What are good fatwood hunting tools

B

benchmadebob

Joined
May 12, 2008
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Im going hiking saturday and monday to try and find some fat wood. Im thinking of getting a cheap hatchet from my local Lowes. What would be better hickory or plastic? So what tools do you use for gettting fat wood?
 
Just a knife usually works for me....

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Make sure to rinse well after though....

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Depending upon what you want to carry - an axe or small hatchet is useful. If you decide to take a knife only make sure it is something you can pry and beat on a little bit (or alot). If you've never found your own fatwood it goes something like this. You see a massive rootball/stump sticking up out of the ground that used to belong to a coniferous tree. The outside of the stump is usually rotten and will fall apart pretty easily but the inside gets "a little" tough. keep hacking and breaking until you get to the wood in the middle that is harder than concrete and a dark brownish/red. You will be able to see the crystallized (sp?) resin in good fatwood. Once you find it the first time you will instinctively see it (or possible candidates) the next time you are out. I hack off a piece everytime I come across it - nothing better as tinder, IMO.

Good luck and have fun.
 
^ good call on washing the knife after "stumping" it. Some stumps have mold in them, and using your knife after to prep lunch can make you sick....
 
Bushman5 said:
^ good call on washing the knife after "stumping" it. Some stumps have mold in them, and using your knife after to prep lunch can make you sick....
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Good point but I was actually just thinking about the mess the resin makes of your blade, check out my MOD4 here !:(

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How much do you plan to harvest? Hiking out a large chuck will be heavy after a while.

A hatchet and a crowbar are the proper tools IMO.
 
use a rock, not your knife.
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A BEATER axe works well
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You can use another tree to break off the knots

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If I am going on a dedicated run where we are loading the truck up: steel toed boots and a sledge hammer.
 
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If you're going for hatchets on the cheap end, sort through as many as you can and find one with decent grinds and handle grain. Wood has a few advantages - generally replaceable if you break it, better shock absorption (in general). Some of the plastic handles are lighter to swing and distribute the weight closer the head. Find one that feels good. Unless you get lucky, it will probably need some sharpening, and will certainly need sharpening after you go digging through stumps.
 
Lowe's may have the great little Fiskars hatchet for sale there that would be good, even better combined with a good knife ( got a Ka-Bar). That makes a good lightweight kit for the purpose.
 
If its going to be a beater, an estwing will do fine. They actually take an alright edge if you go slow. But don't waste too much time on it, its going to get beat up anyway. Thats the one you give your friends when they want to practice chopping and miss the log and hit the handle on it.
 
This thread peeked my interest.

I live among some fatwood producing pines, as shown by photo #1 (notice my rooftop at bottom).


I remembered that there was an old stump in my front yard. Went out w/ an axe and discovered sticky, flamable gold.


Pure resin! The deeper down to the root ball, the thicker the resin.


It is hard to get out. I used a beater axe, hatchet, and knife. You'll also need a bucket, work gloves, and protective eye wear.


The pay-off was atleast 15 lbs of fatwood.


 
Whatever tools you use, if it is high quality fatwood you will need something to clean the thick sap off your tools afterward. A good solvent works well, and mayonnaise is also good for removing sap.
 
Or you can go to your hardware store and buy a life time supply for $6.00 :D

Still there is something to be said about finding it and procuring it...
 
kgd said:
Or you can go to your hardware store and buy a life time supply for $6.00 :D

Still there is something to be said about finding it and procuring it...
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+1 on that. They sell bags of fatwood at my grocery store, on the cheap. And I live in yuppie-scumville. I suppose it is a valuable skill to know how to find it in the wild, in case of a real "survival situation". But if you just want some to take on a camping trip with you, it's easy to come by.
 
kgd said:
Or you can go to your hardware store and buy a life time supply for $6.00 :D

Still there is something to be said about finding it and procuring it...
Click to expand...

i didnt know there was a procuring process. could you elaborate a bit? thanks.
 
Take tools that you don't mind making a mess of. I usually use a big log to pry the stump out of the ground, since everything that isn't fatwood will rot away and making prying fairly easy. You may have a root or two that is stubborn and can make prying difficult, so chop any that get in the way.

Once I have it out of the ground, I'll take a sawzall and cut off the outer parts. After that, I take a beater $20 axe and split it into more manageable chunks.

If you are in the woods with just a knife, you can baton off what you need, but still plan on making a sticky mess on your knife. Like a poster above said, use a rock to split it if you can get away with it.
 
Anyone see the Ray Mears episode from Sweden where he bakes the fatwood to make pine tar? You just bake it without oxygen like you are making charcoal and it comes out a spout to be collected, then treat his handmade skis. Some interesting history about the pine sap industry as well.
He then gave the charcoal to a blacksmith to make a mora like blade.
I love that show.
 
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