Free Fatwood

M

magneto

Joined
Mar 21, 2006
Messages
502
Being I am living in the Pacific Northwest now instead of Georgia, I did not think we had any fatwood out here. What I did find was about 25% strength of that I found back home, hardly worth looking for. But I stepped outside a few minutes ago and saw what looked like a fatwood stump. Well to my surprise it was! Not only is it fatwood, it is the best quality that I have ever found! (Georgia too) I just want to pass on to whoever is looking for it to not give up, it is out there.


Fatwood_1.jpg
 
:thumbup: I love having a great excuse to go for a hike - more fatwood! and a great reason to chop like a madman. Welcome to the NW.

J.
 
What species of tree makes the best fatwood?

There's no pitch pine trees in my area, but white pines (with the long needles) seem to be the most resinous trees around here.

Would be nice to see a list ranking the various evergreens
 
Nice find. You do recognize the leaves on the right side of the photo?
Looks like Poison oak.
Bill
 
Lots of Scots Pines have been introduced to this area. Mature examples often have lumps of resin clinging to the bark or on the ground near the trunk, apparently resuting from sap flows at injury points. I have collected as much as a pound of dried resin in a few minutes.

Have to start looking for pine stumps.
 
sketchbag said:
What species of tree makes the best fatwood?

There's no pitch pine trees in my area, but white pines (with the long needles) seem to be the most resinous trees around here.

Would be nice to see a list ranking the various evergreens
Click to expand...

I think lob-lolly pines are the best for making fatwood. And of course there isn't any around here.

billym said:
Nice find. You do recognize the leaves on the right side of the photo?
Looks like Poison oak.
Bill
Click to expand...

No I can't say I recognize it, but perhaps I need to do some research on it because it is EVERYWHERE out here.
 
I don't know about eastern species for fatwood because I didn't know anything about fatwood when I lived there. But now, in my neck of the woods, the best fatwood I have found has come from Ponderosa pine.

Magneto - I would like to know what species you found there in the NW. If you are in a coastal area, there aren't many pine species there, and it may be a fir, of which there are plenty in coastal areas there.
 
lambertiana said:
I don't know about eastern species for fatwood because I didn't know anything about fatwood when I lived there. But now, in my neck of the woods, the best fatwood I have found has come from Ponderosa pine.

Magneto - I would like to know what species you found there in the NW. If you are in a coastal area, there aren't many pine species there, and it may be a fir, of which there are plenty in coastal areas there.
Click to expand...


Hard to tell for sure from the stump, but I assume it to be a fir. I live about 20 miles from the coast. And you are spot on about the pines here, all the ones I have seen have been in someones yard. Decorative no doubt.
 
I'd be interested to know if anyone has found any in the northeast or northern midwest. I've looked around but haven't found much. I haven't spent days dedicated to finding it though, so who knows, coulda just missed it.
 
k-spar said:
I'd be interested to know if anyone has found any in the northeast or northern midwest. I've looked around but haven't found much. I haven't spent days dedicated to finding it though, so who knows, coulda just missed it.
Click to expand...

It's here in MN. Look for jack pine stumps. The best I have found was in the Seatle area this summer. It was down and burned (scorched) Douglas Fir.
I smuggled a nice hunk home in my luggage.:D
 
mewolf1 said:
It's here in MN. Look for jack pine stumps. The best I have found was in the Seatle area this summer. It was down and burned (scorched) Douglas Fir.
I smuggled a nice hunk home in my luggage.:D
Click to expand...

well, if it's in Minnesota, it'll probably be here in Vermont too. All the vegetation here seems very familiar to the stuff I know from back in Minnesota. I'll have to go out looking for it.
 
The plant in the pic appears to be blackberry, looks like a vine running across the right side.

Fatwood seems to come from longer taller even "fingerlike" stumps. evidence of stumps being really old is also a seemingly good place to start.

Some SAR guys - yes you River8 and Dunner - would hit the stump w/ the backs of their knives. When the wood rings out or sounds dense - start diggin'. You'll know you found some for sure when you smell it.

Happy Thanksgiving all
J.
 
After reading a thread by River8 I went out looking. On the SE side of Mt Adams (south central washington) I found a 3 ft high 3 ft round pine stump that was solid fatwood. One root stem 10" round, 2 foot long was solid fatwood (dark resin color, hard as any wood I have seen). After two hours of sawing and chopping I had a box full of fat wood. I tested it then and again last week. It lit with a spark and burned for 5 minutes. I think I now have a life time supply.
It wasn't very hard to find. The whole area had be logged off then burned (an old technique used in the northwest to incourage fir regrowth.
Ron Athay
 
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