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!!!

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

Birch oil for leather?New to me THANKS Dan!

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

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'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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

Excellent, thanks Dan

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!

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!

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!!!

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

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

Thanks, Dan!