What is "Tar" for a boat owner?

[Daydream believer]

We use stockholm Tar on the threads of shackles on our moorings & it seems to protect them. They can still be released after 3 years of submersion. Get it from Horse tack shops.
Being a builder with contacts, I would use Synthapruff, obtainable from a builder's merchant. You may be able to get smaller tins than 5 litres. I have never tried as I already have some. My last , wooden boat, had the bolts changed to stainless steel

 

[Tranona]

That's the conclusion I have been funneled to after posing the same question in different forums as well. The multiple sources I read werent ever clear if it should be pitch tar (or similar) or pine tar (like the one I have). As much as I would like to use a traditional method and the pine tar I already have, I realize now that I have the wrong tar and I should perhaps go and find a galvanizer around here (SW of the UK) to do the bolts, instead.

Even when coal tar was used it was not very effective and just because it was "traditional" does not mean it is good to try and replicate it now. It was used as explained because it was available locally as a by product of town gas production. As soon as galvanising became widely available the practice went out (and the product later went as we moved to natural gas). You should have no problem getting galvanising done, but there is usually a minimum charge so you need to find a regular user such as a repair yard or maybe a firm that makes gates. When I refitted an old wooden boat I got all the bits I needed galvanising (chain plates, keel bolts, stem head fittings etc) together and the local boatyard put them in with things they needed doing.

 

[claudia_borresen_67]

Even when coal tar was used it was not very effective and just because it was "traditional" does not mean it is good to try and replicate it now. It was used as explained because it was available locally as a by product of town gas production. As soon as galvanising became widely available the practice went out (and the product later went as we moved to natural gas).

Fair comment. And good advice. Cheers

 

[Uricanejack]

Used to put archangel tar on sheep if nicked while shearing.

 

[Daydream believer]

Used to put archangel tar on sheep if nicked while shearing.

I suppose that you threatened the naughty ones with feathers as well, to stop them jumping over fences & putting the neighbourhood to sleep? ?

 

[LittleSister]

After centuries of Jolly Jack Tars, er, tarring their pigtails (wasn't that it?), our effete modern sailors pooh-pooh tar just because it's a little bit carcinogenic.

No wonder the country's going to the dogs!

 

[fisherman]

Pine, Archangel, tar

Pine tar - Wikipedia

 

[vyv_cox]

After centuries of Jolly Jack Tars, er, tarring their pigtails (wasn't that it?), our effete modern sailors pooh-pooh tar just because it's a little bit carcinogenic.

No wonder the country's going to the dogs!

In most cases it's the people who make these risky products who need the protection rather than the users. Having spent a little time standing on top of coke ovens I can say it is definitely not somewhere I would choose to be long-term. All sorts of nasty stuff in the air.

 

[fisherman]

Used to put archangel tar on sheep if nicked while shearing.

In a book about farming life on the Sussex downs, ( A Song for Every Season: Amazon.co.uk: Bob Copper: Books)
Bob Copper recalls sheep shearing. A boy would be employed to run around with the tar brush, gathering fleeces, bringing animals in. But if they got together they didn't behave: "If you got a boy, and he was a good boy....well, you got a boy. But if you got two boys you only got a half a boy, and if you got three boys, well, you hadn't got a boy at all"

 

[Mudisox]

I've been using Coal tar Soap for years now without any obvious defects.

 

[WoodyP]

I recal when coal tar was bannned as a road surfacing.It was widly used and I dont recal being made aware of any handling issues.
nowadays when a road is being rebuilt it has either got to be removed to contaminated land sites or it can be treated. Treating is now proving a cost effective method on some sites.
I aso recal in the 1940s that we used to pick out the gas tar between street 'sets' and make model figures ( gas tar babies!) .... still going strong despite this...cough cough!!

Rude, I know, but remembering stuff from the 1940s that you did puts you amongst our most venerable members .?