Tinder in the Pac NW when its wet?

bodydamage

bodydamage

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Jan 10, 2007
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I was kicking around at the park with the kids today and as always, was on the lookout for tinder.. Its been raining hard here for the past week or so so everything is super wet.. I grabbed some bark off of a cedar tree and proceeded to break it down.. I pulled some that looked relatively dry and tore it and rubbed it between my hands for a bit.. I hit it with my fire steel and all I could get it to do was make a glowing ember for a sec or 2 and it caught very briefly for a sec twice.. Just to make sure it was the tinder and not my technique, I hit it with a match and it still wouldn't go up.. It would light briefly and then go out.. It was just too wet..

So when everything's been under water for ever, where do you find natural tinder that takes a spark.. Preferably from a fire steel.. I could have whipped out a PJC, but I was looking for something in the woods..
 
In our part of the world, certain things that are taken for granted elsewhere can be really challenging. Up here I always brought tinder as well as a tarp for shelter. Debris shelters in our environment are not a real option most of the time.

That being said, if you can find some good fatwood and scape it real fine, you should be able to get a flame. Putting it in the center of a nest made from that inner cedar bark would be nice, too.) Bigger trees with broader canopies will likely have dryer trunks, not to mention undergrowth.

Hopefully pitdog will chime in here. He seems to have locating fatwood in the PNW wired.
 
Pritch said:
Hopefully pitdog will chime in here. He seems to have locating fatwood in the PNW wired.
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I sure could use some pointers.. I'm from GA and where I grew up you could walk through the woods without tripping over the stuff.. I'm not having any luck up here..
 
Fatwood will stay waterproof as it is resin saturated wood. Species like pine will contain amounts in branch collar areas, logs and cut stumps. It will have a rich, shiny color to it.

Polypore Tinder Fungus (there are two types, the True and the False, both work), can be found on Birch trees.
 
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Last week I demonstrated twice how well fatwood would take a spark by throwing a piece in a bucket of water, letting it sink, talking for about thirty minutes or so, then taking the piece out and rolling it on my pants leg..splitting it in-two and scraping fuzz from the inside of the split and igniting it with a spark from a fire steel. In those conditions, if you can find it, fatwood would be the best go-to tinder
 
Snap off dead sticks in the undergrowth of evergreen trees. THese are often dry even in a downpour. Even if they're not, you can whittle into the dead dry stuff in the middle. Will easily light with a firesteel.

This is a readily available natural tinder almost everywhere. I love fatwood but sometimes it's just not in the area or you don't have the time to invest to look for it.
 
In the PNW fatwood is available and would be your best bet as a natural tinder or even kindling to start a fire.
 
Sorry buddy the only reliable natural tinder that I have found works when everything is soaked through is fatwood.
Have you tried breaking down pine cones into real fine stuff, I have sometimes had luck with those.
Do you have Birch where you live ? If ya take some Birch bark and fluff it up up really fine with your knife that should also take a spark.
 
Ive been using fatwood before I even knew it was anything special.. We used to call it fat lighter and would light stumps of it at a time.. I didnt see any around where we were today.. Ill have to take a look at some of the birch fungus..
 
Do you guys have Birch trees out there?

Birch bark is water proof and will take a spark
 
Find some weeping pitch sap from any evergreen,rub your
shredded cedar on it,you will be able to get it to flame quite readily
Dan'l
 
fatwood, and if you can find a cedar stump start chopping...there will ALWAYS be dry kindling
 
I spent Thanksgiving in Brookings Oregon with my parents and each day went out in wet weather to practice fire lighting skills. The Pacific Northwest is so wet; it is very hard to get dry firewood let alone dry tinder. The firewood I got was in large diameter branches of downed trees. The only way to get it is using an axe or saw because all small stuff is soaked all the way through.

I never did figure out the tinder so I use cotton balls with Vaseline.

Geoff
 
All the pine trees around here will have strings of sap dripping down them. I've been able to grab these off the tree and ignite them. On fallen trees, I've been able to harvest ping-pong ball sized chunks of dried sap, which crush with some effort and light with ease. These look pretty much like a small hard fungus, but will break off with a whack or a slice.

What do you call fatwood if you take away the wood?
 
eomeo said:
All the pine trees around here will have strings of sap dripping down them. I've been able to grab these off the tree and ignite them. On fallen trees, I've been able to harvest ping-pong ball sized chunks of dried sap, which crush with some effort and light with ease. These look pretty much like a small hard fungus, but will break off with a whack or a slice.

What do you call fatwood if you take away the wood?
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I'm not sure where you are going, but in my experience pines are not very common on the wet side of the mountains.
 
One thing you could try is splitting to get to the dry inner wood and then make really fine feather sticks to catch the spark. I'm still learning myself. The key is to bring tinder with you.:D
 
I live on the western side of Oregon, lots of rain obviously. It can be a challenge to get a fire going this time of year. I often will find that gathering small dry dead branches under the larger live branches are dry as Country Boy said. Just feather them up really nice and then use your metal match. It can take some practice to get the right technique down to light it.
Pitchwood is not as common here on this side of the mountain, it can be found but not as easy as Eastern Oregon where it is easier to find than a liberal in portland.
 
I have had luck with fatwood, cedar bark, wood dust(overhead cover is a must) and goat's beard(light green moss like stuff hanging on the trees). I think the big trick to dealing with our wet weather is planning. Don't start thinking of your fire when you need a fire. Be thinking of your fire as you go about your day and pic up some tinder on the trail and stow it away so it can dry out by the time you need it.
 
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