Softwood tars

The pyrolysis or carbonization of hardwoods, eg, beech, birch, or ash, in the manufacture of charcoal yields, in addition to gaseous and lighter Hquid products, a by-product tar in ca 10 wt % yield. Dry distillation of softwoods, eg, pine species, for the production of the so-called DD (destmctively distilled) turpentine yields pine tar as a by-product in about the same amount. Pine tar, also called Stockholm tar or Archangel tar, was at one time imported from the Baltic by European maritime countries for the treatment of cordage and ship hulls it was an important article of commerce from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The small amount produced in the late twentieth century is burned as a cmde fuel. Charcoal production from hardwoods, on the other hand, has increased in the 1990s years. 

The apparent deliberate selection and preparation of certain resources over others (birch bark tar over softwood products) is repeated throughout later European prehistory. Whilst we lack systematic comparative surveys of the physical properties of resin, heated wood and bark products, and bitumen, both choice and preference were being expressed. Yet, even if we had data of this nature, other factors are likely to have come into play. The ability to transform natural materials (such as wood or bark) into discrete organic substances then subject to myriad uses (hafting of tools and weapons just happens to be the most visibly persistent role) would have had a dramatic impact on those who made these substances. 

Softwoods Corsican pine Ponderosa pine Douglas fir European larch Radiata pine Western red cedar Cupressus macrocarpa Redwood Sitka spruce Podocarpus to tar a... 

Products and Uses Derived from softwood pine trees. Products include tar soap, shampoos, bath oils, and cough medications. Used as a preservative, disinfectant, or deodorant. 

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