Grasstree resin

[Oldnslow]

Did a bit of experimenting last night with grasstree resin.

While out bush couple of weeks back now, we hunted up some grasstree resin.
Took a bit of hunting around as most of the grasstrees were healthy and young with no injuries.

You normally find it at the base or near the base of a grasstree that had been damaged in some way.
The tree exudes it as a protection.
The one we found the resin on was growing on rock and the rock was bruising the tree.

Back home I added charcoal and roo poo to make a traditional glue.
Ground it up and sieved it.
It is spongy and smells like hippy incense when being heated

Traditional method of preparing is grinding on a flat rock and heating a stick to gather it up.

Haven't tried reheating and using it yet, looks promising though.
Hardens up very quickly.

 

[Aussie123]

Great experimenting.

The secret is to get a ratio which can be re-worked and set to he hard, but not too brittle.

Did you keep track of the ratio of ingredients so you can re-produce what you've done ?

 

[Oldnslow]

I'd have to guess it was equal amounts of roo poo and charcoal to double the amount of resin by volume.
In other words I eyeballed it. So 25% poo, 25% charcoal, 50% resin by volume.

When completely cool (next day ) it was very, very strong.

Will have to make something up to see how well it works.

Cheers
Will

 

[Redtail]

I believe the best ratio is 3:2:1 resin:charcoaloo?