Resin worker
profession
Resin workers were people whose work involved the extraction or working of resin, which was needed as a raw material in the manufacture of pitch, tar and turpentine. Resin work was an occupation that largely died out in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it was sometimes a primary occupation as well as a secondary source of income.
Terminology
As well as the general term "resin worker", the terms resin burner and resin picker are also used in the literature.
France
In France, where the occupation was common, a resin picker was a gemmeur, whilst a resin worker was a résinier.
Germany
In German-speaking lands, the general term was Harzer. Other names were Harzbrenner ("resin burner") in the Palatinate region and Pecher ("pitcher") in Lower Austria, or Pechler, Pechsieder, Harzeinsammler ("resin picker"),Harzscharrer ("resin scraper") and Pechhacker ("resin cutter").
Resin worker's craft
From ancient times resin was gathered from pines in the form of "living resin" (Lebendharzung). By removing bark from the tree trunk and cutting into the underlying wood, the tree was injured in order to tap into the resin that was exuded; it was then gathered and processed. Through this cutting and "bleeding", the wood of the tree became generally unusable for construction or other purposes. That was a reason why enmity existed between resin workers and foresters.
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This entry incorporates text from “Resin worker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.