Help about Fatwood

K

kr1

Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
1,343
Can someone tell me how I know if I have found fatwood? Is it sticky? Does it smell like sap? Is any wood I dig out of a softwood trees root area automatically Fatwood? I have dug around some softwood tree stumps and can't tell for sure if I any of it was actuall Fatwood. Any help would be appreciated.

KR
 
Fat wood, lighter wood, lightr'd knots are the dried hearts of southern pine trees. Their high concentrations of resins keeps them from rotting. Some trees are fat with the rotten sap wood still on it. I was working with a native who heated with wood when we saw a fallen pine. His response was "that tree's got to be fat cause it didn't break all up when it fell". He was right. The Orvis and LL Bean catalogs carry it and show pictures. The Orvis owner has a plantation here and the fat wood comes from it. UPS sends semi's out into the woods to the place each week during the winter to ship it.

The stickier it is, the more resin it has. Some seems dry but will still burn pretty hot. I used to use it to heat branding irons when I was ranching. My nephew made his hatchet handle from it when he was in BSA so he could always have a tinder source.

Yes it smells strongly. Hope that helps.
 
I checked Orvis's site. They don't get their fatwood from Leigh Perkins' plantation any more.

Despite what the site says, it has not all disappeared. Almost any place in this part of the world that has or has had mature pines will have some on it. I suspect labor costs and volume of production are responsible for sourcing it from Central America.
 
It will have a strong smell almost like turpentine. What I have is banded with the dark bands having an oily or waxy feel. I like to find a piece with a very thick dark band cut the rest away and use this in my survival kit; as it is very easy to start a fire with just a few shaving from it - even in rainy conditions. The lighter, drier stuff is still good but takes finer shavings and hotter spark to get going.
 
So mayby some of these small broken off stumps from when the beavers moved in 50-75 years ago , may at least contain some "resin impregnated wood" ?

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Edit: another pic:

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Phil
 
DLT sells it from Guatamala. The call it something else (south american sounding). Good stuff and cheap. I bought a life time supply for $20. It will catch and burn with the first sparks from my Lite My Fire sparker. (So much for typing today-ugh!)
Ron Athay
 
If it's pine and it's been around for several years without rotting, I'd say you're on track.
 
storl said:
Yeah, I thought that guy did an awesome job. :p

I plan on breaking that monster up into smaller chunks this week. If anyone wants a piece to see what it is like, I am willing to send some off for the cost of postage.
Click to expand...

You did do a great job bro, thanks again. And nice offer!
 
Good fatwood will have a strong smell when cut and will gunk up your saw or axe. It will be translucent when cut thin. And when it burns, it has huge flames and puts off clouds of black smoke.

Often you will find pine that is not the really good stuff, and you can see layers with the tree rings, alternating between good fatwood and regular wood.

If a pine stump has been there for a number of years and parts of it are still solid, cut into it to see if it is fatwood. Old non-fatwood pine does not have much smell, so the smell is a giveaway.
 
Put some heat to a sliver of it and if it takes off like a gut shot cat it is close enough.
 
When I first started lurking here, took me awhile to figure out what "fatwood" was...:confused:

I always just called it pitch...:o

Pretty handy stuff with a lot of uses besides fire.
 
Yeah, around here, "fatwood" is what rich folks buy at the store to start their fires with, while "pine knots" are what we poor hillbilly people gather in the woods to start ours with. Just silly semantics.:)
 
Pineknots and pitch are not the same as fatwood. As far as rich people and hillbillys, I think today was the first time in my life I have been called rich. My grandfather lived in a 3 room house sitting on stacked up creek rocks, the ridge behind his house was covered with 55 gallon drums with a coonhound tied to each one, he taught me what fatwood is and how to find it, I don't think anyone ever called him rich either. Chris

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This is the best example of a fatwood stump I have ever found.
 
It is my opinion Runningboar that you are very rich, and it has nothing to do with $$$. You seem to live a wonderful outdoor life, and spend it with family and good people, that is real wealth IMO. But the pic you posted would be called a massive pine knot stump by everyone I have ever camped, hunted or fished with. As I said it is simply semantics, not hard and fast rules. Although, I would agree that technically what some call "pine knots" are what we would call "roastin' ears" as they look like a big 'ole corn cob, and are the stumpy limb remnants on whole pine heart skeletons. And that stump in the pic is quite an impressive example of "FW"/"PK", A judicious man could light fires for 2 lifetimes, twice a day with what is in that resinous mammoth.
 
beckerhead said:
It is my opinion Runningboar that you are very rich, and it has nothing to do with $$$. You seem to live a wonderful outdoor life, and spend it with family and good people, that is real wealth IMO. But the pic you posted would be called a massive pine knot stump by everyone I have ever camped, hunted or fished with. As I said it is simply semantics, not hard and fast rules. Although, I would agree that technically what some call "pine knots" are what we would call "roastin' ears" as they look like a big 'ole corn cob, and are the stumpy limb remnants on whole pine heart skeletons. And that stump in the pic is quite an impressive example of "FW"/"PK", A judicious man could light fires for 2 lifetimes, twice a day with what is in that resinous mammoth.
Click to expand...

Touche, I agree, I am very rich. You are also very right about what I call a pine knot, which also burns very well. What we call pitch is the actual resin from fatwood, I guess a good term for fatwood would be pitch wood or pitch pine which I have heard it called before. Chris
 
beckerhead said:
It is my opinion Runningboar that you are very rich, and it has nothing to do with $$$. You seem to live a wonderful outdoor life, and spend it with family and good people, that is real wealth IMO. But the pic you posted would be called a massive pine knot stump by everyone I have ever camped, hunted or fished with. As I said it is simply semantics, not hard and fast rules. Although, I would agree that technically what some call "pine knots" are what we would call "roastin' ears" as they look like a big 'ole corn cob, and are the stumpy limb remnants on whole pine heart skeletons. And that stump in the pic is quite an impressive example of "FW"/"PK", A judicious man could light fires for 2 lifetimes, twice a day with what is in that resinous mammoth.
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with Beckerhead here, Runningboar. I'd like to add...without being schmaltzy...that we're all richer for having you on the forums. You've always got something intelligent to add and great photos, too.

Thanks for hanging out with us.
 
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