- Joined
- Apr 17, 2007
- Messages
- 1,607
I know how much you guys love pictures, so here are a bunch...
I keep on reading about fatwood on this and other forums, and living in the land of pine (GA), decided to go harvest some. I was planning on taking a hatchet and saw with me on my next day hike so I could bring back a small supply. Then I realized that I am a giant dummy and I have three old stumps sitting in various places in my yard. Whoops. The deep wilderness is my backyard.
I took my hatchet, pocket chainsaw, and RAT 3 outside to the first stump to do some investigating.
The first stump I came to is right next to my vegetable garden, which I spend a decent amount of time in every day. I just never paid attention to the stump except when my dog was hunting chipmunks around it.
I carved off a small piece and found this:
I put a lighter to it and it instantly caught fire with a nice, big flame that let off a heavy black smoke from all the sap. I decided to try to get some larger pieces, and started going at it with my pocket chainsaw. It took me about 20 seconds to get several inches into the hard as a rock stump. The pocket chainsaw really is that fast.
I am lazy, and the pocket chainsaw was starting to reach its limits since it was not really made for a 12" stump, so I tried hacking off a few pieces.
That went even more poorly. The part where you see a big chunk taken out was actually done by hand and boot. The fatwood is a total pain to break up with a hatchet since it is so tough and sappy. When I was hacking away, I saw the stump rocking back and forth more and more, so I thought I might be able to just crank the whole thing out of the ground with a shovel. I didn't manage to do that, but I did manage to break my crappy Home Depot $8 fiberglass shovel.
Good thing I had a few landscape timbers sitting around from the compost barrels I am building.
After I wedged the timber under the stump, it came out with minimal effort since most of it was rotted away. Literally the whole stump that you see there is fatwood. I chipped and broke off pieces from all over the thing, and all were soaked with sap. The rest of the stump was lying in the hole in decaying chunks. This made me seriously doubt the people that said fatwood has a shelf life. If it can handle being in the ground for several years, it can handle being in a ziplock in my backpack.
Here are some chunks that I broke off. Some of them look like they are just wood, but that is because they were broken off from the outside of the stump. Underneath that dirt is some fine quality fatwood.
So...
Anyone have any good ideas on how I can break this beast into smaller chunks? I went at it with a hatchet for a while, but didn't really get anywhere. I am thinking of taking a circular saw to the smaller root parts sticking out, but that would probably gum up and halfway destroy my saw. I guess I just need to suck it up and spend some quality time with my Gerber Gator in my backyard.
Since I know someone will ask, the pics were taken with a Pentax K10D and the kit lens.
I keep on reading about fatwood on this and other forums, and living in the land of pine (GA), decided to go harvest some. I was planning on taking a hatchet and saw with me on my next day hike so I could bring back a small supply. Then I realized that I am a giant dummy and I have three old stumps sitting in various places in my yard. Whoops. The deep wilderness is my backyard.
I took my hatchet, pocket chainsaw, and RAT 3 outside to the first stump to do some investigating.
The first stump I came to is right next to my vegetable garden, which I spend a decent amount of time in every day. I just never paid attention to the stump except when my dog was hunting chipmunks around it.
I carved off a small piece and found this:
I put a lighter to it and it instantly caught fire with a nice, big flame that let off a heavy black smoke from all the sap. I decided to try to get some larger pieces, and started going at it with my pocket chainsaw. It took me about 20 seconds to get several inches into the hard as a rock stump. The pocket chainsaw really is that fast.
I am lazy, and the pocket chainsaw was starting to reach its limits since it was not really made for a 12" stump, so I tried hacking off a few pieces.
That went even more poorly. The part where you see a big chunk taken out was actually done by hand and boot. The fatwood is a total pain to break up with a hatchet since it is so tough and sappy. When I was hacking away, I saw the stump rocking back and forth more and more, so I thought I might be able to just crank the whole thing out of the ground with a shovel. I didn't manage to do that, but I did manage to break my crappy Home Depot $8 fiberglass shovel.
Good thing I had a few landscape timbers sitting around from the compost barrels I am building.
After I wedged the timber under the stump, it came out with minimal effort since most of it was rotted away. Literally the whole stump that you see there is fatwood. I chipped and broke off pieces from all over the thing, and all were soaked with sap. The rest of the stump was lying in the hole in decaying chunks. This made me seriously doubt the people that said fatwood has a shelf life. If it can handle being in the ground for several years, it can handle being in a ziplock in my backpack.
Here are some chunks that I broke off. Some of them look like they are just wood, but that is because they were broken off from the outside of the stump. Underneath that dirt is some fine quality fatwood.
So...
Anyone have any good ideas on how I can break this beast into smaller chunks? I went at it with a hatchet for a while, but didn't really get anywhere. I am thinking of taking a circular saw to the smaller root parts sticking out, but that would probably gum up and halfway destroy my saw. I guess I just need to suck it up and spend some quality time with my Gerber Gator in my backyard.
Since I know someone will ask, the pics were taken with a Pentax K10D and the kit lens.
