FATWOOD - What is it? Where and how do I find it???

[akthor]

OK so I am getting ready to go off in the woods and test the reground edge of my Tops Tracker. I see all these posts and pics of Fatwood. I actually have some that came in a tinder kit I bought here in the forums. Now I figure if I am going to go out and chop on dead trees I should try to be productive about it and find some fatwood.

So what exactly is it? How do I find it?

I believe from the posts it is old dead trees and the sap in the trees forms in pockets of the wood. Right?

So do I just go look for old dead stumps and such from piney type trees and chop away? Is there a science to the art or is it just random chance and two stumps can look the same but one have it and one doesn't?

Sitting here looking out my window I see several old dead pine stumps with moss on them. Likely suspects? Lots of dead stumps and trees lying all over my property.

How do you know if its fatwood? or just wood?

 

[carspidey]

I'd like to know this too...
I've seen pics from several places but don't know what to look for to find it...

 

[1066vik]

summer storm kills, stumps, etc... - chop into it and if there's a hard core, it may be fatwood. Fatwood is resin/sap infused pine. When branches are cut off in the summer, the sap will sometimes crystallize in them, creating fatwood. Same with a tree that was "topped" in a storm - it still pumps sap up into the trunk until the roots die, this sap fills all the pores/cells, dries/crystalizes and leaves you with a highly combustible and pargely rot-proof heartwood. (sometimes even if the stump is all rotted out, the roots will be fatwood, too)
for the large part, it's a lottery kind of thing - you'll be checking stumps and none of them are good, then you realize the branch under your feet is heavy and hard - bingo!

good luck, and have fun hunting!

 

[banana-clip]

That first stump in your pic looks like it might have some fatwood in it. The fatwood should be a dark, rich color and really hard wood and it might smell almost like pinesol if its from a pine tree. Where I'm at most of the fatwood is from pine trees and it smells almost like the pinesol cleaner. Sometimes in the old stumps its all rotton soft wood, but in the very middle there is fatwood. You will know when you see it.

 

[jalowa d]

so theres only fatwood in the heart of the tree and roots

 

[1066vik]

knots where branches have broken off can also have fatwood.

 

[Joezilla]

Search feature!!!!!

 

[akthor]

There's like a billion "fatwood find" threads I would have a tuff time finding answers to my query.

 

[storl]

Here you go:

[youtube]5dVdepPA-gc[/youtube]

 

[Skimo]

Some will be "skeletons" like the video Storl posted, but there may still be a rotted wood around the fatwood, take your hatchet/knife and chop into it, you'll either chop through or hit fatwood, it's colored from light amber to a dark red/purple.

 

[Bushman5]

FATWOOD!