Went huntig last night

runningboar

runningboar

Joined
May 27, 2006
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I found a big fat wood stump, we talked about fat wood here a while back and someone was not sure how to find it. I plan on going and getting some of it, if anyone is interested I will be happy to post pictures. Chris
 
That would be great! I'm going out to split firewood today, but I won't have any pictures, it's kinda boring. :)

Show a pic of the stump, before trying to harvest the fatwood would be nice, so we know what to look for.
 
Well skunk, looks like it is going to have to wait till next weekend, we have a pretty good storm moving in today with wind and rain, from the looks of the weather map you are going to get it too. When I go back I will take some pics of the stump so you will know what to look for, this stump is particularly rich and heavy.:thumbup: Chris
 
The hardware chain store whose logo is a big orange square, has bundles of fatwood firewood for $5. A person could whittle that down to enough tinder for years... runningboar, are you going to cut up the whole stump?
 
No, I am just going to take what I need. I remember a thread here a while back where someone was asking about how to find it in the woods and I thought I would show some in it's natural state.

Be careful buying fatwood, most I have seen is just some sort of regular pine, it is highly flammable but not dense, resinous fatwood, so it does not burn nearly as long. Chris
 
runningboar said:
Well skunk, looks like it is going to have to wait till next weekend, we have a pretty good storm moving in today with wind and rain, from the looks of the weather map you are going to get it too. When I go back I will take some pics of the stump so you will know what to look for, this stump is particularly rich and heavy.:thumbup: Chris
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, we got it! Started Sun night, into mid day Monday.
Ground was already soggy, now it's like a peat bog.

I think they are simply cutting the bottom couppla feet off the base of a pine and calling it fatwood. I always heard the good fatwood was at or below ground level where the resins built up.
 
wow, I really didnt know much about fat wood, let alone you harvest it from under ground level, mhm, It makes sense though
 
fonly,
It extends below the ground but not all of it comes from there, the stump I found is probably 2 or 3 feet tall and, as I said, very rich. Wait till friday and I will have pics, once you know what you are looking for it is easy to identify. Chris
 
oh, nice thanks chris. yah, I've actually never looked into, or even thought of using fat wood, It just neve caught my eye. But mabye next time im at the place with the big orange sign ;), I'll look for some.
 
Fatwood is usually resinous conifer such as pine. When a tree is cut, the roots don't know it and continue to send sap up through the roots to the stump. For a while at least. The sap is aromatic, and a good bit of it evaporates, leaving behind the sticky resin/rosen. As the stump ages, the softer, less resionous wood decays. The wood with the higher concentration of sap is much more weather/bug/fungus resistant and remains. This is thesapwood...the fatwood. Most you can buy in stores is imported by a company in North Carolina from their pine farms in Honduras. There is some domestically made, but not a lot. And a lot of what is sold as fatwood is nothing more than pine lumber scrap.

I prefer spruce or cedar when I can get it. I have cedar here on the farm. Some of the rafters in the collapsed barn, like my skinning and tool shed, are over 100 years old. The high resin content makes them resistant to insects like boring carpenter bees and termites. Standing deadwood is good too as the entire resin content is preserved in the sapwood. It just has to be split to get to it. With the weathered stumps, you can kick away the rotted portion and the resinous portions remain stout and standing.

Will it take a spark? Here is a site with some photos using a ferocious rod.
http://www.caliberdt.com/~bill/fatwood/index.htm

Codger
 
i was the one looking for fatwood...i can't wait for the pics.

for the meantime i found my grandparent's have some (they run a wood burning stove) and i grabbed a handful of nice fat sticks...i split up a couple into a small pile of kindling that i keep in my shoulder bag...

the packages and the websites suggest using "only" two to three of thier 8 inch sticks, about the size of the ones i got ahold of...i could start at least 50 fires with one stick if i used it conservatively, with other kindling. i find that i only need a very small pile of shavings can start a full size fire, sometimes using a wedge of the fatwood as a match to light some other kindling on fire, and then i can reuse the same match many many times.

i just can't wait until the day i find "real" fatwood out in nature. that will be a good day.
 
It's hit or miss whether any particular pine develops good fatwood. But when you find a good one, it really pays off. If you see stumps from trees that were cut down, look for stumps that have resin oozing all over the top of the stump.

By far the best fatwood I have ever found was from a Ponderosa that had fallen over. The roots that had been just below ground level were solid resin. My saw got all gummed up when cutting it, and when carved it had a nice translucent glow. In the fire it made huge yellow flames and billowing clouds of black smoke.
 
Codger_64 said:
Fatwood is usually resinous conifer such as pine. When a tree is cut, the roots don't know it and continue to send sap up through the roots to the stump. For a while at least. The sap is aromatic, and a good bit of it evaporates, leaving behind the sticky resin/rosen. As the stump ages, the softer, less resionous wood decays. The wood with the higher concentration of sap is much more weather/bug/fungus resistant and remains. This is thesapwood...the fatwood. Most you can buy in stores is imported by a company in North Carolina from their pine farms in Honduras. There is some domestically made, but not a lot. And a lot of what is sold as fatwood is nothing more than pine lumber scrap.

I prefer spruce or cedar when I can get it. I have cedar here on the farm. Some of the rafters in the collapsed barn, like my skinning and tool shed, are over 100 years old. The high resin content makes them resistant to insects like boring carpenter bees and termites. Standing deadwood is good too as the entire resin content is preserved in the sapwood. It just has to be split to get to it. With the weathered stumps, you can kick away the rotted portion and the resinous portions remain stout and standing.

Will it take a spark? Here is a site with some photos using a ferocious rod.
http://www.caliberdt.com/~bill/fatwood/index.htm

Codger
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Facinating! Man you guys are teaching me a lot of handy info. Now I have to go out and check out all the old evergreen stumps out here. It is minus 30 with a wind right now so it will be a shorter trip this time.:D
 
Well I finally went back and took some pics, better late than never I guess. Whenever yall are out in the woods and see a stump that looks like the one in the pic kick it or hit it with a stick, if it is solid as a rock it may be lighter wood, break off a piece and if it is heavy, dense and very fragrant, BINGO. This is one of the richest I have ever found and burns like crazy, I wish they could put smell on the computer because it smells great too. One word of warning it is damn hard and will burn a chainsaw up, I guess a maul and a wedge might be the best but this wood is tough and hard to cut. Chris

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It's always festive at my house.:thumbup:

There are some of the worst holly thickets around here you have ever seen, and absolutely no fun to go through. Chris
 
No offense intended, but.......

I'm beginning to worry about some of you folks around here.

Rich lighter pine has been around since the time of methuselah, who was born around 3317 BC; can't believe it warrants being "hunted" or called "fatwood" for that matter (which is bound be some sort of yankee terminology).

Take it some folks are just dumber'na fence post and don't get out to the woods much.
 
mr_wilson said:
No offense intended, but.......
Take it some folks are just dumber'na fence post and don't get out to the woods much.
Click to expand...

mr wilson, there are people here from all around the world, from big 'ol cities and small towns, and back in the sticks. There are people from all educational levels, training, experiences and age groups. Most of us are here to have fun, be friends, and learn from each other. Just because a person isn't familiar with a term, a material or tool, does not mean they are dumb, any more than it would be correct to believe that you were dumb because you could not do extrapolations on the cut and fill sheets for a new highway project, or write patents and do the technical illustrations for the USPTO applications.

Yes, it is true there are people who don't have a lot of old fashioned woodsrunning experience. I give them kuddos for wanting to learn something about it, rather than denegrate them because they don't already know what to some of us is common knowledge. I learn something new here every day. When I don't have anything positive to add, or even a friendly joke to lighten the mood, I try to just read, and not insult folks.

Codger
 
Wilson,

Yall gots to tipe slower I didant udderstad everthang you sad, i gots to go rite now, i hop momma laid my shoes out this mornin so i can figure out wich foot theys go on. :(
 
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