Yet another fatwood question

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

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Sep 28, 2005
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Ok, so last weekend I went looking for some fatwood with limited success. I was just wondering how long after death it takes to absorb sufficient amounts of sap to form fatwood. My brother and I were thinking about killing off a couple of trees in order to have a ready supply handy. Any suggestions on going about this? Such as how thick of a tree to use, killing method... we were thinking of chopping a 3"-ish diameter tree a couple of feet off of the ground and leaving it for a while. I would assume to do it late spring or summer in order to get it when the sap is running. Are we way off base here?
:confused:

Thanks
 


Look for a stump like this. It has died, the outer portion decayed, while the inner portion is preserved.
 
I've never seen fatwood in a 3" tree, but I might be wrong. I would imagine that they would not have the necessary root system to send the resin up into the trunk. Any arborists out there that can enlighten us?
 
I cut a 3 or 4 inch tree that had snapped from wind a few years ago, and the stump was cracked. Walking by it this summer I noticed it looked dark and "amberish,"
sure enough it was a big chunk of sapwood. Only about 1/2 of it was really saturated, the rest just has a few streaks in it.
 
I always have a hard time getting sapwood...not because it's hard to find where I go, but because the trees are never dead!

I can't quite bring myself to dig in to a live tree for fatwood, even though the ponderosa pines would make killer firestarter. Finally, the last time I was out, I ran across a dead tree with a great supply of fatwood. I went back to the truck for my Agdor axe, as the fatwood was a way up the trunk. When I got to my truck I realized I'd taken the toolbox out of the back to fit something in the bed, and never put it back in. The axe was in the toolbox in my garage! And I just wasn't about to cut down a ten inch dry pine with a scrapyard guard. I will have to look again next trip, I guess!
 
In late spring, if you strip off a small piece of bark (2"x2") from a pine, about 4-6" diameter, and you come back in 15 minutes and you see drops of sap that look like dew you have a tree that is a very good candidate for making fat wood. Cut it with a stump several feet tall, come back in 6 months and you will have a giant piece of fatwood.

The alternative is to find a dead pine that has rotted to virtual dust. A standing stump 4-6 feet tall is a perfect candidate. Bring a hatchet and start smashing. You will probably find a few veins of fatwood (less than 10% of the volume) with the biggest pieces being closest to the roots.
 
Good info. I always had trouble finding fatwood and here in Georgia there are millions of pine trees.
 
pitdog said:
Get yourselves out here, there is loads of the stuff everywhere !!!
Click to expand...

Or you could just box up a bunch and send it out here to me- That's right- I'm calling you out. I want proof!!!:D;)

I'll give you a call next time I'm in your neck of the woods. Lets see, the last time was 1992, grade 10. Yah, expect me soon!:D
 
I've had less success with rotten stumps, maybe I'm not digging through them deep enough. The best haul I got was from a tree that had fallen over and was uprooted (really common in the shield cause there's only a few inches of soil, if that) the entire root system that remained was some of the richest fatwood I've seen.

Other than that pine knots are a fairly reliable source, but more troublesome to extract.
 
If at all possible we will usually just grub the stump, and only slab off pieces as needed. I split down about 25lbs. one year into nice pencil sized pieces, and within 2 years I just had about 20lbs. of REALLY dry crisp pine, with a tiny little center of sticky gold goodness. Now I keep the pieces intact, and just take as needed. Of course in the Ouachita mountains, you can find entire 20'-30'+ super rich skeletons propped up on silvery gray limbs with a center that is orange and waxy inside. You can smack 'em with a rock, or hatchet head and they practically ring.

Gathering pine knots (AKA fatwood) is a yearly deer camp ritual/friendly competition for our clan, and quality NOT quantity wins the day. A 2"X10" heavy redbone slab that burns the nose hairs out will beat 75 lbs. of semi-punky junk knots any day.

Other names in our neck of the woods are:
PK, vitamin P, roastin' ears, & pine bones

Beckerhead
 
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