to pipe the gases into a stove? Instead of white gas or propane, try birch bark evaporative gas?

Maybe try sealing wood or waterproofing a tarp? : )

We use the oil to treat our old church ( 860++ Stavechurch). It smells really good.

good mosquito repellant too, i saw it in a documentary "happy people" on netflix

Wow...super strong with that big Axe you gots Lilly..awesome !!

Makes a good wood sealer for axe handles and wood furniture,

great job lilly it also feed de wood for handles etc.... C U !