Question on the longevity of fatwood

Walkabout

Walkabout

Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
637
Hi,

A recent posting about fatwood made me wonder about its "shelf-life".

Are there thoughts/opinions about how long fatwood might be useful as a component of a fire-making kit or survival kit? Might the aspects of the pine resin that make it desirable for fire-lighting (i.e. flammable... like a petroleum/solvent) gradually diminish over time due to evaporation/sublimation of solvents, requiring a replenishing of supplies?

I realize that there isn't likely to be a strong evidence/research base to inform opinions, but this is likely to be the most experienced group one could ask! :)
 
I think it lasts indefinitely buddy, if ya think of amber that is still amber no matter how long you leave it eh !
 
pitdog said:
I think it lasts indefinitely buddy, if ya think of amber that is still amber no matter how long you leave it eh !
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That makes sense! Suddenly the amber necklace that I bought my daughter takes on a whole new look... I can picture a new survival fashion craze with a bunch of tough dudes out there wearing amber jewellery and paracord bracelets :)

If it weren't so expensive, I'd love to see how amber jewellery shaves and takes a spark!
 
Well...the darker stuff you run across has already been around a good while. It doesn't absorb water and I don't know of anything that eats it. I'd say in a box on a shelf it could stick around for a long time to come. I don't store it inside or break it into small pieces until I am processing it into kits. I just throw the stumps out by my fire pit and some of them have been there for at least a few years now.
 
I have several boxes of the store bought kind. (cant think of the name..comes in a black, yellow, and red box.) I've had one of them for about 3 years now and so far so good. I keep it in the carport with the doors down, so it has gone through a good bit of temperature change.
 
I think it will last a very long time, check out this floor in my buddies cabin, the cabin was made of wood on this property the floor is all fat lighter.

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I think thats antique heartpine. I'm not sure if that is the same as fatwood. Considering how small the inside goodness of the fatwood pith is inside the vascular tissue. If that is all fatwood, I'll be seriously impressed!
 
Well...that's what he told me. It sure looks like it. This 850 acres of his is just a little north and east of Lake Okeechobee. Plenty of resin pine around these parts.

The rest of the cabin is all Cedar and Cypress.
 
The outermost layer of my stumps will weather eventually but it takes at least a couple of years (never kept track) but even then just knock off about 1/8 in. and the inside is as good as ever.
 
angle iron said:
The outermost layer of my stumps will weather eventually but it takes at least a couple of years (never kept track) but even then just knock off about 1/8 in. and the inside is as good as ever.
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Yep, there is a stack of lightered (fatwood) stumps behind the barn on my grandmothers property. I know they have been there at least 30 years. You can knock a chunk off and it will be weathered on the outside and perfect just a fraction of an inch inside. I would think the real stuff would last at least a hundred years or more. It doesn't rot, it seems to get more concentrated if anything. I don't know about the store bought stuff. I've seen other folks buy it for starting pits and fireplaces. It doesn't look, smell, or act like real lightered.
 
The only degradation in effectiveness I have witnessed is shaved or powdered fatwood stored for 3+ weeks to months. It still lights and burns, just not as vigorous as fresh ground.

J.
 
pitdog said:
I think it lasts indefinitely buddy, if ya think of amber that is still amber no matter how long you leave it eh !
Click to expand...

Just to be clear amber, while derived from resin, is not resin. Amber is petrified resin. The comment of using amber to start fires (comment made after your) would be analogous to using petrified wood to try to make a fire, just a guess but I don't think it will work very well:)
 
I have fatwood from five years ago that seems just as good today as the day it was harvested. It seems to last a long, long time.
 
VTguy said:
Just to be clear amber, while derived from resin, is not resin. Amber is petrified resin. The comment of using amber to start fires (comment made after your) would be analogous to using petrified wood to try to make a fire, just a guess but I don't think it will work very well:)
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A quick bit of research suggests this to be true. While not the same process as petrification which involves replacement of carbon structures with mineral deposits nucleated to the original organic structure, resins get converted to amber under temperature and high pressure the results in considerable transformation of its chemical structure.

From wikipedia:

'Molecular polymerization, resulting from high pressures and temperatures produced by overlying sediment, transforms the resin first into copal. Sustained heat and pressure drives off turpenes and results in the formation of amber.'

Based on the lost of turpenes, the chief flammable component, it would seem that amber would have lost the desirable fuel characteristics of fatwood.

Than again, the OP probably isn't concerned if their fatwood will last a few hundred thousand to a million years. A couple of decades is probably sufficient.

The very fact that you can smell fatwood means it is giving off the good stuff to the air. Thus preservation amounts to minimizing surface area and keeping it in a block form. Basically, what everybody else says. The reason you find the stuff in crumbling stumps is that it is the only constituent left. Clearly, it doesn't last for ever otherwise the boreal forest floor would get hardened up with culminating fatwood stumps. However, keeping it out of the combined elements of water and bacteria probably helps. I'm sure you can easily get decades to centuries out of a block of fatwood if it is kept dry and out of the elements.
 
Thanks for all of your helpful input everyone.

Point taken about the amber not likely being a good firestarter... I'll give my daughter her necklace back :)
 
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