Fatwood clarification.

Skimo

Skimo

Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
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I recently saw a thread with a guy asking about fatwood, and someone said it was only stumps,
I said I'd post pictures showing that the trunks can also be fatwood. I only took shots with my RAT 7
to try to show thickness of the fatwood.



Long shot, looks kinda like those weathered old fences.

29March003.jpg


Another fatwood trunk, this one is propped up by another tree. Notice how there's still a layer of rotted wood around the fatwood core.

29March004.jpg


This is the RAT 7 next to the trunk on the ground, at least a few hundred pounds of fatwood in a very small area.

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Hehe, I would if I had a power saw... cutting thin slices of fatwood by hand isn't very rewarding. :D

I just figured these might help other guys with fatwood identification.

These trees are so twisted, it makes for some awesome looking wood.
 
Skimo said:
I recently saw a thread with a guy asking about fatwood, and someone said it was only stumps,
I said I'd post pictures showing that the trunks can also be fatwood.
Click to expand...

I can be more than just trunks too. My recent windfall, all fatwood!

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IMG_2770.jpg





The root end is about 16 feet to the left...

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and the very tip end is about another 30 feet or so to the right.

IMG_2772.jpg
 
Just want to say thanks to Mistwalker and his info on fatwood. A few months ago, I asked if fatwood could be obtained from other than stumps, and he told me that it could. I had cut down a 60 year old dead pine tree that had been standing for about three years and there was what appeared to be fatwood in some of the limbs and knots where some of the old limbs had been cut off. The "fatwood" pieces smelled of turpentine, and he asked me how it burned. Well, it burns better than the commercial stuff. Thanks again. Sorry I don't have a camera for pictures.
 
If you have an acre of woods, there is likely fatwood there. And if there are living pine trees, then you can likely collect a lot of the sap, which is uber useful for firemaking, and pitch, and likely a lot of other stuff as well. On our recent trip, my buddy Chris and I found tons of fatwood, and a clump of sap on the side of a pine tree so big I cut off 1/4" thick slabs of the stuff.
 
Nice looking fatwood.

I'd get a lot of good fatwood in pines while climbing a tree with my tree stand while deer hunting. The limbs on the tree that broke off would have 6-12" of dead limbs from the tree, id have to cut them off with my pocket saw and there was some good fatwood on those dead limbs close to the base of the tree.
 
Nice clarification. I meant to show you a stump that we had here. I worked on it at lunch time one day but didnt have the right tools. It is a pine that was cut down a bit ago. May contain some fatwood. Recent discovery on my part. How are the kiddos? :)
 
so i have a question. it seems a large majority of WSS people are from the north and canada. is fatwood only from pine trees?

here in texas, (not the east part, they dont count) we dont really have much for pine trees, cedars have some resin but they dont collect like that when theyre dead. is this a northern thing? what exactly is the fatwood, pitch collections on a dead tree?
 
pretty much wyattT. It is also called pine knots, pitchwood, etc. Not only up north but far more prevalent. There is some in ours and my neck of the woods...but mostly like you said, cedar is the evergreen o choice here
 
theedge13 said:
Nice clarification. I meant to show you a stump that we had here. I worked on it at lunch time one day but didnt have the right tools. It is a pine that was cut down a bit ago. May contain some fatwood. Recent discovery on my part. How are the kiddos? :)
Click to expand...

Aww, nice, sierra saw and that CS kuhk-chete should work wonders.

Kids are doin' great, we're heading over to a friends house this afternoon for a BBQ, they've got kids too so it'll be fun for everyone.

I'm setting up a fatwood fire in my back yard for when my parents fly in, the neighborhood is gonna smell like fatwood! :D
 
jyearly said:
Just want to say thanks to Mistwalker and his info on fatwood. A few months ago, I asked if fatwood could be obtained from other than stumps, and he told me that it could. I had cut down a 60 year old dead pine tree that had been standing for about three years and there was what appeared to be fatwood in some of the limbs and knots where some of the old limbs had been cut off. The "fatwood" pieces smelled of turpentine, and he asked me how it burned. Well, it burns better than the commercial stuff. Thanks again. Sorry I don't have a camera for pictures.
Click to expand...

Cool man, glad I could help!

banana-clip said:
Nice looking fatwood.

I'd get a lot of good fatwood in pines while climbing a tree with my tree stand while deer hunting. The limbs on the tree that broke off would have 6-12" of dead limbs from the tree, id have to cut them off with my pocket saw and there was some good fatwood on those dead limbs close to the base of the tree.
Click to expand...

Sometimes the fatwood will only build up in the bases of the limbs and the rest of the tree will deteriorate away. We call those "pine knots" and they look like this.

BK7.jpg


Firecrafting.jpg


BK13PineKnot.jpg


IMG_2367.jpg


.
 
Skimo said:
Aww, nice, sierra saw and that CS kuhk-chete should work wonders.

Kids are doin' great, we're heading over to a friends house this afternoon for a BBQ, they've got kids too so it'll be fun for everyone.

I'm setting up a fatwood fire in my back yard for when my parents fly in, the neighborhood is gonna smell like fatwood! :D
Click to expand...

SOUNDS FUN! Careful of that stupid wind! Gotta love Oklahoma this time of the year...wait...wind is ALWAYS blowing here... :jerkit:
 
there should be some good blowovers after that storm just hit in the SE
 
wyattT said:
so i have a question. it seems a large majority of WSS people are from the north and canada. is fatwood only from pine trees?

Up here in Central B.C. I have been finding some good fatwood in stumps of Douglass Fir trees. I don't know what other tree species have fatwood.
Click to expand...
 
I have found fatwood in stumps, roots, trunk of a standing dead tree, and in the knots where branches broke off the trunk, the rest of the trunk was pretty rotten.

And yes, pine trees, although some species are better than others at producing fatwood.
 
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