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COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 07:23 PM
Maybe I lost my mind but....A friend had a rather large pine cut down and I salvaged it all. except the limbs. Not sure what all I'll do with it, but I hauled it home. One thing I was after is some Fat Lighter. I am guessing it has to age some for that. So I ask you any other ideas for not letting it goto waste? It is mostly in 2 ft. sections. From about 1' to 3' in diameter? Any ideas are welcome!

Runs With Beer
03-03-2010, 08:00 PM
Cut fresh pine wont turn to fat lighter, only standing dead for a long time the heart turns to fat wood.

Justin Case
03-03-2010, 08:07 PM
Fat lighter ?? whats that ?

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 08:07 PM
Cut fresh pine wont turn to fat lighter, only standing dead for a long time the heart turns to fat wood.

I'd have to disagree with ya...I have pulled many a fat lighter beam out of old homes. Made one into a beautiful mantle peice. I do agree it can't be left to the elements.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 08:09 PM
Fat lighter ?? whats that ?

Don't see it much out west. Maybe you have heard of Fat Wood? Anyhow it is aged heart pine that turns to quite a hot fuel source. The sap in the wood lights up almost like lighter fluid!

your_comforting_company
03-03-2010, 08:25 PM
no telling how long it will take to age into fat lighterd. I mostly find stumps in the woods and get what I can off that. I've taken a LOT of fat lighterd off rooftops where the wood was split, or some rotted from leaking. Some had been up there for 50 years or so and had several roofs redone.
You should be able to chop some into smaller pieces and boil it to extract some of the sap. It will ruin your pan, so don't use the wife's good stuff! I still have a knot on my head from that one!!

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 08:31 PM
no telling how long it will take to age into fat lighterd. I mostly find stumps in the woods and get what I can off that. I've taken a LOT of fat lighterd off rooftops where the wood was split, or some rotted from leaking. Some had been up there for 50 years or so and had several roofs redone.
You should be able to chop some into smaller pieces and boil it to extract some of the sap. It will ruin your pan, so don't use the wife's good stuff! I still have a knot on my head from that one!!

I do collect and use sap from live pines now. I wonder what would take place baking some say 3" X 3" X 12" peices that were really loaded up in sap. I noticed as I unloaded it certain peices had just loads of sap. I think the key would be getting the wood dry while retaining the sap content.

Justin Case
03-03-2010, 08:37 PM
Don't see it much out west. Maybe you have heard of Fat Wood? Anyhow it is aged heart pine that turns to quite a hot fuel source. The sap in the wood lights up almost like lighter fluid!

Thank you :)

Rick
03-03-2010, 08:48 PM
Someone correct me if you think I'm wrong but fat wood is just a high percentage of volatile terpenes. The only reason you would need to age it is to reduce the moisture content in the wood so it would burn more efficiently. I think standing fat wood is nothing more than the loss of the root base so the above ground wood dries out to whatever the atmosphere is rather than having flowing water in the cellulose. At least, that's how I understand the process.

Pine is very nice and an easy wood to work with. It's soft and pretty easy to carve. Things line spoons would be pretty simple to make.

Clothespins (wedge kind not spring loaded)
Flint steel handles

I'll bet your daughter would love some simple wooden games like, Jenga (easy to make), hooey stick, wooden bowling or wooden tic tac toe.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 08:53 PM
Someone correct me if you think I'm wrong but fat wood is just a high percentage of volatile terpenes. The only reason you would need to age it is to reduce the moisture content in the wood so it would burn more efficiently. I think standing fat wood is nothing more than the loss of the root base so the above ground wood dries out to whatever the atmosphere is rather than having flowing water in the cellulose. At least, that's how I understand the process.

Pine is very nice and an easy wood to work with. It's soft and pretty easy to carve. Things line spoons would be pretty simple to make.

Clothespins (wedge kind not spring loaded)
Flint steel handles

I'll bet your daughter would love some simple wooden games like, Jenga (easy to make), hooey stick, wooden bowling or wooden tic tac toe.


I agree with you on the fatwood take...Oh I have ideas! I just was hoping to get more. I plan to make some slabs for decoration around the house, chair seats...etc. I even thought of maybe trying my hand at chainsaw carving! Wombah!

crashdive123
03-03-2010, 09:12 PM
Actually - partially correct I believe. While all the "stuff" is in the tree, it can produce more. It is when it is damaged that the tree starts producing large quantities of the resin - in an effort to "heal" the tree. The most saturated wood I have found has been from damaged trees. Trees that have been struck by lightning or damaged by fire (not burned too much) seem to have the best, most resonous wood. Kind of like anti-bodies attacking an infection in our bodies.

BLEUXDOG
03-03-2010, 09:13 PM
I used a piece of tree trunk as a saddle rack once. It looked pretty neat and made a great conversation piece.

Batch
03-03-2010, 09:13 PM
See down here we call that either lighter knot or lighter pine. It is all over the place in Big Cypress off of Concho Billy Trail.

I was always told it was from a pine tree that was struck by lightning and killed and that the roots kept pumping resin up to the tree and it had no place to go.

Its also used by some taxidermist down here as drift wood on bass mounts.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 09:16 PM
Actually - partially correct I believe. While all the "stuff" is in the tree, it can produce more. It is when it is damaged that the tree starts producing large quantities of the resin - in an effort to "heal" the tree. The most saturated wood I have found has been from damaged trees. Trees that have been struck by lightning or damaged by fire (not burned too much) seem to have the best, most resonous wood. Kind of like anti-bodies attacking an infection in our bodies.

I agree with that too. This tree had been damaged by something and really some of the wood is just orange with sap while some is "white" it is the orange pieces I think will yield fat lighter. Lets face it pine burns quick regardless.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 09:18 PM
I used a piece of tree trunk as a saddle rack once. It looked pretty neat and made a great conversation piece.

Good Idea! I have a need for a Saddle rack or two! Thanks BLEUXDOG!

Batch
03-03-2010, 09:20 PM
I also thought I saw Les Stroud take "fatwood" from a cypress stump in a South GA swamp. But, I never tried that.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 09:22 PM
I also thought I saw Les Stroud take "fatwood" from a cypress stump in a South GA swamp. But, I never tried that.

I could see that having worked with Cypress and living in the swamp.

crashdive123
03-03-2010, 09:22 PM
I agree with that too. This tree had been damaged by something and really some of the wood is just orange with sap while some is "white" it is the orange pieces I think will yield fat lighter. Lets face it pine burns quick regardless.

Yeah, but if you cut or split the orange, resin soaked, lighter into 1/2" X 1/2" strips that are maybe 4" or 5" long, you will have some great fire starting tinder. Shave it - hit it with a spark - viola - fire.

Rick
03-03-2010, 09:23 PM
That makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks!!!

Batch
03-03-2010, 09:24 PM
Yeah, I'm gonna look at a couple dead cypress stumps when I go out this weekend for the open of spring turkey.

COWBOYSURVIVAL
03-03-2010, 09:25 PM
Yeah, but if you cut or split the orange, resin soaked, lighter into 1/2" X 1/2" strips that are maybe 4" or 5" long, you will have some great fire starting tinder. Shave it - hit it with a spark - viola - fire.

Exactly what I plan to do! and have enough to give away to friends light many campfires and fireplaces!

crashdive123
03-03-2010, 09:29 PM
Woo Hoo! Fire.

http://www.toonpool.com/user/324/files/caveman_144115.jpg

hunter63
03-03-2010, 10:54 PM
The fat wood, or lighter pine I have found, in the nort'woods is stumps that have been left to have most of the "wood" part rotted off.
Those trees were harvested 100 years ago.
Mostly the only thing left was the wood that was really saturated, call'un "Pine knots".

These things will burn so hot that they can burn out the bottom of a 55 gal drum stove, don't ask me how I know this.

The lighter pine I picked up in Louisiana, out of a yellow pine plantation, was laying on the ground, in some cases partially burned, and in others just had most of the wood rotted off.
I would guess that making lighter pine out of you pine would be a long process.
I do believe that if you dry it out, split it really thin, would still work a good kindling.

Some pine was heated in a up side down drum by a fire around it, to "boil" out the tar, to make turpentine. Kinda like rendering?

welderguy
03-03-2010, 10:58 PM
Well i learned something new today , Thank you.
Now I know what fat wood is.

GI JOE
03-20-2010, 05:53 PM
Here is what you are looking for and what look for. You can find it for sale I do not know how they make it I found this box of fat wood on line !They make some how? There is something at E HOW how make fat wood Good Luck

Stairman
03-21-2010, 06:21 AM
Im surprised that some folks dont know of its existence, especially outdoor folk. Maybe its a regional thing. I dont see your pine logs ever turning to fatwood though, the old beams you described were already fat when they were installed. The turpentine isnt the favorite flavor of termites. Many a old timers fence posts are knotty pine to aid in preservation. You could have lots of outdoor fires and maybe make a totempole like Kawliga.

Batch
03-21-2010, 01:17 PM
Poor ole kawliga...

justin_baker
04-11-2010, 03:49 AM
Fatwood happens like this, a tree falls over in a storm or is cut down by logging. The base of the tree is still alive and keeps pumping resin into the tree. The resin has nowhere to go, so it soaks and sits into the stump. The tree dies and the resin soaked wood is hardened and preserved from rot. Look for coniferous tree stumps. Kick at them, if they kick back at you then hack away. Try and separate the rotted stuff from the colored hard stuff

Survival Guy 10
04-18-2010, 09:48 PM
The pine has to be long leaf pine for it to become fat lighter simply because a long leaf grows slower than other trees The term heart pine comes from fat lighter because it comes from the inside of a long leaf tree or the heart. the wood in high in resin which termites dont like but longleaf trees that are cut down can still become fat lighter because it is already there when the tree gets older all you have to do is wait for the outer not resin filled parts to rot away

roar-k
07-07-2010, 09:58 AM
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I found this and thought it was interesting.


Pine Resin for Wilderness First-Aid
Fresh pine resin is an often overlooked resource that has many uses in the wilderness. One of these uses is to quickly seal wounds and stop bleeding.

http://www.bugoutsurvival.com/2010/07/pine-resin-for-wilderness-first-aid.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Bug-outSurvival+(Bug-Out+Survival)

Rick
07-07-2010, 10:17 AM
That's kind of funny actually. The guy was in his shop, cut himself and had to go to the woods to get something to stop the bleeding. AND HE'S A SURVIVALIST? How about a first aid kit, a rag or a bandana? Okay, I get his point. Pine sap works, too, I guess. I just thought it was funny.

And in other news.....

"Med 1 to ER".
"Go Ahead."
"Inbound with a laceration to the left forearm."
"10-4. Can you stop and pick up some pine sap?"