08-17-2005, 10:46 AM
Quote:Pine resin and bitumen are different materials - though both are called "pitch". I would have thought that both would have rendered the material too brittle. How come the poncho isn't brittle?
Nobody has said, or even suggested, otherwise, Dan. Pine can give us both a resin and pine pitch, as I'm sure you must know. I was talking about bitumen as an alternative to pitch - which is quite clear from my message. Again, I'm more concerned with practicality than doing things exactly as our ancestors did; my aim being to get an authentic-looking re-construction, that can be used, in as short a space of time as possible. I was able to choose a tree and convert it, first to planks and then to lath, but, if necessary, I would have bought lath from a garden centre, because we already KNOW our ancestors could do this stuff, I'm not conducting an experiment in archaeology.
As to the poncho not being brittle, I don't know. Why not conduct some tests for yourself?
