Experiments with fatwood

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
9,680
So... this is what I did....




Experiment A - I left the fatwood as I recieved it. (Roughly the size of thick magic marker.)

- These were easily lit with a flame but could not be lit with a ferrocium rod. Smelled great.


Experiment B - I split the fatwood into toothpic sized splinters.

- These pieces caught fire readily when exposed to flame (as expected) but were difficult to ignite with a ferrocium rod. (1 out of 10 strikes would generate a flame, 30 strikes total.) Smelled great.


Experiment C - I shaved the fatwood into fine, curly, paper-like pieces.

- The shavings caught fire quickly when exposed to flame (lots of sizzle) and ignited with almost every strike from a ferrocium rod. (8 out of 10 strikes would generate a flame, 20 strikes total.) Smelled great.


Experiment D - I Ground the fatwood to a fine pulp (twice as fine as pencil shavings)

- The pulp stayed moist with rezin which burned readily when exposed to flame (like napalm!) but failed to maintain a spark from a ferrocium rod... hmm... interesting. (6 out of 10 strikes generated a small ember but would very quickly die out, 30 strikes total.) Smelled great.

Conclusion...

If I were you, I'd do the fine paper shavings thing. I will be making up some tinder kits using shaved fatwood in old tobacco containers. Smells great.



I'd like to thank my friend and master sheath maker, Eric, from On/Scene Tactical , for supplying me with the fatwood and containers. I would also like to thank my wife and kids, for remaining calm after the first fire alarm went off in the kitchen.


Rick
 
I've never been able to get fatwood to reliably light from a firesteel unless I really ground it up almost like sawdust.

I usually break the fatwood up into splinters and use it to surround a PJ cotton ball. It burns ferrociously then and does a great job of bridging from the tinder to the kindling.
 
I've also had problems with fatwood and strikers. Some have suggested scraping it with the edge of your knife which produces transluscently thin shavings.
 
Magnussen said:
I would also like to thank my wife and kids, for remaining calm after the first fire alarm went off in the kitchen.Rick
Click to expand...

haha, the fire alarm, thats a common thing to go off in my house :D

Rick, are you who I think you are :D :D
 
sodak said:
I've also had problems with fatwood and strikers. Some have suggested scraping it with the edge of your knife which produces transluscently thin shavings.
Click to expand...

Ya that splintery pulp stuff won't take a spark... but if you scrape/shave little spiral bits, like you mentioned... these catch readily with a ferro rod. I actually used the back of my knife to produce the thin paper like shavings in my original post.
Thanks for the responses guys.
Rick
 
I typically shave fatwood by holding my knife's edge perpendicular to the fatwood, snd then scraping it to produce very fine curls - I haven't had any trouble getting the fine shavings to light, using ferrocerium rods in various sizes (BSA hot sparl --> Swedish Military Firesteel)
 
Flotsam said:
I typically shave fatwood by holding my knife's edge perpendicular to the fatwood, snd then scraping it to produce very fine curls - I haven't had any trouble getting the fine shavings to light, using ferrocerium rods in various sizes (BSA hot sparl --> Swedish Military Firesteel)
Click to expand...

Mya dust :D :thumbup:
 
Rich_S said:
I usually break the fatwood up into splinters and use it to surround a PJ cotton ball. It burns ferrociously then and does a great job of bridging from the tinder to the kindling.
Click to expand...

Yup. I have a similar set up in my mini fire kits.
 
Hey Guys...

Rick,,

Welcome to the Mighty BF.com

Yaa this is kind of strange to me, as Fatwood is one of my Go To tinders and use it quite a bit....
I never, Ever have a problem with it,, what so ever..

However, there are a couple of variables that I hadn't considered until you told me about this a couple of days ago...

One variable is the fact that you are using a Scout model firesteel with a stock striker, and I'm using a Army model with a custom striker, that is much larger,and sharper than the original OEM striker..

The Army model would throw a much large quantity of sparks.

The other variable is the way the fatwood was prepared.

I used a open wood rasp, which creates a very fine powdery, fluffy fatwood dust and had good results. I also had good results with a crank type pencil sharpener (Jimi Wade's idea) and as well get equally good results from shaving or scraping the fatwood with a blade.

I'm going to try the same fatwood dust and manufacturing techniques with my Scout model and stock scraper and see what happens...

Fonly

The Maya dust you see in the stores for $6.00 is about $.20 cents worth of fatwood dust. The Container is worth more than the dust in it.


ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Does fatwood grow in Ohio at all? If so, how might I locate some? Looking at the pictures I've seen of it on the forums, I haven't come across any wood that resembles it. Still haven't found birch bark either, but I'm pretty sure that does grow here and I'm just too ignorant to know how to identify it.
 
For birch, look along river edges. There are some lovely ones along the river in Yellow Springs near the old mill. Or get a Peterson's guide to trees.
Fatwood...it's out there. Gray stumps are your friend. Then use your nose. Should have an almost turpintine smell.
Hmmm...maybe I will hike Yellow Springs tomorrow....
 
If you do I'd love some photos if you have a camera. I'll look for the tree guide in the meantime and keep my eye out for what you describe. Thanks.
 
Got a camera, but I can't use it on this computer (long story). Hopefully that will change soon.
For fatwood you are looking for resin impregnated wood. Most of mine is translucent, and 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick pieces will show this trait with a bright light placed behind them.
When you cut the wood it should have an oder of turpintine. I use my SAK saw to make a pile of dust from the wood, and a couple of tries with a ferro rod should light it right up.
Good luck!
 
Do you have pine trees in Ohio?

Southern Longleaf is a good one, but some are richer in resin than others.

A tree that has suffered a sudden death like a lightning strike is the best. Logged trees are just so so.

The reason is, the resin settles in the base like lividity in a human body. The more trunk, the more resin to settle.

Takes a while too, 5 or more years. The rest of the tree will be pretty much rotted away except for that pretty gray stump. It will look rotted on the outside and almost pure resin inside.

No turpentine smell, keep looking.

Rob
 
Hey Guys...

Ok did some quick experiments...

I ground up some fresh fatwood with the wood rasp...
Fatwood dust was slightly sticky and moist with resin...

The SWAK had nothing to do with the experiment, only to give everything some scale at to size.

fatwood1.jpg



I first used my Army model firesteel (orange handle), which is actually a Magfire, however the same firesteel as the Swedish. This firesteel I have a custom made scraper made from a piece of 3" industrial hacksaw blade.

fatwood2.jpg



It was slightly windy,so it took me a couple of trys to ignite.
Indoors or on a calm day I can get the fat wood to ignite usually on the first or second try. However it did ignite readily.

I then got fresh fatwood dust and tried it with my Scout model Swedish firesteel (blue handle) and old type scraper..

I got several small embers, however no ignition. I also used the new type scraper and still coudn't get ignition.(forgot to take pictures of the new style scraper)

I used my custom scraper and my Scout Firesteel, and after one or two trys I got a good strong ignition

fatwood3.jpg


So,, what it looks like is that it's the type of striker that is used which makes a big difference in whether or not you can get ignition for fatwood using the standard and supplied OEM scraper... I never thought of trying the Scout Firesteel with the back of the Mora.. This will be my next test...

So with that being said, I would have to say, Don't rely on the OEM Scraper and fatwood alone to create fire. Unless you are comfortable and are getting good results from your steel and scraper, I would suggest carrying an additional form of spark igniting tinder, such as PCB's.

Thanks for bringing this up Rick.

I have little experience with the OEM scrapers, as I have always used a home made scraper or knife spine to ignite fires.

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Hey Guys...

Went back out and tried the same experiment with the spine of the SWAK, which has been squared off on the 2 X 72. I guess next I need to try it on a stock untouched SWAK as a control.

fatwood4.jpg


I got ignition again on the 2nd or 3rd scrape from the SWAK without a problem.

In the upper right hand corner you can see the new OEM scraper that comes with the Light My Fire firesteel.

Rick had mentioned using Skoal containers to keep the fatwwod dust in.

fatwood5.jpg


If you know someone who Dips Skoal, have them save a few containers for you..
They are Excellent little containers to keep fatwood dust, or just about anything you can think of. It just so happens I have a bit of a habit, and keep my tins for just this sort of thing.

If you run some electrical tape around the edge when it's closed, you can pretty much seal the contents from the elements..A ranger band will also work very well...

Next I will try some stock Moras and see what happens..

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Its a quick sidenote, but does anyone know how to make your own fatwood? can it be any pine? Live or otherwise? id like to make my own, i cant afford to buy the stuff all the time.
 
Hey JR....

I'm not 100% sure how/where to find it,, however there was someone talking about it eariler in the thread..

I'm sure someone will give more detailed info...

Fatwood if you buy it by the 5lb box is really cheap...Cheaper if you buy it by the 12 lb box as I do... :) Works out to about $1.00 per lb...

Don't buy it in the camping section ,,but go to the BBQ section and snoop around....

I buy mine at Meijers, and have seen it sold in several different ways...

Get a box with a couple of friends, it'll last a LONG time


ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top