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Had to do lots of work to cut these out but it was worth it. On one side the resin is completely black, like a sticky wax. These pieces are heavy like lead lol.
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Nice pieces of blackish-red fatwood I cut out of a dead Douglas Fir tree
- Thread starter coloradowildman
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Thanks! They're not that big. The bigger piece is 6 1/2 inches long by 1 1/4 inches wide and the smaller one is 6 inches by 1 inch. I have some other pieces that are all black too. I'll to post pics of them here later.
Cheers, CW
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Lol, that would be a great idea as long as we couldn't smell somebody's body odor. These are very strong smelling pieces, like citrus mixed with turpentine.
schmittie
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Agreed. I have bought some fatwood from the big 'DIY' stores but the quality is very low IMO. Now THAT fatwood is good stuff! I wish there were more pines around here, but when you live in the middle of the bread basket of America, you are surrounded by fields.
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The Douglas Fir tends to produce stuff that's dark ruby red, whereas the pine varieties produce stuff that's light red to orange, hence the "bacon" look of these
Pine fatwood though is much easier to find, as the best Douglas Fir is found in the middle of a trunk or in the middle of a large root sometimes. I did find a Doug Fir stump that was fatwood once and though it burns excellent, does not have to thick resin of the stuff that is found in the middle of random dead trunks. Though it's pain to find, it's still the best fatwood I've ever used. The Longleaf Pine from the south produces great solid resin sticks but is not as flammable as the Douglas Fir tree stuff. The Fir fatwood burns like rocket fuel! So it's fun to look for it knowing that it's a bit more rare and performs so well in adverse conditions. I lit a piece of some that was similar to this in a pouring 35 degree rain last year and it burned for 15 mins in the downpour!
Pine fatwood though is much easier to find, as the best Douglas Fir is found in the middle of a trunk or in the middle of a large root sometimes. I did find a Doug Fir stump that was fatwood once and though it burns excellent, does not have to thick resin of the stuff that is found in the middle of random dead trunks. Though it's pain to find, it's still the best fatwood I've ever used. The Longleaf Pine from the south produces great solid resin sticks but is not as flammable as the Douglas Fir tree stuff. The Fir fatwood burns like rocket fuel! So it's fun to look for it knowing that it's a bit more rare and performs so well in adverse conditions. I lit a piece of some that was similar to this in a pouring 35 degree rain last year and it burned for 15 mins in the downpour!
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For those interesting finding this type of fatwood, the Douglas Fir is most easily identified by the pine cones, which have distinctive streamers on them
Also, the needles are soft, whereas the Spruce tree has hard needles which kinda hurt to grab.
Here's a cool article by Mother Earth magazine from 1985 that talks about fatwood and how to find the different varieties http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1985-11-01/Lightwood-Natures-Own-Fire-Starter.aspx
Also, the needles are soft, whereas the Spruce tree has hard needles which kinda hurt to grab.
Here's a cool article by Mother Earth magazine from 1985 that talks about fatwood and how to find the different varieties http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1985-11-01/Lightwood-Natures-Own-Fire-Starter.aspx
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