In today's fast-life, sometimes we forget things in all of the glitz and glamour. We start to take things for granted, things like your everyday school glue. Though it is very tedious, making your own glue like the Native Americans once did, it can be very rewarding and give you that down-to-earth feeling.
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Signing UpStep 1: Gather Your Materials
The main part of your natural glue is going to be the tree resin. Coniferous trees provide the most available resin. How I gathered my resin and rosin was by climbing my backyard pine trees with a butter knife and a Ziploc bag, using the butter knife to very delicately scrape large drops into the bag. Look for both resin and rosin, rosin being the harder yellower form of resin. If you are nervous about climbing trees you can buy commercial nature resin here: http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/natural-resin.html .
A few other things you will need are:
-Powdered Charcoal. When you get your resin/rosin to a pure form it will be very brittle and will not be an affective adhesive. The charcoal will give the mixture strength. I grinded up some excess charcoal from a recent bonfire. If you don't have access to charcoal you can always use beeswax.
-A few pots. You will need at least two pots. One will be for the initial melting of the resin/rosin, and the other will be for mixing in the charcoal.
-A jelly/jam jar. When the glue is done you will need something to store it in. An extra jelly jar worked great because the glue can be reheated in it.
-A filter. The actual product doesn't matter, just something with a small metal mesh that can filter out everything non-resin/rosin. Traditionally, Native Americans would place the resin/rosin in a woven bag. The bag would then be placed in boiling water; the resin would seep out and float to the top of the water, while the impurities would stay in the bag. I did not have access to one of these bags, nor did I want to make one, so I just used a small filter which did the job.
-*OPTIONAL* Some aluminum foil. The whole process can be messy, so aluminum foil protects your stove and kitchen.
-*OPTIONAL* Something to stir with. Though stirring isn't needed, it can help in the process.
A few other things you will need are:
-Powdered Charcoal. When you get your resin/rosin to a pure form it will be very brittle and will not be an affective adhesive. The charcoal will give the mixture strength. I grinded up some excess charcoal from a recent bonfire. If you don't have access to charcoal you can always use beeswax.
-A few pots. You will need at least two pots. One will be for the initial melting of the resin/rosin, and the other will be for mixing in the charcoal.
-A jelly/jam jar. When the glue is done you will need something to store it in. An extra jelly jar worked great because the glue can be reheated in it.
-A filter. The actual product doesn't matter, just something with a small metal mesh that can filter out everything non-resin/rosin. Traditionally, Native Americans would place the resin/rosin in a woven bag. The bag would then be placed in boiling water; the resin would seep out and float to the top of the water, while the impurities would stay in the bag. I did not have access to one of these bags, nor did I want to make one, so I just used a small filter which did the job.
-*OPTIONAL* Some aluminum foil. The whole process can be messy, so aluminum foil protects your stove and kitchen.
-*OPTIONAL* Something to stir with. Though stirring isn't needed, it can help in the process.
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This particular glue is not water resistant and will soften and break under immersion or even sustained high humidity. Despite the high levels of turpentine and other natural toxins, insects and microbes will eat the glue if there is enough moisture.
This glue is only a fraction of the strength of common industrial glues. Ordinary yellow wood glue will form a bond stronger than the wood itself. Rosin glues will form bonds about 25% as strong as the wood itself.
This glue will desiccate within a few years and turn brittle under most real world conditions.
These limitations are why we stopped using natural source glues in the first place.