Fatwood is awesome!

kamagong

kamagong

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2001
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I have now experienced the joys of fatwood. After reading multiple threads in which you guys sing its praises, I finally decided to try it out. So I went on a little fatwood hunt. It took a while, but I finally found some...in the barbecue section of Wal-Mart. I know, I know it's not the same as getting it in the wild, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Since I had never seen any up until a couple of days ago, I would have a hard time finding it in its natural environment.

I tried out a couple of sticks in the grill out back. Broke it down into some smaller pieces, made some shavings and curls, ignited it with my Swedish Firesteel, and voila! Instant fire. I know you guys said that there is no better tinder than fatwood, but I didn't really believe how effective fatwood is until I saw it with my own two eyes. It was really cool seeing it catch fire so quickly and I got a kick out of seeing the resin bubble as it burned.

I am now a believer. I just spent 10 minutes sorting out my 5-lb. box into the good stuff and so-so pieces. It was roughly a 50/50 split. Still enough to last me a while. I'm going to save the good stuff for my outdoor adventures and the so-so for practice.

Thanks for putting up with my ramblings. I wanted to share my excitement. I tried talking to my wife, but she just rolled her eyes. You guys are the only ones who understand...

:D
 
I've been hearing about fatwood on here and I was wondering what the hell is fat wood? I looked it up and I know what it is... We call it pine knot here.
 
It gets worse. Soon you'll figure out how/where to find it in the woods and you'll be bringing that home. One day you'll find coffee cans or boxes of it all over the house. :p

Congrats on your purchase and having some fun learning. :thumbup:
 
Just tell the wife that you are making pine-scent potpourri for Christmas.
 
Various of us have long extolled the virtues of using Pitchwood (Fatwood, etc.) as a great natural tinder for firecraft. So I thought I'd share a pic of the actual application of said Pitchwood in the initial stages of building a backcountry fire.

In this pic you can see folks preparing to add kindling to the first tentative flames produced by the ignited pitchwood...

PitchFire.jpg


If one is careful, these tentative flame may be nursed into an actual fire...

8
 
Fatwood is one of natures little gifts. It is a great tinder all around, especially if it is common in the areas you frequent, but for me it really shines in three specific instances: Raining or recently rained and everything is soaked, You have a piece on you and need fire as quickly as possible (I always grab a small piece of the first I run across in the woods here just in case), or you need to build a signal fire and have access to a good bit of it.

What part of the country are you in?
 
I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, so there is no fatwood to be found locally unless you look at Ace, Home Depot, Lowes, or Wal-Mart. But Douglas Fir can be found on the coast or Ponderosa and Lodgepole pine in the Lake Tahoe area. I'm going to try to go on a fatwood hunting expedition next spring or summer. In the meantime, I'll be practicing with my Honduran variety. I haven't had this much fun making fire since I was a wee lad.
 
If you're in the Bay Area, you should come down for the next bush bash, probably next May. There is plenty of good ponderosa fatwood to be found there.
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I bring a few fat wood sticks with me whenever I'm out in the woods or camping, etc. That stuff is the best way to get a fire going, no matter what you have to work with.
 
Thanks for the invite John. Sounds fun, and I'll definitely try to make it. Gonna be hard with a two-year-old at home though.
 
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