# Melting wood **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 7, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-wood/615003 "2012-03-07T03:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tavaritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-wood/615003/1 "2012-03-07T03:02:33Z")
In his article about why wood won’t melt: > **[Why doesn’t wood melt? Plus: Does it still cost less than one cent to mint a...](https://www.straightdope.com/21343876/why-doesn-t-wood-melt-plus-does-it-still-cost-less-than-one-cent-to-mint-a-penny)** Cecil wrote that if you heat wood in vacuum you would get liquefied carbon. I say it depends. Tar is made by heating conifer wood in a pile that wont let oxygen in. So I’d say that tar is liquefied wood. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-wood/615003/2 "2012-03-07T13:45:10Z")
pine tar is a liquid at a certain temperature and comes from wood. melting is a physical change of state. water, metal both exist is a frozen and liquid state. only heat transfer is needed. the substance is unchanged in the transformation. pine tar is a chemical change. you can’t make it go back into a tree form by changing its heat content. it is correct to say pine tar is a liquid derived from wood. it is not correct to say it is liquefied wood in the melting sense. Cecil is the brain. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-wood/615003/3 "2012-03-07T15:00:24Z")
Because wood is a complex structure, outgassing is going to change that structure. So you will never be able to refreeze the “liquified wood” of liquid carbon.