Fatwood mother lode

D

D2FB

Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
107
Some photos of a little fatwood prospecting today- been keeping an eye for some time on this stump - if you can use that term for an 8 foot + portion of tree standing. Today was first chance to check it out more thoroughly. I cannot even guess how will be there if entire stump processed.

QUESTION: If I try to harvest large pieces with chain saw am I asking for trouble as far as chain saw damage?

some of the take - nice amber color
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another image taken later of one piece removed
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photo of stump from which fatwood taken - the standing part of "stump" is a few feet taller than I am - significant harvest will mean a chainsaw or other large saw
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another image of stump w axe for size reference - a Council Tool Hudson Bay w 18" handle
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another image of axe with some of the take from the standing part of stump
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image of the lower portion of the tree top on the ground near the stump - significant fatwood in the lower portion of this part of the tree on the ground
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close up image of portion of tree on ground after some fatwood removal
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Oooh nice find.
As far as the chainsaw question, I have no idea,
but I think you might run into a little trouble with
it becoming gunked up with resin as it heats up
the wood. The least it would leave you with is
a mess and probably significant cleaning.
 
D2FB, motherlode it is. I am in the same boat. My cousin just bought a new farm in the southern part of Ohio, and part of it has around 30 to 35 acres of pine trees all together on one hillside. I can not wait until our family reunion this summer, I will guarantee you the bed of my truck will be full coming home . . . . :thumbup:
The only thing I would worry about is gumming up your chain on your saw. Might want to find some inexpensives chains for it & use these. Other choice would be to take down bigger pieces with an axe. Good luck and good find.
Be safe.
 
PDE said:
Oooh nice find.
As far as the chainsaw question, I have no idea,
but I think you might run into a little trouble with
it becoming gunked up with resin as it heats up
the wood. The least it would leave you with is
a mess and probably significant cleaning.
Click to expand...

And a life-long supply of fatwood shavings/dust! :thumbup:
 
That's some good fatwood.

What species of pine is that? What state are you in? It's been a while since I was in the east and my eastern pine identification isn't what it used to be. The bark looks like it could be longleaf pine, but if you are in the northeast it would have to be something else.

I would expect longleaf pine to be a good source of fatwood. Longleaf was the pine of choice in colonial days for pine stores - pitch, turpentine, etc.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! sweet find!

as for running a chainsaw thru that resin rich motherlode, please heed the following advice (i speak from much experience)

DILUTE (about 20%) your chain oil with kerosene, this will help keep the chain from gumming up and LOCKING up solid under load. Keep the chain SHARP, extremely sharp, and GO SLOW when you start the cut. Let the saw do the work, DO NOT FORCE it.

sweeeeeet haul!
 
Bushman5 said:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! sweet find!

as for running a chainsaw thru that resin rich motherlode, please heed the following advice (i speak from much experience)

DILUTE (about 20%) your chain oil with kerosene, this will help keep the chain from gumming up and LOCKING up solid under load. Keep the chain SHARP, extremely sharp, and GO SLOW when you start the cut. Let the saw do the work, DO NOT FORCE it.

sweeeeeet haul!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't know about adding kerosene, but Bushman speaks the truth. I have a couple of large gnarled knots of fat wood from a buddy who cleared his land. It tore my chain saw blade up! It will dull your blade extremely fast and wasn't the best idea for me:o

ROCK6
 
Nice find. As I read through the posts, I also wondered about kerosene to keep the chain working. As a kid I only used an axe then wiped it down with kerosene to clean the tacky pitch off. You could throw a plastic tarp on the ground as you are chainsawing and save the dust. Isn't the fine dust also sold as "Maya" dust or something like that? Collect it up and get some old snuff cans to put it in. You could call it "Motherload". Looks like a lot of work. I bet it smells great. Have fun and be safe. It would be interesting to take a chunk of it like a post and bury one end in the ground and lite it for a winter party. You would not want to sit downwind due to the black thick smoke. I read somewhere you could do that and put a X in the end of the log, pour kerosene on it and fire it up to use as a stove, cooking on it as it burned down to the ground. Have fun.
 
Neato. It'll take you forever to go through that. I got a small log of it last year. 4" diameter x 3 feet long tapering to a point on one end. I'm still chipping away at it. Probably take me 5 years or so.
 
come across this stump while clearing a fence line. Didn't realize it was solid fat wood until I started cutting it. It was about 2' tall and yielded about 60 lbs of fat wood. I cut it up with my brand new chainsaw(less than 15 minutes on it) with no problems. Go for it before some one else does.
 
Just a quick word of advice. Only split what ur gonna need soon. If you break it all down it will lose alot of its resinous goodness. We broke down a massive stump into smalls splits and inside of 2-3 years it was just dry pine. Still lights and burns great, but NOT the sticky yellow orange goodness I wanted. It will waterlog, and the flame is not nearly as hardy as resin packed fatwood.
 
I have a wood log in my backyard about 6" in diameter and 8" high that I brought home a couple days ago and I just can't break any chunks of fatwood off. It's almost like a brick of pure resiny goodness. I guess I'll just have to slowly work at it.
 
nice! there's a logging show on the discovery channel and i think they're in canada. is the logging industry why there's just a ton of fatwood there? or all the stuff you guys that live there are finding (bushman5, northern, etc.) are from storms and what not leaving those stumps behind?
 
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