How many here still use those old fashioned drawing salves instead of the new fangled pharma ones?

My FIL used to make a bear fat drawing salve.

The first time I got it used on me, we were at camp. I had a pimple or something on my ear. Well after a few days it just kept getting bigger. We could pop the outside but the inside kept getting bigger.

Finally after about 3 days I was getting ready to make the 1.5 hour ATV ride out to my truck to go get it looked at.

He asked me to let him try something. He put this noxious goop on my ear and band-aided the heck out of it.

We were sitting around the fire later that night and said "Wow my ear is on fire." He said that meant it was working.

I woke up the next morning and the wife started taking the bandaids off. Just as he went to warn her she took the last one off and this thing exploded. It went all over her. I don't know if anyone knows what a sebaceous cyst smells like when it explodes, but I bet I could've bottled this stuff and used it as a lure.

He also had a salve that he used for removing splinters and other objects that got stuck under the skin.

When I was maybe 8 years old I had big boil on my knee still have the scar. My grandma mixed up some things on stove, not sure what all it was. Think it had bread in it put it on that thing drew the core out. I had other boils in later years and my mother had a commercial drawing sav in little white glass jar. Not sure what it was either but smelled and looked like tar.
That was my experience with drawing sav.
Last two boils I had years ago were trip to ER and got lanced. Core pulled with forceps and that clear stuff they put on everything now.

Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

50+years ago we had something we called indian salve. came in a flat round tin, and was dark or black colored. i think it said "chief napier" or something like that on it. worked great on slivers and thorns, thistles under the skin, etc.

I use black salve all the time, it has a petroleum smell

It's great for deep slivers
Put some on, cover it with a bandaid overnight and the next morning it'll be risen to the surface of the skin and easy to extract
I also use it on cuts I get from walleye gill cover in the summer
When you get cut they don't heal for quite some time. To make them heal in two days I put black salve on them over night and it draws out what's bad and let's it heal fast
Don't go looking for black salve anymore, the woke community now call it by its proper name ICHTHAMMOL ointment.

Watching.

Moosetrot

Turtledale
I wasn't aware they still made that stuff. Not sure why but I haven't had to deal with the boils since I was in my 30s. When my mother was putting that black salve on me was in my teens.
So being that was 50 years ago I'm not sure what her jar of black goo was.
I looked up the ichthammol and without being able to smell it. I would guess this is what my mother was using or some version of it. If I could smell it I would know that is pretty well burned in my mind.




Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

My thought is that nothing can "draw" something out of your body unless it is a magnet drawing out a steel sliver, but salves can soften the tissue so your body can push infection and its cause out to the surface.

Had boils as a kid too. Dad always has something they would put on them. Bread and milk poltuse (sp) was 1 . I remember they used the film from an egg once too. there was 1 that was a long skinny brown candle like thing. I was told that the end was lit and the stuff dripped on the boil.Never used that on me ...thank you..
Had one I didn't tell mom about yet.It was on my knee. A skid on my knee on the sidewalk took care of that one.
just

As a child my father’s best friend was a bee keeper. His wife would always be covering me with a paste made from powdered alum and water. After I was done pessing off the bees I’d inevitably come to her to smear some on the welts from being stung…. It worked too well evidently as I do it all over again the next time I was over… lol

A poultice made of dried,crushed Plantain and Olive Oil has an excellent "drawing" effect.It can help in removing infection,,a stinger or even Venom.It also promotes healing.I would bet money you have Plantain growing in your own yard.

My grandad always said to use raw bacon and wrap it overnight. Never tried it, and he was known to mess with me at times, so who knows?

PRID drawing salve is an oldie that is still available. Ichthammol and other ingredients. It works!

My gramma used bacon rind on me a few times. It worked Yukon

Activated charcoal will draw poison from spider bite and has uses for poisoning intakes.

always used bacon fat on splinters.