Fatwood opinions ?

[Robbie Roberson]

Hello, I am a fatwood nut.........anyone else like it ? Anyone else find it in the woods in old sawed stumps ?

I have many old fatwood stumps around my house and use much of it to start fires in my wood stove.

I did a search and did not see any topics on this......


Robbie Roberson.

[Rick]

Robbie - Fatwood is awfully good for lighting fires no matter where you are. Unfortunately, I'm from the old school that said pines and other heavy resin woods are bad in the fireplace. I know better but still can't bring myself to burn them.

I don't use it much in the wild either because I don't have access to it. Most of the forests locally are state and federally owned and you don't often find commercially lumbered areas in them. So you have to find a tree thats down or carry it with you.

[Robbie Roberson]

Rick, I understand about the resin. I don't use much fatwood to light a fire in my wood stove.

I did a test a while back and just scraped a few slices off an old hardened dead pine stump and soaked the scrapings in water and they lit instantly with my lighter.

This is some really neat natural fire making material IMO.




Robbie Roberson.

[canid]

have you tried the roots or the branch knots? they realy accumulate a lot of terpines and are great. i've seen the stumps used for tar manufacture.

[spiritman]

Back up a sec, I've never heard the term fatwood. Is it just old dead pine where resin clumped or what?

[Elkchsr]

From Wikipedia

Fatwood is a fire starter that is cut from the stump of a pine tree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwood

[Robbie Roberson]

Heres what little I know about it.........and by the way, when I first found it it was like finding a gem in the woods........

Some pines trees that are cut or fallen over in their prime seem to continue to produce resin which will accumilate in the stump..........exactly how or why this happens I have no clue.

All I know is here in Tennessee where I live you can go into the woods and search for "Bleached grey" looking stumps and almost be certain it will be fatwood.........a quick cut on the side of the stump will reveal if it is.

If it is, it will be hard as a rock and very grey looking on the outside until you make your cut.........which is very hard to do because the wood is seemingly so preserved from the great amount of resin.........I'm guessing here.

A few slices and you will reveal the beautiful gold red like color of the resin.........one strike of a match and it will be an instant flame in your hand that will last for several minutes depending on the size of the piece of wood you lit.

Believe me, this stuff is well worth the time spent to harvest. If harvested right, you will never ever need to worry about fire starting again.

A chain saw is almost always needed to cut the stump off at ground level, then cut it up in slices to get home. A word of caution here, this stuff is hard as a rock and you can get cut in a hurry if not careful when using a knife or ax..........and easily break knife blades........they are no match for this stuff.

It's easiest to cut with a chain saw and then split with the grain using a wedge or a solid hatchet and a large hammer........safety glasses are a must while doing this.

Work it up, then store in zip locs..........save all chainsaw dust for making fires too.


Here is a link to a great example of wood color etc. (if this link is not allowed please remove)

The pics at bottom right are clickable, these are more like what I see........some parts of the stump may be rotting.

I am not familiar with the "whole tree" type fatwood, only stumps.

http://thelograck.com/fatwood.html


Robbie Roberson

[Aurelius95]

I had no idea about this stuff! I went camping with my wife and her parents in the fall. Her dad had brought some wood, but had separated a few pieces from the rest. When I was making the fire one day, he laughed when he realized I had used 3 of the "separated" wood as kindling. Turns out it was fatwood and I could have used just about 1/4 of one of the pieces. Oh well. Now I know!

[NorthWindTrails]

Just my two cents, again ... if anyone is interested in getting a big supply of this fatwood and doesn't mind spending a few bucks at Walmart to test it, they have a bag full of 5 or 6 inch long by around 1/2 to 1 inch square pieces that could be shaved for stretching the supply. I appreciate the reminder, though, that this stuff is well worth looking for in the wilderness. Great post topic! NorthWind

[AdventureDoc]

Robbie--Thanks for the education! I haven't heard of this, either. You open the stump and remove the resin to coat smaller bits of wood for fire starting? Unless you are taking the whole thing, I guess!

Thanks!

[Blitz]

Here is some more info (links at bottom) you can also buy it here.

http://www.fatwood.com/

Not affiliated BTW.

Blitz

[Rick]

Ad - You use the wood you extract from the stump. It's resin rich so it burns easily. It isn't dripping with resin just impregnated with it.

[Robbie Roberson]

AdventureDoc, you don't actually open the stump, you cut slices of resin filled wood off the stump. Each slice you make in a resin rich stump will contain enough resin in that slice to start a fire if you have dry kindling above it of course........it's raining and snowing.....No problem, fatwood will burn like kerosene.......

Heres the deal, in a survival situation, find a stump, carefully baton or chop a few good rich slices off this stump and your ready to make a fire (if you have access to other dry wood) much faster.

I am not much good at some things in the woods but I can sure spot fatwood stumps. Take a pair of binoculars with you into the woods and it will save a lot of walking. Simply get the color grey in your mind and you will spot one shortly I'm sure.

Once you find a stump and make one slice "downward" to scrape the white outer layer off you will know instantly if you have struck gold.

The smell of fatwood is that of very strong pine resin smell. When you do get a stump, take your time and work it up slowly and you will be so proud of yourself when you get home and light a piece of this stuff and watch it burn for many minutes.......emitting a little black smoke as it burns and sizzles....the strong smell is pine resin burning.

Did I tell you It will even burn after being in water ?

I would love to hear if someone who did not know about this stuff report back here and let us know what you think after you harvest your first fatwood stump. On my front porch at this very moment I have a large bucket sitting full of home grown fatwood slices that I use almost daily to start a fire in my wood stove. I did not buy this.........it came from my woods !

One 6 inch long by one half inch wide piece will easily start a roaring fire with dry oak splits.........it will easily burn for around 5 to 8 minutes very hot.

Thanks for the links and input.

Here is another interesting link/read,

http://www.maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm

Robbie Roberson.

[RBB]

AdventureDoc, you don't actually open the stump, you cut slices of resin filled wood off the stump. Each slice you make in a resin rich stump will contain enough resin in that slice to start a fire if you have dry kindling above it of course........it's raining and snowing.....No problem, fatwood will burn like kerosene.......

Heres the deal, in a survival situation, find a stump, carefully baton or chop a few good rich slices off this stump and your ready to make a fire (if you have access to other dry wood) much faster.

I am not much good at some things in the woods but I can sure spot fatwood stumps. Take a pair of binoculars with you into the woods and it will save a lot of walking. Simply get the color grey in your mind and you will spot one shortly I'm sure.

Once you find a stump and make one slice "downward" to scrape the white outer layer off you will know instantly if you have struck gold.

The smell of fatwood is that of very strong pine resin smell. When you do get a stump, take your time and work it up slowly and you will be so proud of yourself when you get home and light a piece of this stuff and watch it burn for many minutes.......emitting a little black smoke as it burns and sizzles....the strong smell is pine resin burning.

Did I tell you It will even burn after being in water ?

I would love to hear if someone who did not know about this stuff report back here and let us know what you think after you harvest your first fatwood stump. On my front porch at this very moment I have a large bucket sitting full of home grown fatwood slices that I use almost daily to start a fire in my wood stove. I did not buy this.........it came from my woods !

One 6 inch long by one half inch wide piece will easily start a roaring fire with dry oak splits.........it will easily burn for around 5 to 8 minutes very hot.

Thanks for the links and input.

Here is another interesting link/read,

http://www.maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm

Robbie Roberson.

I have a friend who comes up to visit now and again. He lives in Florida, and his property borders Georgia. He is originally from wherever they wrote the Foxfire books and several of his relations are heavily featured in those books.

A real Southern Gentleman, he always brings a pile of fat wood for our fireplace. It is very welcome. We have nothing like that up here.

Kind of a humorous aside, he was always one to let you know "the south shall rise again," expounding on the lost glories of the Confederacy. As someone with ancestors who fought for the union, I had little interest in, or sympathy for, this line of reasoning.

Once when he was here, he was very depressed. Seems he'd done some research on his family tree and found that over half his Civil War ancestors had fought in the Union Army. Raised to revere the south, he was inconsolable.

[wareagle69]

i use it in my wood stove but it only takes a few small shavings to start a fire so i am not worried about it, i use a stricker to start extremeley easy to use..

[Rick]

Here to serve....

[wareagle69]

cheeseburger large fries and a coke no wiat pepsi

[Rick]

Cheeseburger, cheeseburge, fries, no pepsi.

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[bulrush]

Fatwood comes from the base of a species of pine found only in the warmer, southern climates of the US, Mexico and south of Mexico. It does not grow in Michigan here but they do sell it in the store, and it works great.

Not every pine has "fatwood" useful for starting fires. It refers to a certain species found in southern US and Mexico. Anyway, that's what my research showed. Has anyone found this in the northern states? If so, what species of pine do you think it was?

[Rick]

Not necessarily. It can also be harvested from the Longleaf Yellow Pine in Honduras and Montezuma Pine or Rough-branched Mexican pine that can be found in Mexico and Guatemala. Most of the Fatwood that is purchased today comes from one of those sources. You'll see the Montezuma Pine most commonly sold as pino de ocote.

The Long Leaf Pine that you reference is in decline and now covers less than 5% of its original acreage. Very little is harvested today.