Is there a fatwood equivalent in the Northeast U.S.?

mrgreen

mrgreen

Joined
Dec 26, 2009
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After reading Coloradowildman's excellent fatwood thread, I searched and found that none of the fatwood producing Pines are common to New England and the Northeast US. Is there any material found in this area that that can be used as kindling in wet, adverse conditions?
 
I understand Birch bark is great as tinder. Haven't tried yet but I understand it takes a spark well. I'm wondering if something will work like fatwood. You know, readily burning with enough heat to get damp wood to ignite.
 
Birch bark burns pretty darn hot. Hopefully someone on the right coast will come by and help you out but as far as I know Birch is it.
 
MrGreen, if you need fatwood and can't find any, I can always send up a care package. :)
 
Very generous of Mannlicher but
you can find fatwood in places like HomeDepot.
Its used for fireplace starter.
I bought a giant bag of it for 3 bucks.
 
Birch bark burns quite well, the only problem I have is the smoke(smokes like a tire fire). I would think birch bark would almost work better to help dry damp wood because is burns much longer than you would think.
 
In a rainy situation, Birch Bark works great, but you can find standing dead white pines pretty easily in most places in the Northeast, and with some chopping and splitting, you can get some great fuzzies from the knots. The quality isn't the same, but it smells somewhat like fatwood, and burns very well.
 
Austrian pine ( pinus nigra ) is fairly common in the ohio region and produces great fatwood at the branch nodes. Look for the dead, stubbed off lower braches. It's all I ever use.
 
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Birch bark be it White, Silver or Paper it is all good. :thumbup:
 
I find fatwood regularly in Ct. Look for white pines. There are a few stands of red pine left that also have it but a blight got most of them. One of the biggest bunches I've found was in someones backyard. They had cut down some live white pines about 20 yrs earlier to open up their yard. 24" across and 4' tall. All fatwood! The birchbark works good also.--KV
 
Birch bark is the bomb. It can be left to soak in water for days and will still ignite. I've experimented with it quite a bit.
 
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