What is a Pine Knot?

[Charles Heath]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Ok, come to mention it, what is Pine Needle Soup?

Boiled pine needles. Some call it soup. Some call it tea.

We find references to this from Cartier in the 1530s to the Donner Party in the 1840s to the CW and up into the Y2K fad of modern times. Lemon, honey, or sugar will improve the taste, but you can bet some of those starving folks didn't have those luxuries. The needles steep better when chopped.

[Vuhginyuh]

Pinee Unmixed Oil Of The Long Leaf Pine

...Some call it soup. Some call it tea.

Some call it Pine-Sol.

[Spinster]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Said green needles chopped and boiled will also cut the grease out of sorely abused Osman Mess Kettles.

Which may be why this stuff was somewhat nourishing in the first place, in addition to the lurking Vitamin C content.:p

[Joe Walker]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Key word.........turpintine!

Joe

[Gary of CA]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Pine cones soaked in turpentine used to used for night hunting in the Colonies (before they asked George to git). They were placed in a frying pan and set afire. Said frying pan was carried on the shoulder of a mounted horseman. As a precautionary measure, a spare blanket was draped over the horse to prevent the horse from being burned by a sparking ember. Like night road hunting, the fire would light up a deer's eyes and cause it to freeze. The hunter, who accompanied the fireman, would circle around for a clear shot and bag his deer that way. It predates the flashlight or headlight and shows that times haven't changed.

[Vuhginyuh]

Blazing Saddles

Sinks or not I need to add this;

1) Pine cones burn hot and fast, especially with an accelerator. They would be consumed in seconds, well be for you could mount a horse and ride off with a fiery skillet on your shoulder.

2) Colonists living in Piney Places were not idiots.

[Charles Heath]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Gary, while I'm familiar with pine knots used in street lamps, I'd love to see the documentation for "skillet lighting" a deer on the colonial roadside.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

...be for...

Well... perhaps there are a few idiots in piney places.

[Brigand]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Here in southern Virginia we call it light wood. Long after most of a dead pine tree has rotted away, these hard, gnarly, fragrant bits remain.
When I was a kid we would search the woods for it. Colonial Williamsburg would pay $50-$75 for half a pickup load. They used it to start fires in their fireplaces. The stuff lites as easy as kerosene.

Robert Hooker

[47thNYReb]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

I used to be a manager for Lowes. They sell little boxes of lighter wood for about $5. But, frequently the 2x4's would come in with lighter wood support boards underneath the sealed units (so that forklifts could get under them.) and these would just get thrown away. I used to get a bunch of them before every event and give away the rest. If you ask one of the employees nicely, I bet that they will let you check out their stacker pile to see if they have some. They are usually 2x2x48", so if you cut them down, one will probably last you quite a while. I have even used one intact as a torch (trust me, be careful!). I would have to imagine that Home Depot or one of the other guys have the same boards being tossed every day.
Thomas N. Rachal, 47th NYVI

[Gary of CA]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Well... perhaps there are a few idiots in piney places.

Gary, while I'm familiar with pine knots used in street lamps, I'd love to see the documentation for "skillet lighting" a deer on the colonial roadside.

Charles,

My apologies for not responding sooner. George Hanger To All Sportsmen, pages 108-111. I quote:

The Back-woodman takes a large frying-pan, with a very long iron handle to it; puts about a half a dozen middling-sized pieces into it, of pine-tree, (the knots of the pine,) which are full of turpentine: these, when lighted in the frying-pan, give a very strong and great light. The pine-tree knots wee stuck into an iron stanchion, on their tables, in their houses, to light the houses by night, for they had at that time no candles, and they gave a very great light. He; after lighting this wood in the frying-pan, puts the pan over his left shoulder, and carries the light behind his head: he then mounts his horse, first putting strong, thick sacks over the rump of the horse, to prevent any fire falling down and burning the animal; and takes a soldier's musket, loaded with buck-shot, in his right hand. The other man follows, about seventy to one hundred yards behind, with a bag of turpentine knots, to replenish the fire in the frying-pan when necessay. I went on horseback, close behind the man with the gun. In following, you must be very particular. The frying-pan must be held directly straight over your left-shoulder, never turning the handle one inch, even to the right or left. When you look before you, you must not move your head, but turn your whole body on the saddle to the right and left, holding the frying-pan firm and straight, by fixing your elbow firm to your body.

So far off even as two hundred yards, you will see the deers' eyes appearing just like two balls of fire. Remember, for certain, that you go directly up the wind, else the deer will smell you, and you will never get near one. The deer, astonished and surprised at so strange a sight, stands stockstill, terrified, and gazing at this very bright light, and permits you to approach him very near. We had not been long out, walking our horses very gently, by the side of a swamp, where the deer at night feed; but we found one. Before we came within one hundred yards of him, he ran away. To the best of my recollection, one of our horses snorted. We had not gone a quarter of a mile further, ere we found another: the Back-woodsman did not go directly up to him, but took his way about thirty yards on one side of the deer. The animal, I am certain, let him come within less than forty yards of him: he then pulled up his horse, which was going only at a very slow walk, laid his arm over the handle of the frying-pan, supported his musket with his left hand, fired, and shot the deer. The deer was standing rather sideways to him, with his head turned round to the light; so that he shot him in the fore-quarters, just behind the fore-elbow. The animal did not run five yards. We threw him over his horse, and returned home.

Night hunting is an American Tradition (OK, not legal in some states).

Hanger served with Tarleton during the American Revolution. Hanger is the writer who made that now famous statement:

"A soldier's musket if not exceedingly ill bored and very crooked, as many are, will strike the figure of a man at 80 yards; it may even at a hundred; but a soldier must be very unfortunate indeed who shall be wounded by a commn musket at 150 yards."

[Charles Heath]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Gary,

I love it! Especially the l-o-n-g handle part! Thanks for posting that!!!

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Mr. Yee,

You need to check your statements. You originally said there were pine cones soaked in turpentine, the quote you provided referred to pine knots that contain naturally formed and aged resin/rosin.

There is a HUGE botanical and chemical difference.

The hunters were using the pans as simple cressets, a common outdoor lighting device of Hanger's period.

[Gary of CA]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Well, upon checking my reference, I stand before this community humbled & corrected.

[Charles Heath]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Garrison,

With all that snapping, sparking, and popping, let's hope that was a very long handled skillet, or the feller was wearing asbestos smocking.