Spot the Frippet: tall oil.

But how on earth can you have oil that's tall?

I mean, the whole thing about oil is that it's...flat. Puddly. Spreading. You drop a cupful of oil and you won't be tripping over it, you'll be skidding across it. The whole purpose of oil is to get into every nook and cranny to make things slide about.

Still, despite this, there is such a thing as tall oil, and you've almost certainly got some not far from you.

Tall oil is the thick yellow-black (hang on, how can something be yellow-black? Still, that's what it says on Wikipedia) smelly liquid that you get left over when you're turning wood into wood-pulp.

Where will you find it? 

In glues (epoxy resin adhesives will have tall oil in them), rubber, ink. It's used in asphalt. It's a vegetarian and eco-friendly substitute for animal fats when you're making soap or candles, or, indeed, oils to be used as lubricants (oil-drilling rigs use it on the drill bits, but you probably aren't going to have any of those near you).

But does the stuff stand up straight? Is it, indeed, tall?

Nope, it's really runny.

So where does the tall bit comes from, then?

Well, Sweden, actually.

Spot the Frippet: tall oil. This word comes from the Swedish tallolja, which means pine oil. Tall means pine, and olja oil. The Greek elaia is connected, and means olive.

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