fatwood.....i can get it

N

nutnfancyfan

Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
518
alright ive been lurkin around for a while. and i keep on seeing making these amazing fatwood fires. here are my questions
1) what is fatwood? like what tree,
2) where can i find fatwood?
3)is it more usefull than vaseline soaked cotton balls?
thanks for the help

PS- i live in the south east area, around mid georgia/low sc to be specific
 
nutnfancyfan said:
alright ive been lurkin around for a while. and i keep on seeing making these amazing fatwood fires. here are my questions
1) what is fatwood? like what tree,
2) where can i find fatwood?
3)is it more usefull than vaseline soaked cotton balls?
thanks for the help

PS- i live in the south east area, around mid georgia/low sc to be specific
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1) It's from the stumps of fallen pines, Firs etc.
2) Look for tree stumps where there are towers of wood still standing strong amid the rotten remains of the stump !
3) Far better that VSCB's especially in really wet rainy weather, fatwood can just be wiped dry on ya shirt and then feathered up into a prime tinder bundle just waitin for a spark !:thumbup:
 
An old cut over is a good place to look. Even the roots dug out of the ground are good. Will be dark orange, almost red in color with a strong piney smell (like pine-sol)...You can buy it at big retail stores like Wal Mart in the section where lamp oil,axes and such are..That will tell you what to look for when you go outside...(Somebody go get Mistwalker! He's got 100's of pics of what it looks like.) Please note: Fatwood is only for starting a fire..it gives off lots of black sooty smoke when burning that will black up your messware and render food cooked over it inedible. best of luck!
 
Where you see it in the woods can be hit or miss. Some prime looking stumps will be dry and powdery instead of rich with resin. Depends on the condition of the tree when it met its demise.
'Course you can get 5lbs of it at Wal-Mart for $10.
 
Took a while to find one that wasn't powdery but digging up a stump worked for me.

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This was just a fallen stump, gray in color, nothing obvious unless you start digging below the surface.
That's my BRKT Gunny for scale.
 
You live in fatwood central!
I use the VSCB to ignite the fatwood(if I feel lazy) and use the fatwood to ignite damp wood. Like previously mentioned fatwood by itself is a "sooty", fire but it's great to get hard to start wood to burn.
 
how about cedar trees are they among the list? I'm curious as many parts of the nation these grow wild and are real sappy to the touch when green, so if you can't find fir or pine should you bother with cedar?
 
Here in NC we have so Many Pine Trees Fatwood is really easy to find I can go in my backyard and find whole pieces of fatwood that weigh 10 pounds.. if I go camping and it looks like its going to rain before we bed in for the night I will put a fatwood log or 2 on the fire to keep the fire going all night.
 
You get fatwood when a live resinous tree is cut down. For awhile the roots continue to send sap upwards into the stump. The sap gradually dries in teh wood, creating the very resinous fatwood, which also tends to resist rot and deterioration better than other wood.
 
nutnfancyfan said:
alright ive been lurkin around for a while. and i keep on seeing making these amazing fatwood fires. here are my questions
1) what is fatwood? like what tree,
2) where can i find fatwood?
3)is it more usefull than vaseline soaked cotton balls?
thanks for the help

PS- i live in the south east area, around mid georgia/low sc to be specific
Click to expand...


You live in a great area for fatwood. Those tall white pines that are everywhere that the timber companies plant and harvest for paper are perfect fatwood producers. Just look for the stumps from one of those trees and you will find some nice fatwood....good luck.
 
I was wondering about cedar fatwood also. I live in central Texas. We've cedars 'o' plenty but the closest pines are in Bastrop State Park. I don't know if they'd want me harvesting anything in there! If you guys have any experience with cedar stumps for fatwood, I'd appreciate any info. Take care and God bless.
 
I dont think Cedar will "fatwood up". The bark or twigs make good easily lit tinder though..a fallen or dead cedar will sure start a fire. Next time you're in the State Park look for the stumps of fallen or culled pines, If theres trunk sections on the ground that look old and rotted dig into them a little bit, Fatwood will be what remains of the heart of the tree or you might find the roots under the stump are rich as anything! (I had a wind felled pine on my property and the roots 10 feet from the stump were resinious like crazy..a mere 6-8 inches under the ground!) I dont think the Rangers will object to you taking a few roots..the stuff can be stored in your garage or on the porch forever without losing potency. Take a limb or root 3-4 inches in diameter, saw the ends flat, drill a hole in it and string it on a line with a ferro rod and a mag block..one little 3x4 block will last you for ages..even if you start lots of fires. Best of luck to you.
 
My brother-in-law is one of the park rangers at Bastrop State Park. Everything there (and in all state parks) belongs to the state- including shed antlers. He and the other rangers can pick them up for "educational purposes" as they have youth classes, but no one else. The raners WILL object, to the fullest extent of the law.

Apparently, cedar doesn't make fatwood. Not surprising really, as a heavy resin content is required. However, what grows in central Texas and is commonly referred to as "cedar" is really Ashe Juniper. While it makes great fence posts because they are naturally rot resistant, they also won't make fatwood due to low/no resin content.
 
hlee said:
My brother-in-law is one of the park rangers at Bastrop State Park. Everything there (and in all state parks) belongs to the state- including shed antlers. He and the other rangers can pick them up for "educational purposes" as they have youth classes, but no one else. The raners WILL object, to the fullest extent of the law.
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who's law? Man or God? :)
 
Fatwood works even when soaking wet. Try this, take a chunk of resin saturated wood (okay Fatwood). Sink it under water for 24 hours, heck for weeks. Put completely under the water and hold it down with a rock. Then after a few minutes, hours, days, weeks or whatever, take it out and shave off a sliver or two. Take a match to it and see what happens. It will totally blow your friends minds!

Resin from trees aka Fatwood is God's natural process and no amount of man made techno geeky can ever improve on it. When those who trust in urban shortcuts are stuck in the wild and run out of vaseline soaked cotton balls or misplace their pack then you'll really wished you learned how to locate and harvest this precious natural resource that our abo brothers/sisters used many eons before us.

It does take some time learning how to locate it. There is a bit of a learning curve to really get good at located and harvesting it (knowing what is worth while to harvest and what to pass on). This is where a mentor and some hands on learning or a good instructor really pays big dividends.
 
Quirt said:
Fatwood works even when soaking wet. Try this, take a chunk of resin saturated wood (okay Fatwood). Sink it under water for 24 hours, heck for weeks. Put completely under the water and hold it down with a rock. Then after a few minutes, hours, days, weeks or whatever, take it out and shave off a sliver or two. Take a match to it and see what happens. It will totally blow your friends minds!

Resin from trees aka Fatwood is God's natural process and no amount of man made techno geeky can ever improve on it. When you run out of vaseline soaked cotton balls in the wild then you'll really wished you learned how to locate and harvest it this precious natural resource that our abo brothers/sisters used many eons before us.
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::cool::D:D
 
Fatwood is CHUCK NORRIS in wood/resin form. NO other tinder compares to it, despite the objections of "bushcrafters"
 
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