Summer 2005

Naval Stores

In the past, pine tar and pitch were used extensively on sailing ships to caulk seams and to protect ropes. No ship left port without an essential store of tar and pitch. These pine products are still referred to as naval stores, but they now have far different uses. Today, the chemical products from pine trees--turpentine, resin, and fatty acids--are used to manufacture inks, adhesives, perfumes, and hundreds of other consumer products. There are three ways of obtaining these chemical raw materials from pines. They can be produced as a byproduct of the process used to manufacture paper from pines; extracted from pitch-soaked stumps; or obtained by tapping live trees.

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