Rendering Birch Oil 

Birch oil, aka Russian Oil, used to be pretty standard as a leather preservative and waterproofer. It's several thousand years old and well worth the cost of making your own. One tip -- it doesn't take a big fire. The greater the heat, the greater the risk of burning your bark or the end product. Try for a small fire that warms the bark up and allows the oil to flow out of it before the bark combusts and turns into that charcoal. A little does go a long way, but I highly recommend anyone making it try to make as large a batch as possible simply so you don't run out any time soon. Also, check out Mikko Snellman's video on making Stockholm Tar and Russian Oil for more ideas.

YOU ROCK!!! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED RIGHT NOW!!!

I've wanted to make some birch oil for a long time, but you know.. it's one of those things in a to-do-list. It's good to see that it can be done this easily. I read from somewhere that some guy used birch oil and ashes as the only glue in his hand-made knife and that's what I'd like to try. This stuff is of course legendary in waterproofing leather, but it has also been used traditionally in mending broken pottery, so I'm rather interested in trying it myself.

Birch oil for leather?New to me THANKS Dan!

Left over charcoal can be used in the garden...fabulous video!

One of the things I most enjoy about your videos is that they are short. I love to learn but you keep it concise and pertinent. Thank you for taking the time it takes to put out good content!

I live in Colorado. We don't have birch. It appears to be the most popular bushcraft tree, though.

Nice that you can use that oil for everything. Thanks for sharing.

I like that a lot of you videos are short, sweet and to the point, great for people with short attention span issues, thank you!

I use an old worn out stainless steel pressure cooker. I drilled and tapped a hole in the bottom I screwed in a 1/4" pipe to collect the oil. Packed really tightly the pot yields almost a pint. I have a giant size set up for harvesting pine tar in a similar fashion. My large "distiller" is made from a 55 gallon drum with a 30 gallon drum plumbed inside.

Mix that left over carbon into that oil to make birch glue. It's super strong. Apparently ancient Neanderthals used to to glue their weapons together.

Thank you. Great stuff to know

Thanks a lot for this interesting Video. Greetings from Switzerland Felix

thank you!

Dan, I just checked with an expert on local trees. The variety of birch in our area is River Birch. I know we have tulip poplar on our land, so once I learn to identify River Birch, I should have access to some pretty useful trees. (Most of what we have is loblolly pine and water oak, with invasive Chinese Tallow.)

I will have to remember and try this! Always nice to learn something new like this that has multiple uses!

The bush gasifier! Great hack, and so simple. Next camping trip Ill have to try that. if campfire restrictions are lifted. Last time I bought some pine oil for treating leather a) cost a small fortune, b) it was 'watered down' with mineral spirits and stuff so I had to use a lot of it to treat my boots.

Thank you for not giving up on the channel. It’s great

I have to make me some of that. I have a lot of axes to use it on. Thanks and take care.

great video dan id love to come on one of your bushcraft courses but id never come back .to the uk

Excellent, thanks Dan

Thanks, Dan!

Ha!! Talk about a timely video! I’m headed to a white birch forest on Sunday. Definitely going to be trying this one out.

Its good stuff! I even use is as bug dope in the spring. And the smell is just out of this world.

Very good to know. Well demonstrated. Best

I'm glad you decided to remake this video. Good job

I'm giving this a try this weekend, while camping in the woods. wish me luck and thanks for making a short sweet how to video!!!

Seems much easier and cheaper than making fixin wax. Sucks I don’t have much birch here in Oklahoma... dagnabit!

Excellent video! We use birch oil for cracks in dry skin and for rashes. Again, excellent video.

Really cool. I use this oil and Burch tar allot at my viking camp.

Very cool!

Very good idea about the catch container. I've always just cooked it down and separated the two. Thank you.

I'm going to have to try this. I've been looking for an oil to use on my Mora Garberg Carbon that was natural and non-toxic. Great video Dan!

I'm assuming this technique can be extended to render oil from other woods and plants as well? As always, love your concise but insightful videos.

Wow! Great stuff!! Keep them coming!

I will have to try this. Thanks for the video.

awesome Dan thx

Recently found your channel and it really motivated me to set up my own camp etc, thanks dude! Love the way you deliver your knowledge, one can tell you teach classes and such! Keep it up!

Actually that left over bark would probably act like activated charcoal. Could use it for water filtration.

Very good clear instruction. Thanks and take care.

Great mesquite repellent as well. Edit: as long as youre not allergic.

the carbon would be good added to a compost pile. the start of some terra preta.

Awesome...gonna try this as soon as it stops raining....ty

Made some yesterday and its made my axe and knife handles look great. Plus it smells amazing

Wish we had birch...

This is pretty badass! I'm going to have to try it!

You can make a muscle relaxers oils massage as well.

I gotta try That!

Gonna try this when I go out in January; tons of birch in that area. Thanks for the video. I have so many uses for it and no birch oil! This will be great. I'm going to try using a steel mason jar and coupling the lid to an inverted smaller lid for a small glass jar. Then it will (hopefully) distill from the steel jar right into the glass jar. When it's done, I can just unscrew them and screw a storage lid on the glass jar and boom -- no need to pour anything and very low risk of dirt contamination. I'll let you know how it works.

Good information and video

Very cool info!

I use deer fat for the exact same things. Only bad thing is critters love deer fat so that is not good. Can use as bait in traps but if left in camp u may return & find a big mess.

Excellent

Nice, thank you

Make some bug dope as well, Great video brother!

Nice video , subbed

Good stuff

Just learned something new

Dan...love your videos. Thanks. Have you or would you do a video on making pine tar?

I live in Lubbock, TX. So there isn't a birch tree within a 100 miles.

Whaaaaa?? Now that's cool!!!

I'm so glad you made this video over again. The quality of video is much better Dan. 😉 I'm very sad that we don't have much for Birch here where I live. Prairie living doesn't really provide much variation in the way of trees. If I want Birch, I'd have to drive 200+ miles to the Black Hills forest of SD. Do you plan to redo any of the other videos Dan? 🤔

Thanks for explaining. When I try this out I am considering making ink or paint from the leftover bark char

WHAT THE F*CK IS A KILOMETER!!🦅🦅🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

That's the same way you make Birch oil for medicinal salves

wow what a great product... the pine tar process with birch... very very cool.. have you ever tired filtering it???

Can you use the birch oil on carved spoons and kuksa as well?

Thank you for teaching me how to redender birch oil. I would think the ash could be used to make a carpenters' chalk line, like ground charcoal is often used. is would just save another step and resource.

That's awesome... I assume you could use that for an oil lamp as well?

Cool video, thanks! Is it please sticky when dry? Does it melt on Sun? Is it possible to use a sandpaper to polish it, make it shiny?

I love rendering birch oil and tar. We have to use mostly paper birch around here though. I've done some hawk handles heavily stained with this and they look great. Bit of a smokey smell for a bit though. It is reported to have great medicinal properties as well but II have not tried it yet. Great video!!!

I gotta learn to spot it out...mostly see are oak & maple...plenty of pine and cedar...is that just as good to use?

3:43 asmr

I live in Florida, the only places where I been have cedar, I wonder, can the same process be used and for the same idea?

Hey! Fellow instructors !! Gauntlet has been thrown down !! Find that birch oil !! Heh heh !

could you use the charcoal in makeshift water filter?

Mix that ash into a farm plot, it's good for the soil.

OK, that's the down and dirty in the woods method. How would you do it the clean at home method?

What makes the oil dark? Soot particles? If so can it be filtered out if you want a clearer oil?

With regard to the ash, could it be used to boil amadou from hoof fungus?

I understand the whole purpose is "do it yourself", self reliance, bushcraft, etc. Is this product produced and retailed in any hardware, building/home improvement store or online through a website or retailer? Thanks for any information anyone can offer. (I ask because I have seen the NESMUK BUGDOPE, Pine pitch, fixin wax, etc. available retailed online.)

I'm wondering in what condition the birch bark has to be in for this process. The most amount of birch bark around where I live and that's available, would be from fallen birch. Pretty harsh bark that is almost impossible to separate from the dark brown thick inner bark. Could such be of any use for this purpose? I'd just have to try I guess.

I used to buy this year's ago... it was not bloody cheap either.... think I will be making my own.... what is the best time of year to do this.

Does there bark need to be "green" or can dry bark from dead wood be used?

That is so simple. Great info. I wonder if that oil can be used for food surfaces like cutting boards and wood counters or cooking utensils?

I'll have to look to see if there are birch tree in northern California. There is of course linseed oil. I'll have to look up linseed to see what it is. I heard that linseed oil can go rancid. Where does Tung Oil come from?

Can this be used as fuel in a makeshift lantern or torch? If so what would be ideal for a wick and control fuel flow?

I have alot of sweet birch. I wonder if that works as well.

Have you ever done an experiment to compare live bark to dead dark for yield of oil? Do you think Birch oil would work better then boiled linseed oil with bees wax?

Can u use saw dust? And other types of woods?

Does maple work the same ?? Mean guess ya can get any oil from bark of any tree just prob not as good & the birch is nontoxic but different trees could be. Im guessing.

Can you use other tree bark, or just burch?

great video. Can this be applied directly to the skin as mosquito repellent or is it irritant?

Does the birch bark need to be green, or can it be from any bark, even dry for a year or so? Thnx in advance.

Hey dan! I made some birch oil the other day and put it on my favorite hatchet and i love how it looks and everything, but its been like 2 days sitting outside and still smells horribly like smoke and makes everything i touch afterward smell like it. Does it go away over time or is there something i can mix it with to give it a better seal and stop the smell? Ive looked all around with no luck and figured here might be a good place to ask, sorry for the long comment. Thanks in advance!

So how would that do on a canvas tarp?

What are the medicinal uses for birch oil?

Do you happen to know, for purposes of medicine (whether internal or topical), the differences between doing this type of extraction versus an oil infusion (like sesame oil)? Are there different compounds getting extracted?

Is this method useful with other trees? Would the oils have different properties?

Hi guys, would anyone happen to know if eucalyptus oil works well as a tool handle protectant?