Experiments with fatwood

JReilly said:
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.
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JR...
I don't think you can artificially make fatwood... as stated above fatwood comes from standing dead trees (mostly pine I believe) that have had all the rezin accumulate in the base (stumps, roots) These are great for making pinetar aswell, I think.

Eric...
I think thats a great point about the difference in strikers... also... the shavings you get from that open file are similar to the ones you get from scraping with the back of your blade which worked great for me. I can see that using a more aggresive striker plate produces better sparks... when I used a piece from a cutoff saw on my scout ferro rod it peeled off larger shavings of ferrocium which burned longer... much like magnesium bits. I still had a hard time lighting the pulp I produced in "Experiment D" when I used my electric coffee grinder to mash the fatwood up. It was like a splintery pulp and didn't take a spark well at all. Oh well it still smelled great! Ha.

Rick
 
Hey Rick....

Yes I can see that the coffee grinder would just chew it up into splinters, whereas the open faced rasp, makes it very similar to that of what you would get from scraping it with a knife..

A pencil sharpener als gets the same fluffy results..

I think the Scraper is mostly the difference in this case...

You get Very different results depending on which scraper you use..
I would suggest to anyone seriously using a ferro rog to get a better scraper from somwhere..

I don't like the new style of scraper what so ever...

It's Very hard to hold, and has sharp edges that can be bothersome in your hands...

I think a stiffer, sharper scraper is needed to get the full potential out of the firesteel...

Keeping this in mind,, my scraper Eats my ferro rod pretty good,, probably cutting the ferro rods life in half...However at $15-20 you'd need 2-3 of them in your lifetime,, depending on how much you use it...

Great experiments though.. I learned something from this myself..

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Ya, I'm glad I posted this here aswell as the other forums... lots of great input... I learned quite a bit. Thanks again for the wood, Eric.
Rick
 
In the fall, I've seen small packages of fatwood at Walmart (maybe 10 8" sticks for $1) in the same section as fire logs. I don't know how they compare to "good" fatwood, but I've been successful in scraping some dust & lighting it w/ the ferro rod on a mag bar firestarter.
 
I've heard of this stuff at Walmart, Cdn Tire, Rona, Home Depot, Home Hardware... and I would suspect it to be at Patio/BBQ shops aswell. Just shows that you can't always count on the store camping sections to have it all.... there are lots of hidden jems in the other isles, too! I have found tonnes of useful kit browsing through the stuff at my local hardware store.
Rick

Hey... I might start a thread on "hidden jems in the isles". Somebody did a post on Dollar store survival shopping, where you were given $10 dollars to buy as many useful items as you could. Real eye openers, guys.
 
Hey Rick...

Yaa I've actually found some pretty cool shit at dollar stores...

I pick up my cotton balls and Petrolium jelly there for a $1.00 per item...

Some cool things I've found that have been useful ..

Soap containers (made in the USA) 2 for $1.00. I think I gave you one.
They make nice little fire kit boxes as they are big enough to hold PCBs a few sticks of fatwood and a Scout Firesteel, put a Ranger band over it, and it's good to go..

LED keychain lights, mylar packaged firestrarters, small zippered pouches, small exacto type knives, small files of different shapes, flagging tape, misquito headnets, rain ponchos, suvival blankets, jute cord, instant ice packs, first aid kits and supplies,hand sanitizer, sewing kits...

Yaa if you go slowly through the isles and use your imagination, you can find All kinds of useful stuff for sure...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Do any of you guys know a good place to buy ferro rods in canada?
The ones I buy are at a local hunting shop, and man, there like $20, theres gotta be something better.
 
Fonly said:
Do any of you guys know a good place to buy ferro rods in canada?
The ones I buy are at a local hunting shop, and man, there like $20, theres gotta be something better.
Click to expand...

Canadian Tire has the Light My Fire rods for $13.99 but you can likely do better still if you keep looking.
 
Fonly said:
Do any of you guys know a good place to buy ferro rods in canada?
The ones I buy are at a local hunting shop, and man, there like $20, theres gotta be something better.
Click to expand...

Hey Fonly,

How many are you buying? :confused:

I bought one like Bubba mentions (at CTC), just to experiment with, but normally I have a Doan (style) magnesium fire starter hanging off the back of my belt, and it does more than I need it too.

Also I'm working on a mini PSK, using the Coghlan lantern lighter modification that I mentioned in an earlier post. I really find it to be amazing. You can use it one handed, if necessary, and in conjunction with a package of (lighter) flints can light more fires than I will ever need.

Doc
 
Normark said:
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
Click to expand...


Hey Normark,

Thanks for the pictures. One of the things I've never liked about my Moras is that they are all waaaay too soft to reliably get sparks off of a firesteel, even after squaring them off with a file. I usually use a piece of hacksaw blade, or a better knife with a harder spine. The finger choil on my Howling Rat works great!

I'm interested that you were able to do this without any problem with your SWAK. I might have to re-look at my technique.
 
Hey SODAK


Hmmm..

No it works most Excellent of the spine of my Moras, once I've squared them off. It doesn't work well off a stock Mora, the spine needs to be squared off..

I sharpen the spines like a hockey skate on the 2 X 72" on a used 600 and it works Great.. I also sharpened my sons M2K the same way, as the spine on the M2K is rounded..

Works well on it too..

I'm not sure why you aren't getting the same results.. Only thing I can think of is that it isn't squared off enough...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Hey Guys..

Yaa for a custom scraper and an awesome little knife,,for sure look into Scotss little PSK blades..
I've got two of them and they are Awesome..
Plain jane little knife,, but a Great kit knife

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
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